ON JU N E 13, 2000, the Wheelchair Founda-tion was officially launched in Washington, DC.For founder and philanthropist Kenneth E.

Behring, the Foundation was an idea a long timein coming. A frequent traveler to all corners of theglobe, Mr. Behring often brought humanitariangoods with him on his large airplane when visit-ing developing nations. According to Mr. Behring,he first brought some wheelchairs along withcanned meat donated by LDS Charities to thef o rmer Yugoslavia. He was struck by how dra-matically it changed the life of a recipient andan entire family. The impression that it left wasnot easily forg o t t e n .

M r. Behring then financed a pilot delivery ofwheelchairs to Romania in October of 1999. Afterseeing the dramatic videotape of the Romaniand e l i v e ry, he traveled to Hanoi, Vietnam with ashipment of wheelchairs in the spring of 2000. Hesoon understood that no other group was doingthis kind of work on a large scale, and came togrips with the vast global need for wheelchairs.

It was after the experience in Hanoi that hemade his decision to take this project to the nextlevel. For Mr. Behring, seeing the powerful im-pact a wheelchair can make on a person’s lifewas perhaps the most important factor in this

(continued on page 3)

• THE WHEELCHAIR FOUNDAT ION •

volume 1, number 1, June 2001

The Oakland Athletics ~ True Heroes

The Dominican Republic is home to theOakland Athletics training facility named

after Hall of Fame pitcher Juan Marichal. Pickany corner of this country and you will see peopleplaying baseball. An old broomstick is a bat; aball is made of rags and string, and a short s t o pfields line drives with bare hands. But judgingby the smiles on the faces of its players, homespuns p o rting goods do not take away from their lovefor the game. If you look a round the same townin that Caribbean island nation, you will also seepeople struggling just to get by. For a Dominican

(continued on page 3)

IN THE BEGINNING . . .

S i x - y e a r-old Bui Thi Huyen of Vi e t n a m .

Baseball in the Dominican Republic.

WheelchairFo u n d a t i o n Changing the Wo rld

A f g h a n i s t a n. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 0A l b a n i a. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 0A l g e r i a. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 4 0A n g o l a. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 4 0A r m e n i a. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 7 1B e l a r u s. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 4 0B o l i v i a. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 4 0Bosnia &

H e r z e g o v i n a. . . . . . . . . . . .7 1 0B o t s w a n a. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 0B r a z i l. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 1 5B u r u n d i. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 4 0C a m e r o o n. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 4 0Cape Ve r d e. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 7 5Central African

R e p u b l i c. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 4 0C h a d. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 4 0C h i n a / Ti b e t. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 4 0C o l u m b i a. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 6 0Costa Rica. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 4 0C u b a. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 4 0Czech Republic. . . . . . . . . . . . .1 2 0Democratic Rep.

Of Congo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 4 0Dominican

R e p u b l i c. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 5 0 0E c u a d o r. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 5 4El Salvador . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 4 0Equatorial Guinea . . . . . . . .2 4 0E t h i o p i a. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 4 0G a b o n. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 4 0G u a t e m a l a. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 2 4H a i t i. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 9 0H o n d u r a s. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 5I n d i a. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 5I n d o n e s i a. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 8 0I s r a e l. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 0I t a l y. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 8J a m a i c a. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 8 0K a z a k h s t a n. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 4 0

Korea, Dem. Peoples Rep.. . . . . . . . . . . .2 4 0

K o s o v o. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 4 0K y r g y s t a n. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 4 0L e b a n o n. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 7 5M a c e d o n i a. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 4 0M e x i c o. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 3 8 8M o l d o v a. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 4 0M o n g o l i a. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 9 0M o n t e n e g r o. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 2 0M o z a m b i q u e. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 2 0N i c a r a g u a. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 7 5N i g e r. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 9 0N i g e r i a. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 5 0P a k i s t a n. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 1 5P a l e s t i n i a n s / I s r a e l. . . . . . .8 9 0P a n a m a. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 9 0P e r u. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 5P o l a n d. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 1R o m a n i a. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 8 2R u s s i a. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 8 5R w a n d a. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 4 0Sierra Leone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 4 0S o m a l i a. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 8South Africa. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 4 0S u d a n. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 0 0Taiwan-Republic

of China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 5 6Ta j i k s t a n. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 4 0T h a i l a n d. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 5 0Tu r k e y. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 4 0Tu r k m e n i s t a n. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 4 0U k r a i n e. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 3 6United States. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 6 4 1U z b e k i s t a n. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 4 0Ve n e z u e l a. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 2 5Vi e t n a m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 2 5Western Samoa . . . . . . . . . . . .1 6 0Z a m b i a. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 2 0Z i m b a b w e. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 4 0

Total Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 3Wheelchairs Delivered. . . . . . . . . . .2 6 , 5 0 4

H O PEM O B I L I TYF R E E D O M

Wheelchairs Delivere dSince June 2000

• THE WHEELCHAIR FOUNDAT ION •Page 2

Table of ContentsIn the Beginning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1The Oakland Athletics ~ True Hero e s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1I n t e rnational Board of Advisors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4Our Mission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5The Overwhelming Need for Wheelchairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5P rofile – Kenneth E. Behring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6Wheelchair Foundation Sponsors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6Newslines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 ~ 1 2

“No Borders Recognized” – Israel/Gaza . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7“Bridge of the Americas” – Panama . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7“Haiti – Poorest Nation in the Americas” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8“Help for El Salvador” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9“Remembering the Balkans” – Bosnia & Herz egovina . . . .1 0

