Israel provides 100 wheelchairs to disabled Vietnamese children, bolstering their independence and facilitating their development.
Last month alone, Israel’s embassy in Vietnam donated 15 wheelchairs to Vietnamese children who are being treated at the Orthopedics & Rehabilitation Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City.
Wheelchairs of Hope, an initiative to design, manufacture and provide wheelchairs to children in need of mobility, together with Israel’s ALYN Hospital, a pediatric and adolescent Rehabilitation Center, provides good quality wheelchairs which are lightweight and affordable with an attractive design.
Speaking at the ceremony, Doron Lebovich, Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of Israel in Vietnam, said a total of 100 wheelchairs would be given out to children with disabilities in Vietnam, the Vietnam News reported.
Israel 21C reported that the Israeli mission decided to take the budget originally allocated for a party celebrating Israel’s 69th Independence Day in May and use it instead to purchase wheelchairs for Vietnamese children.
The wheelchairs are intended to help children with disabilities increase social integration.
Lưu Thị Ánh Loan, Acting Director of the Disability Research and Capacity Development Centre, said Vietnam was home to around 1.2 million children with disabilities, with a majority of them lacking access to education, health care and entertainment activities.
Children with disabilities also face a shortage of critical equipment such as wheelchairs to enable them to become mobile, Loan said.
The wheelchairs, which are specifically designed for children, will enhance daily activities, and are expected to lead to self-confidence and independence, she told the Vietnam News.
On Israel’s Independence Day, another 250 Wheelchairs of Hope were donated to mobility-challenged children under the age of nine in Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA), with some of them earmarked for Syrian refugee children.
In addition, more than 600 Wheelchairs of Hope have been delivered to disabled children in Peru and Tajikistan through a philanthropic foundation and the World Health Organization.
By: United with Israel Staff