Church donates wheelchairs to Red Cross, CARE-Belize

Today, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints donated two hundred and fifty wheelchairs of various sizes to CARE-Belize and Belize Red Cross. It is the second such gift that the church has made as in 2002 they double that amount to CARE-Belize when the agency was officially chartered as an NGO providing services to children countrywide. Elder Dean Bawden told us why they decided to donate the wheels.

Elder Dean Bawden, Welfare Specialist, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
“There is an LDS Humanitarian services which takes care of the general public in a country, not just members of the church. And so we look into those needs that are there. Wheelchairs are quite universal and then we try to put together a plan and help the public become self-sufficient and actually become providers in the future for themselves.”

Lily Bowman, Director General, Belize Red Cross
“Of course, the Red Cross strives on donations and we are elated that we were chosen to be one of the recipients of these wheelchairs. And this donation comes in at a very handy moment that we now can put aside those old broken up chairs and replace them with these nice new chairs. And now we’ll be able to tell people yes we do have. It helps us so much more in enhancing our already existing social assistance programme.”

Evan Cowo, Director, CARE Belize
“Most of the wheelchairs are for children; small wheelchairs, small sizes. We intend to distribute them throughout the country. I must mention that care Belize has offices countrywide and we have rehabilitation field officers that have already identified children that will be using these wheelchairs.”

Of the two hundred and fifty wheelchairs, one hundred went to CARE Belize and seventy-five to The Red Cross. The remainder was distributed between church members and persons delegated by the church.