Vietnam Revisited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 1“The Isolated Kham” – China/Ti bet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 1

Welcome – Rotary Clubs and Goodwill Industries . . . . . . . . . . .1 3Events – Organization of American States,

Washington, DC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 3I n t e rnet – The Wheelchair Foundation on the Web –

A round the World by James G. Stolich . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 4F requently Asked Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 5

Changing the Wo rld, the Wheelchair Foundation newsletter will be published quart e r l y. Premier issue Volume 1, Number 1 – June 2001.Written and edited by Chris Lewis, contributing writers Jeff rey Pojanowski and James G. Stolich. Copyright 2001 Wheelchair Foundation.For questions or comments please write to: Chris Lewis, Editor, Post Office Box 2973, Danville, California 94506 USA

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In the Beginning (continued from page 1)decision. He explains, “A 90 year-old woman who had just received awheelchair came up to me and said, through an interpre t e r, that life wasso hard she wanted to die. But the she pulled closer to me, took my handand with a great smile said, ‘But now I don’t want to.’ At that point I realized that a wheelchair means the diff e rence between a person want-ing to live and wanting to die.”

Prior to the official launch, Mr. Behring arranged deliveries of wheel-chairs to Guatemala, the Crow Indian nation in Montana and Botswana.On June 13, 2000, however, the Foundation’s work began in earnest. At aCapitol Hill reception co-hosted by US R e p resentatives Steve Larg e n tand Ellen Tauscher and attended by Senators William First, and To mHarkin, Mr. Behring announced the Foundation’s initial goal: to pro v i d e1 million wheelchairs for people in need by the year 2005. At $150 per

w h e e l c h a i r, reaching the goal would re q u i re $150 million. Mr. Behring gotthe ball rolling by pledging $15 million from the Kenneth E. BehringFoundation to underwrite the Foundation’s operating expenses.

The World Health Organization states that over 25 million peoplea round the world are immobile and without money to buy a wheel-c h a i r. In the first 9 months the Foundation has learned that the numberis actually between 100 and 130 million people! That number is based oni n f o rmation provided by government officials that indicate up to 21⁄2%of the population of developing countries fall into this category. To ad-d ress the actual world need, the Wheelchair Foundation must raise$19.5 billion. This number is greater than any one organization canhandle, so a coordinated global eff o rt is the plan of action. The Wheel-chair Foundation’s plan of action is simple and effective. It teams up withresponsible and well-established non-governmental org a n i z a t i o n s( N G O ’s) around the world such as the American Red Cross, CounterpartI n t e rnational and The Salvation Arm y. The Foundation pays to manu-f a c t u re and ship the wheelchairs, while the NGO’s identify needy indi-viduals, distribute the wheelchairs in the country, re t u rn a photo ofeach wheelchair recipient to the Foundation and provide follow-upc a re. With a powerful International Board of Advisors co-chaired byKing Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain, the Wheelchair Foundationhas quickly become the world’s largest humanitarian provider of wheel-chairs. At the time of press the Foundation has provided almost 27,000wheelchairs to 73 countries, partnering with dozens of humanitarian or-ganizations. But with a lofty goal to reach tens of millions of peoplestill in need throughout the world, the Wheelchair Foundation willkeep a narrow focus, and rely heavily on the dedicated individuals thata re moving this global eff o rt forw a rd, reaching out to corporations, ser-vice organizations, foundations and governments on the way, bringinghope, mobility and freedom to those in need, and saving lives onewheelchair at a time.

• THE WHEELCHAIR FOUNDAT ION •Page 3

Vietnamese woman thanking Ken Behring for her wheelchair.

True Hero es (continued from page 1)who needs a wheelchair but cannot aff o rdone, this struggle is almost impossible.

For many people in the DominicanRepublic, which shares the island of His-pañola with Haiti, baseball is one of the sim-ple joys that helps them cope with theb u rdens of povert y. One of the nation’sl a rgest re s o u rces is its pool of talented, hard-working baseball players. The best of theseplayers will make it to the major leagues ande a rn a salary they could only have dre a m e dabout when they were fielding with barehands. The Oakland Athletics CommunityFund purchased 2,500 wheelchairs for thepeople of the Dominican Republic and sharegood fortune with the hometowns that needtheir help so much.

In November of 2000, the Oakland A’steamed up with the Wheelchair Founda-tion to bring hope, mobility and fre e d o m

to the Dominican Republic’s most vulnera-ble citizens by delivering these 2,500wheelchairs. The two groups, in part n e r-ship with 80 local organizations, pre s e n t e dand distributed wheelchairs to needy peo-ple at the A’s Dominican training facility inLa Vi c t oria. Team President Michael Cro w-l e y, Wheelchair Foundation founder KenBehring, along with A’s standout short s t o pMiguel Tejada were on hand for the pre s e n-tation cere m o n y. Also appearing were RosaMejia, the First Lady of the Dominican Republic, Cardinal Nicolás de Jesús LópezRodríguez and Charles Manatt, UnitedStates Ambassador to the Dominican Re-public. “The A’s have enjoyed a long re l a-tionship with the wonderful people of theDominican Republic, both on and off thefield,” said team President Michael Cro w l e y.“The Wheelchair Foundation gives peoplea new sense of hope, dignity and indepen-

dence. The A’s o rganization is pleased tos h a re Ken Behring’s vision in this act ofp u re humanity. ”

The A’s and the Wheelchair Foundationalso made a second presentation on Friday,November 10th in Bani, the hometown ofMiguel Tejada, who tenderly lifted hisneighbors and seated them in new wheel-chairs. A player with a long track re c o rd ofgiving back to the community, Tejada wasp a rticularly moved by this act of compas-sion. “A lot of people here need wheel-chairs,” he explained. “I hear one of theladies say ‘that wheelchair is my life’ and myh e a rt just fills up.”

