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All-terrain
Wheelchairs
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Retirement has a new meaning for a group in Texas. Some dedicated seniors are spending their time building personal transportation vehicles – or PETs – for handicapped people in developing countries. And, as Kim Reimland (REEM-LAND) reports, these all-terrain wheelchairs open up a world of independence for the recipients. |
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SCRIPT:
(Locator: Luling, Texas)
These blocks of wood will change lives.
Jake Royall/United Methodist PET Project: “Really, I call it the ATV of
wheelchairs.”
Volunteers are making “PETs” – personal energy transportation vehicles –
hand-powered carts that are sent to developing countries for those who
can’t walk
Karen Svoboda/United Methodist PET Project: “You must depend upon your
hands, maybe a skateboard. And you are down knee-high to most people.”
And you are often ostracized by society.
Jake Royall/United Methodist PET Project: “Once you give a person
mobility, you give them back a certain sense of dignity, and when you
give the back a sense of dignity, then they become productive.”
This “PET” workshop in Luling, Texas gets most of its support from
United Methodist churches in the area. Some of the volunteers are in
their 70s and 80s.
Jake Royall: “This keeps old folks out of trouble.”
Don Thomas/United Methodist PET Project: “I hope they’re enjoying them
as much as I enjoy doing it for them.”
PETS will benefit people from Afghanistan to Zambia. This group hopes to
provide 250 this year.
(Nat workshop) “Let’s put this down.”
It costs a little under 300 dollars for each vehicle.
Jake Royall: “If it comes to a point where the dollars are not there, we
dig in our pocket and we pay for it.”
PETs have a powerful effect.
Karen Svoboda/United Methodist PET Project: “The man who got his PET in
Monterrey said ‘Now I can look my boys in the eye for the first time.’
He had a smile from ear to ear.”
TAG:
The organization estimates that 21 million people in over 54 developing
countries could make use of PETs.
For more information, contact 830-875-0226 or log onto
http://www.pettexas-luling.org.