For every person who received a wheel-chair there is a story that shows just how thegift of mobility changes a life for the better.For the 26 year-old daughter of a gro u n d s-keeper at the A’s baseball academy who had

(continues on page 6)

• THE WHEELCHAIR FOUNDAT ION •Page 4

King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain – Co-Chairm e n(In alphabetical order)

Robert M. Berd ahl – Chancellor, University of California at BerkeleyRuth Correa Leite Cardoso, Ph. D. – First Lady of Brazil

Max Cleland – U. S. Senator, D-Georgia (Honorary )Frank J. Devlyn – President, Rotary International (2000-2001)

Joel Ehre nkranz – Ehrenkranz & Ehrenkranz, New Yo r kProfessor Sir Harry Fang, M.D. – Chairman, Joint Council for Physically & Mentally Disabled, Hong Kong

Dianne Feinstein – U.S. Senator, D-California (Honorary )William H. Frist – U.S. Senator, R-Tennessee (Honorary )

President Va lery Giscard d’Estaing – Former President of FrancePresident Mikhail Gorbachev – Former President of the USSR

Bernadine Healy, M.D. – President & CEO, The American Red Cro s sLucy Wo ng-Hernandez – Executive Dire c t o r, Disabled Peoples’ Intern a t i o n a l

Kenneth Hofmann – Oakland Athletics Baseball Te a mDaniel Inouye – U. S. Senator, D-Hawaii (Honorary )

Jack Kemp – Former U.S. Representative & Secre t a ry of Housing and Urban DevelopmentRichard D. King – President, Rotary International (2001-2002)

James R. Langevin – U.S. Representative, D-Rhode Island (Honorary )Steve Larg ent – U.S. Representative, R-Oklahoma (Honorary )

Jerry Lewis – Entert a i n e r / H u m a n i t a r i a nGraca Machel – Former First Lady of Mozambique/Mrs. Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela – Former President of South AfricaMaria Isabel Baquerizo de Noboa – First Lady of Ecuador

Jack Palladino – Palladino & Sutherland, San FranciscoArnold Palmer – Professional Golfer/Business Executive

Evelyn de Port illo – First Lady of GuatemalaGeneral Joseph W. Ralston – United States Air Forc e

President Fidel Ramos – Former President of the PhilippinesCatherine B. Reynolds – American Academy of Achievement/CEO of Educap Inc.

Steffano Ricci – Clothing DesignerNancy Rivard – Executive Dire c t o r, Airline Ambassadors

Christopher J. Rosa, Ph.D. – Dire c t o r, Svs. for Students with Disabilities - Queens College, Flushing, NYYoshiaki Sakurai – Chairman, Kosaido, Japan

Don Shula – NFL Coach/Entre p re n e u rLawrence Small – Secre t a ry, Smithsonian InstituteCatherine Stevens – Alaska & Washington, DC

Ellen Ta uscher – U.S. Representative, D-California (Honorary )Abbas I. Yo usef – ASI Agricultural Services & Investments LT D .

International Board of A dvisors

Members of the International Board of Advisors of the Wheelchair Foundation areindividuals committed to providing wheelchairs to men, women and children around the world who cannota ff o rd one. The Advisors bring their expertise and experience to bear in providing valuable counsel on thed i rection of the Foundation and support in accomplishing its goals and fulfilling its mission.

The Overwhelming Need for Wheelchairs• People re quire the use of a wh eelchair for many re a s o n s :a c-

c i d e n t s , b i rth defe c t s , war injuri e s , d eb i l i t ating diseasesand old age.

• The leading cause of disabilities wo rldwide can be at tributedto landmines, p a rt i c u l a rly in developing nations. Eve ryye a r, 26,000 people are injured or killed by landminesaround the world.

• An estimated 20-25 million disabled people wo rl dw i d eneed wh eelchairs, though less than 1 percent own or haveaccess to one. The number of disabled is like ly undere sti-mated, due to the inability to account for “ forgo tten” c iti-zens who have been hidden away by their families.

• Experts predict that the number of people who need wh eel-chairs will increase by 22 percent over the next 10 years,with the greatest need existing in developing countries.

• In developing countries, only a small percentage of thosewho need wh eelchairs have them, fo rcing dependence uponfa mily and friends to get aro und. For others , the only way toget around is to crawl.

• Despite tremendous effo rts of relief orga n i z at i o n s , t h e i re ffo rts are still not sufficient to meet the ove r wh e l m i n gneed. Curre ntly, t here are three basic wh eelchair options –s a d ly, none of wh i ch is adequate for a country ’s poore s tdisabled citizens:

• Wheelchairs manufactured in the West: The most basic ofthese costs about $375, not including shipping charges.This sum is out of re ach for many impove rished people.In Vi e t n a m , for ex a m p l e, a disabled person may earnabout $30 a month – if she or he is able to work.

• Refurbished wh e e l ch a i rs : Th e re are seve ral orga n i z a-tions that refurbish and distri bute wh eelchairs to those inn e e d. Unfo rt u n at e ly, their effo rts cannot hope to meetthe ove r whelming need. Quite often these ch a i rs maybe inadequate for rough conditions and terrain.

• Wh e e l ch a i rs manu fa c t u red in country: Some deve l o p-ing countries have domestic wheelchair manufacturingoperations. But the ch airs still must be sold to disabled cit-izens and may be too expensive for the destitute.

The wheelchairs provided by the WheelchairFoundation are selected to withstand the rugged

conditions of developing countries. They cost $150each and are offered free to those most in need.

Our MissionThe Wheelchair Foundation is a nonprofit org anizationleading an international eff ort to deliver a wheelchair toevery man, woman and child in the world who needs one.For thoses individuals, the Wheelchair Foundation off ershope, freedom, self-reliance and mobility.

Mobility:The Most Basic Human RightOver 20 million of the world’s citizens today are deprivedof mobility because of warf are, disease, disaster or advancedage. The wheelchairs they need simply to get across thestreet — or across the room — are out of reach. TheWheelchair Foundation believes that these people deserv ethe independence and dignity that comes with owning awheelchair, re gardless of their nationality.

The Goal: One Million Wheelchairsin Five YearsOver the next five years, the Wheelchair Foundation aimsto distribute one million wheelchairs to people who cannotafford to buy one. The Foundation has already delivere dthousands of wheelchairs worldwide. Allied with numero usinternational relief organizations, the WheelchairFoundation has set its goals as high as its commitment.

$15 Million from the Kenneth E. Behring Foundation:Only the BeginningThe Wheelchair Foundation was established in 2000 witha grant by the Kenneth E. Behring Foundation. In re centyears, Mr. Behring has shifted his focus from business tophilanthropy, and his foundation has committed tocontribute $15 million over the next five years to endowthe Wheelchair Foundation eff ort.

The Wheelchair Foundationhopes to raise $150 millionin its first five years fro mcorporations, other foundationsand individuals to support itsworldwide eff ort to provide hope,freedom, mobility and newindependence to those in need.

• THE WHEELCHAIR FOUNDAT ION •Page 5

• THE WHEELCHAIR FOUNDAT ION •Page 6

Wheelchair FoundationSponsors Include:

The Oakland AthleticsSmithsonian Magazine

QuidnuncScott’s Seafood – Oakland, CA

Ronald McDonald House Charities SamsungChevron

Christopher Reeve ParalysisFoundation

The Auto Collections

True Hero es (continued from page 3)spent the last 13 years of her life in her bed, a wheelchair allowed her tocome out into the warm, tropical sunlight. A young man from Bani whowas struck by polio as a child was most happy to receive a wheelchair be-cause it would allow him to go to church with the rest of his family. Per-haps the most powerful image of the whole week took place at one of thepractice fields at the A’s baseball academy, where young men in wheelchairsplayed a spontaneous game of pick-up baseball, batting with their fre ehands and speeding around the bases with newfound freedom. Therea re many challenges facing the Dominican Republic, and the Oakland A’sa re committed to helping its people face them. Through its part n e r s h i pwith the Wheelchair Foundation, the A’s have helped give Dominicanswith disabilities access to the most basic right of mobility and even the sim-plest pleasure of a game of baseball on a warm afternoon.

Please go to our website www. w h e e l c h a i rf o u n d a t i o n . o rg/ s p o n s o r s . h t m lto watch the video “True Heroes” that tells the story of the OaklandAthletics gift to the people of the Dominican Republic.

The establishment of the Wheelchair Founda-tion marks the most recent chapter in KennethE. Behring’s philanthropic eff o rts to impro v ethe lives of disadvantaged people around thew o r l d .

F rom his successful career as an automobiledealer in Wisconsin, Ken entered the world ofreal estate development in the 1960’s. Over thecourse of the next 35 years, his companies cre-ated numerous planned communities in Flori-da and California, including the world-renowned Blackhawk development near SanF r a n c i s c o .

After purchasing the Seattle Seahawks foot-ball team in 1988, Ken established the SeattleSeahawks Charitable Foundation, which ben-efited numerous childre n ’s charities. The Sea-hawks Foundation was the most substantialbenefactor for the We s t e rn Washington Mus-cular Dystrophy Association.

Ken Behring founded the Blackhawk Museum, The U.C. Berke-ley Museum of Art, Science and Culture and the Behring-Hofmann Ed-ucational Institute in Blackhawk, California, to benefit the San Fran-cisco East Bay region. In 1997 he pledged $20 million to the Smith-sonian Museum of Natural History and in 2000 he pledged an addi-tional $80 million to rebuild the Smithsonian’s National Museum ofAmerican History. For only the fourth time in the Smithsonian’s 170-year history, the prestigious James Smithson Aw a rd was bestowedon Behring in recognition of his generosity and vision. The Black-

hawk Museum is now an affiliate of the Smith-sonian Institution.

During his years of travel around the world,Ken has made it his personal mission to helpthose in need. His donations of food, medicalsupplies, clothing, toys and educational mate-rials have helped people in some of the most im-poverished nations on earth. His first-hand in-volvement has given him a realistic picture ofhow much help is needed worldwide.

In 1999 Ken donated shipments of wheel-chairs to relief organizations in Eastern Euro p eand Africa. His personal contact with the re-cipients gave him a greater understanding ofhow much hope and happiness can be givento a person who receives a wheelchair. In thefollowing months, he traveled the world deliv-ering wheelchairs to Italy, Romania, Botswana,Vietnam, Guatemala and the Crow Indian Na-tion in Montana. In June of 2000, Ken com-mitted $15 million to his newly created Wheel-chair Foundation.

Ken Behring was inducted into the American Academy of Achieve-ment in 1989. He has served on the boards of national and intern a-tional institutions, received numerous honors and awards of re c o g-nition, and been embraced by nations around the world.

Ken and his wife Patricia reside in Blackhawk, California. Theyhave five sons and ten grandchildre n .

“When I see the happiness on the faces of the people who get a wheelchair, I feel that this is the best thing I have everdone in my life.” — Kenneth E. Behring

Kenneth E. Behri ng

Ken Behring delivering wheelchairs in S h a n g h a i .

P ro f i l e

No Bord ers Recog nizedI s rael / Gaza

TH E WH E E L C H A I R FO U N D AT I O N celebrated theNew Year in 2001 by bringing the gift of mo-bility to people in war- t o rn Israel and the Pales-tinian Gaza Strip. By distributing 940 desper-ately needed wheelchairs to people of all agesjust outside of Tel Aviv and in Gaza City, Foun-dation workers and a team of volunteer phys-ical and occupational therapists sent a mes-sage of hope and highlighted the fact thathuman need knows no bord e r s .

The team first went to Gaza City in the GazaStrip, where it worked in partnership with thePalestinian Childre n ’s Relief Fund and the HolyLand Foundation to distribute wheelchairst h rough the Society of Physically HandicappedPeople. Within the Gaza Strip, which is sand-wiched between Egypt and mainland Israel,t h e re are an estimated 3,500 people who needwheelchairs, many of whom are refugees, ac-c o rding to Dr. Sameer Z. Abu Jayyab, ExecutiveC h a i rman of the Society. Few of the 1.1 millionresidents can aff o rd wheelchairs, as the dense-ly populated area has suff e red greatly from therecent conflict in the region. Some estimateunemployment to be as high as 65 percent andthe average resident lives on less than $3 perd a y.

Working under the shadow of looming vio-lence and even the occasional rumble of near-by art i l l e ry, the Wheelchair Foundation teamsought to aid the innocent and spread hopeand healing amid the rubble of war. One man,who had once lived in America but re t u rned toGaza, had been searching for six years to find awheelchair for his daughter. He gratefully ex-plained that the Foundation was able to pro-vide his eight-year old girl the gift that no localg o v e rnmental or charitable group was able togive her. His was just one story of many pop-ulating the large room where the Foundationand its volunteers fitted individuals to wheel-chairs. From miles around, elderly women car-ried in on blankets and aged men hoisted onwooden planks received new wheelchairs. Inone family alone, immobile twin boys and oneyoung girl left the room smiling, in new wheel-chairs where before they had none.

C rossing the border to Zerifin, Israel, justoutside of Tel Av i v, the Wheelchair Founda-

tion distributed wheelchairs at the Assaf Haro-feh Medical Center. Half of the donated wheel-chairs were refurbished and specially designedto assist children with spinal curv a t u re pro b-lems. These wheelchairs, which went to theC e n t e r ’s Special Pediatric Rehabilitative Unitand School, were refurbished by Los Angeles-based Wheels For Humanity, who also pro-vided refurbished wheelchairs in Gaza City.The other half of the wheelchairs pledged tothe Center will be distributed throughout theC e n t e r, but will be particularly useful in itsgeriatric ward. “We never imagined in ourwildest dreams that we would get such gre a twheelchairs,” said Dr. Mordechai Wa ron, for-mer Director of the Medical Center.

The donation was sorely needed, accord i n gto Erica Reiter, of the California-based Friendsof Assaf Harofeh, which helps raise funds forthe Israeli hospital. “Even with limited fundsfor equipment, the hospital serves some of thep o o rest people in Israel and is in an area withone of the fastest growing populations,” Reiterexplained. She continued, “Because the de-mand for these wheelchairs is much gre a t e rthan the supply, the Wheelchair Foundation'sgift is a much-needed boost for the hospital.”

The Foundation’s Wheelchairs are being do-nated strictly based on need and without any

re g a rd to the recipients’ political or diplomaticstance in the region’ s ongoing conflict, saidp h i l a n t h ropist Ken Behring, who founded theo rganization in June of 2000. “This is aboutnothing other than helping make life more liv-able for some world citizens who struggle dailywith mobility,” Behring said. “We are a hu-manitarian organization, not a political gro u p .We are concerned with getting wheelchairs topeople who need them, not taking sides in in-t e rnational disputes.” If the Foundation didtake a side this January, it stood behind thevalues of dignity and mobility for those inneed, re g a rdless of where they can be foundon a map.

Bridge of the A mericasPa n a m a

IN JA N U A RY O F 2 0 0 1, a Wheelchair Foundationdelegation headed by founder Kenneth E.Behring teamed up with Panamanian Pre s i-dent Mireya Elisa Moscoso Rodriguez and FirstLady Moscoso de Young to deliver 240 wheel-chairs to disabled people in Panama. In a whirl-

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• THE WHEELCHAIR FOUNDAT ION •Page 7

Waiting for his wheelchair in David, Panama.

S e v e n - y e a r-old Esmael Sabah of Gaza City

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h o p em o b i l i t y

Panama (continued from page 7)wind tour of the isthmus, the team bro u g h thope and mobility to people from ages 1 to 96 in addition to presenting other humanitariangoods to the First Lady’s foundation.

Visiting hospitals and orphanages, Mr.Behring and First Lady de Young saw the needfor the Foundation’s work. A visit to the Moth-er Theresa of Calcutta Orphanage inspired theattending Rotarians to finance a delivery ofspecialized cerebral palsy wheelchair for eachof the orphanage’s 18 children. In the city ofColón, a 70 year-old man who could not af-f o rd a wheelchair broke down crying in grati-tude. The First Lady was deeply moved by herexperience. “The work and generosity of theWheelchair Foundation has changed the livesof so many of my country ’s people,” she said. “Iwas so moved and inspired to see the results ofthe Foundation’s donation and to personallyhelp those who received wheelchairs. Panamais very grateful for the Foundation’s work, andI look forw a rd to cooperating with them inthe future . ”

M r. Behring and the Foundation’s work werenot limited to simply providing wheelchairsto people in need. Using the space availableon his airplane, Mr. Behring presented the FirstLady with quilts, early education and pre - n a t a lkits donated by LDS Charities. The Foundationteam also toured a workshop run by GoodwillIndustries that employs people with disabilitieswho refurbish bicycles and build wheelchairsfor resale. The Foundation will provide Good-will with assistance in obtaining low-costwheelchair components for assembly and sale,and Goodwill will participate in the Founda-t i o n ’s wheelchair distribution in the country.

The visit was commemorated by a cere m o n yand press conference hosted by the First Ladyand later by a reception with Pre s i d e n tMoscoso. When asked after the conference forhis impressions, Mr. Behring said he viewedhis trip to Panama as a great success. “No mat-ter how many times I travel to see the workthe Foundation is doing, I always get a lump inmy throat when I see the smile on a child’sface or happy tears in the eyes of an elderlyperson.”

He continued, “I was so impressed by theFirst Lady. She spent all day working with usand she greeted her people with real warm t h

and a kind, personal touch.” Finally, Mr.Behring expressed enthusiasm about Good-w i l l ’s work. “Giving a wheelchair to a person isa wonderful act. Helping people with disabili-ties help themselves is even better. It helpsbring them back into society and shows thecommunity that even though they have a dis-a b i l i t y, they have lots to off e r. ”

The Foundation looks to continue its work inPanama in the future, and a new re l a t i o n s h i pwith Rotary Clubs worldwide will help makethat possible. Not only did the Rotarians assistwith this trip’s wheelchair deliveries, but aftermeeting with Rotary District Governor Vi c e n t ePascual, the Foundation struck a deal wherethe Rotarians will match a donation of 240wheelchairs, ensuring that the Foundation willbring an additional 480 wheelchairs to Panamathis coming year. The relationship with Rotarywill also provide wheelchairs to all other LatinAmerican countries in the coming months.

Haiti – Po orest Nation in the A mericas

HA I T I I S T H EP O O R E S T N AT I O N in the Americas. Ona map, Haiti lies less than 600 miles from theluxurious re s o rts of Miami Beach. But judgingby the scale of sheer human need, the smallisland nation is light years away. With limitedre s o u rces, one of Haiti’s few industries is thep roduction of Rawlings baseballs. Much poor-er than the neighboring Dominican Republic,7 million of the 8 million Haitians live on lessthan $1 per day, and 60% of Haiti’s workers

a re unemployed. The few wheelchairs avail-able in the country can cost as much as $400 or$500. For most Haitians, a wheelchair is some-thing that they cannot even aff o rd to dre a ma b o u t .

Seeking to witness the human face behindthis statistical gap, the Wheelchair Founda-tion sent a team to the Haitian capital of Port auPrince to accompany a shipment of 240 wheel-chairs. To ensure the speedy and effective de-l i v e ry of the donation, the Wheelchair Foun-dation part n e red with Haitians Living Abro a d ,a charitable consortium of Haitian pro f e s s i o n-als living primarily in the United States, and theNational Organization for the Advancementof Haitians (NOAH). The Wheelchair Foun-dation team visited two orphanages wherewheelchairs were going to make a diff e re n c e .

“No matter how kind and hardworking thepeople running the orphanages were, it wasclear that they barely had the means to attendto even the most basic needs of the children, letalone aff o rd wheelchairs,” explained Fred Ger-h a rd, Wheelchair Foundation Director of Dis-t r i b u t i o n .

“ We went in and saw twelve double bedsin a room that should really only hold four.C h i l d ren were lying on mattresses withoutblankets, and there were no toys or books toe n t e rtain them. For those children who couldnot walk, this overc rowded room of bare bedswas their world.”

Access to a wheelchair provides more thanjust a change of scenery for a child in need.For the healthy development of children, beingable to play and actively interact with the worlda round them is critical. As a result, those strand-ed within the four bare walls of an impover-ished orphanage not only face the burdens ofb o redom, loneliness and bedsores, but alsostunted psychological growth that will followthem into their adult years. The WheelchairF o u n d a t i o n ’s donation will make a serious im-pact on these childre n ’s lives, brightening theirexistence and literally opening a whole newworld to them.

Ralph P. Chevry, Haiti’s director of NOAH, tellsthe story of the diff e rence a wheelchair made inone girl’s life:

“A handicapped pre-teen mentioned the dif-ficulties of keeping her skirt clean because shehad to crawl to get around. Thanks to your

A caring touch means the world to adisabled child.

• THE WHEELCHAIR FOUNDAT ION •Page 8

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o rganization she will no longer have to facethe embarrassment of a dirty skirt, and weknow how important those things are to ayoung girl.”

A c c o rding to Haiti’s Minister of Health, anestimated 250,000 to 500,000 Haitians needwheelchairs but cannot aff o rd them. The chal-lenge of making the world a better place isg reat, but so is the impact of one person whoreaches out to help. And together we can makea world of diff e re n c e .

Help for El Salva dor

TH E PA S T T W O D E C A D E S have not been kind tothe Central American nation of El Salvador.This nation of over 6 million people has faceda civil war, a major earthquake in 1986, and theravages of hurricane Mitch in 1998. But Janu-a ry 13, 2001 began a string of natural disastersthat would cause as much damage as the pre-vious three forces combined. The WheelchairFoundation knows . . . we were there at gro u n dz e ro of the great earthquakes of 2001.

On January 13, 2001 an earthquake of 7.7 onthe Richter scale rocked El Salvador, killingm o re than 800 people and leaving hundreds ofthousands homeless. The Wheelchair Foun-dation responded by delivering an emerg e n c yshipment of wheelchairs to the capital city ofSan Salvador. In partnership with the non-p rofit organization Airline Ambassadors, theAmerican Medical Association and the localKiwanis organization, Foundation re p re s e n-tatives went to survey the damage and assist thea l ready-impoverished Salvadorans with dis-abilities. It just so happened that while theWheelchair Foundation team was there, a Feb-ru a ry 13th earthquake with a magnitude of6.8 struck, raising the nation’s death total above1,100 and increasing the costs of re b u i l d i n gthe country to $3 billion. That price tag isequal to the govern m e n t ’s entire annual budget.

The Wheelchair Foundation’s Director ofDistribution, Fred Gerh a rd was one of thee a rthquake survivors who saw the harro w i n gimpact nature had on the small nation. “Just being in the second major earthquake gave mea greater sense of empathy for the people who

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Refugee camp in El Salvador.

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Orphanage for disabled children in El Salvador.

• THE WHEELCHAIR FOUNDAT ION •Page 1 0

El Salvador (continued from page 9)lost their family members and their homes, and increased my commitment to helpingthem,” Gerh a rd explained. He recalled, “Somany people now live in tents and suff e rt h rough the aftershocks, not knowing wherethey will go and when the next eart h q u a k ewill hit.” Seeing the destruction on the gro u n din San Salvador, the Wheelchair Foundationpledged additional wheelchairs to help them i s f o rt u n e - s t ruck nation. On Salvadoran na-tional television, the Foundation gave awaywheelchairs and promised to do more.

The Avalo Family is one of many that theFoundation has helped. Sandra is a singlemother who has been left by her husband toc a re for three disabled children alone. Risinge v e ry morning at 5:00 am, she picks berr i e sand sells them on the street to support herf a m i l y. Her youngest daughter Lupita is blindand, while her middle son Wilbur can walk toschool, Sandra must carry her eldest sonDannes every w h e re. Sandra walks miles bare-foot every day to help her family survive, andshe sleeps on the floor every night. For Dannes,a wheelchair means that he will see more ofhis surroundings and his tired mother doesnot have to carry him. But even before thee a rthquakes shook El Salvador, aff o rding awheelchair was out of the question for San-dra. The Wheelchair Foundation has opened anew world to her son and given her arms somewell-needed re s t .

T h e re is so much more to be done for ElS a l v a d o r. The scale of the destruction and theneed overwhelms the mind and challenges thesoul. But the Wheelchair Foundation is stayingt rue to its mission, one family at a time, tomake El Salvador and the world, a better place.

Remembering the Balkans

Bosnia / Herzegov i n a

FO RA N Y O N E WAT C H I N G T H E E V E N I N GN E W S in the1 9 9 0 ’s, the names Bosnia & Herzegovina bringback images of refugees fleeing ethnic cleans-ing, citizens in Sarajevo dodging sniper fireand the long and complicated struggle toward

a NATO-negotiated peace in the former Yu-goslav Republic. As a hot spot for conflict, thec o u n t ry has cooled, and the number of NAT Ot roops necessary to keep the peace is smaller.The news cameras have turned their lensese l s e w h e re and the correspondents write off resher troubles in other nearby regions, so it iseasy to forget about the people who still mustlive with the wounds inflicted by the battlebetween the citizens of Bosnia.

If we think about them or not, they are thereand need our help. Many are the innocent peo-ple injured in the cro s s f i re of war. All of the3.8 million people in Bosnia and Herz e g o v i n alive in an economy severely wounded by theconflict. In addition to the tax of human suf-fering, the war cost the country between $20-$40 billion dollars. To put that into perspective,Bosnia and Herz e g o v i n a ’s economy pro d u c e sonly $800 million a year – or as little as 2% ofthe losses incurred by the war. 50% of the pop-ulation is unemployed and few have access top roper health care. In Bosnia, disability is ram-pant and the re s o u rces to cope with it ares c a rc e .

The Wheelchair Foundation is lending ahand to the rebuilding eff o rt in Bosnia andH e rzegovina and looking to help heal thewounds of war. On April 24, 2001 the Foun-

dation held a distribution ceremony at theZetra Sports Center in Sarajevo, the form e rOlympic stadium. In a setting that once couldbe viewed from the beautiful park on the hill-side, we experienced a surreal setting beneath10,000 headstones that have overtaken theland that once was that park. The lush hill-sides and historic buildings are now silent wit-nesses to the loss of innocence and normal lifein the shadow of the former Olympic venue.The 270 wheelchairs that were delivered bringa new life to the people who have been re n-d e red immobile by war, disease, old age, andthe poverty of a nation brought to its knees. A2 0 - y e a r-old man that was paralyzed by as n i p e r ’s bullet when he was only 14 said, “Thiswheelchair is like a window to the world forme. It will make my life happy again.”

United States Air Force General Joseph W.Ralston, a member of the Wheelchair Foun-d a t i o n ’s International Board of Advisors, ac-companied the delegation, which includedKenneth E. Behring, founder of the Wheel-chair Foundation. General Ralston said, “Whenthese people receive a wheelchair you can seehope come into their life.” As Commander inChief of the U.S. European Command,S u p reme Allied Commander of the NAT Of o rces in Europe, and commander of the Unit-ed States’ unified forces, an area that includes89 countries in Europe, Africa and the Mid-dle East, one of General Ralston’s re s p o n s i b i l-ities is the distribution of humanitarian aid.He will be helping to facilitate the distributionof the wheelchairs the Foundation has donat-ed. The Foundation’s distribution partners in-clude the nation’s Ministry of the Disabled andthe Red Cross of Bosnia & Herzegovina. Thisguarantees that the most deserving people willreceive this first wave of wheelchairs, and thosereceiving them will benefit from proper care .

M r. Behring was very pleased with the mis-sion and is grateful for the General’s help. “Gen.R a l s t o n ’s guidance is very helpful for the suc-cess of this eff o rt,” Mr. Behring explained. “Be-cause the situation is so difficult in Bosnia, it isv e ry important that we do this right. We don’twant to leave the most vulnerable people be-hind, and we want to make sure the peoplewe help get the best care available. NATO andthe United States have done their best to stopthe fighting. Now it is time for us to start the

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Bosnian girl with muscular dystro p h y.

• THE WHEELCHAIR FOUNDAT ION •Page 1 1

healing. I am so happy the Wheelchair Foun-dation can do its part.” The Wheelchair Foun-dation plans on re t u rning to the Balkans inthe very near future .

Vietnam Rev isited

LO N G A F T E R T H E W I T H D R AWA L of Americant roops and their nation’s subsequent skirm i s h e sin the region, the people of Vietnam are work-ing for a better, more peaceful life. Relationswith its former combatants are slowly warm i n g ,and the nation’s communist government hasbeen taking small steps toward economic lib-e rties. In addition to having few political andpersonal freedoms, the nation of 79 millionpeople is still very poor, with the average Vi e t-namese making less than $1 per day. And whilethe rattle of gunfire and rumble of mortars hasleft the countryside, telltale scars of the na-t i o n ’s wars still mark the population.

One of the greatest reminders of that tro u-bled past is the unusually high rate of disabil-ity among the nation’s population. Keeping itscommitment to go wherever there is need, theWheelchair Foundation is set to help those inVietnam who are immobile, and cannot aff o rda wheelchair. In March of 2001 the Wheel-chair Foundation sent a shipment of 638wheelchairs to My Tho, a city in the MekongDelta just south of Saigon. The wheelchairsw e re distributed by the Foundation and Cali-f o rnia-based Hope Haven Ministries through alocal society for the disabled.

A c c o rding to Hope Haven Director MarkR i c h a rd, a large percentage of the wheelchairsa re for children, and many of the people re-ceiving them are innocent victims of war. Anumber of the wheelchairs will go to non-combatant landmine victims who have losttheir legs. Many more need wheelchairs be-cause of polio or birth defects. As Richard ex-plains, “during the war and after the war, Vi e t-nam was not able to bring its health care systemup to par, and their vaccination network wascut off during the fighting.” As a result, conflictcut off the preventive care than can reduce thechance of birth defects and the vaccinationsthat can halt the spread of polio, leaving im-mobile war victims who were never even near

a battle. Other major causes of immobility inthe region are cerebral palsy and severe art h r i-t i s .

The Wheelchair Foundation went off thebeaten path to reach people less fre q u e n t l ytouched by aid eff o rts. As is the case in otherrural parts of Vietnam the people in My Tho arefar away from the rehabilitation hospitals, sothey have less access to medical clinics andc a re from international aid organizations. Be-cause the southern portion of Vietnam sidedagainst the communist government in then o rth before unification, southern areas likeMy Tho generally receive less assistance fro mthe Vietnamese government than their neigh-bors to the nort h .

Going to Vietnam this year has special mean-ing for the Wheelchair Foundation. One ofthe gro u p ’s first major shipments of wheel-chairs went to disabled people in the nort h-e rn city of Hanoi, Vi e t n a m ’s capital. It wast h e re that Founder Kenneth E. Behring sawthe positive effect that large distributions ofwheelchairs bring to a population, and thatunderstanding encouraged the launch of theFoundation. Now, one year, 72 countries and26,000 wheelchairs later, the Foundation willbring another large shipment of healing and

hope to equally grateful families, this time tothe southern portion of a nation once definedonly by conflict.

The Isolated KhamChina / Ti b e t

TH E SI C H U A N PR O V I N C E is home to almost 110million people, making it one of the most pop-ulous regions in China. Located in the south-w e s t e rn portion of the country, Sichuan lagsbehind the rest of China in development. Per-haps the most impoverished group in the al-re a d y - u n d e rdeveloped area is the small mi-nority of ethnic Tibetans in the western port i o nof the Province. Bordering the Tibetan Au-tonomous Region and isolated from much ofthe rest of world, Kham – as Tibetan localsrefer to this sparsely populated area of Sichuan– is politically a part of China, but culturally itis much more similar to its Himalayan neighborto the west.

The people of Kham face more than the dif-ficulties of being a Tibetan outpost in a politi-cally and culturally Chinese nation. In additionto social and linguistic barriers, they also stru g -

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A wheelchair means a new life in Vi e t n a m .

Giving a child a future in China.

China (continued from page 11)gle against the challenge of distance thatfaces people of every extraction in the far-flung portions of China’s fro n t i e r. Becausethey are so far away from the heart of polit-ical and economic activity in China, manypeople in the remote regions of Sichuan arecut off from the nation’s flow of healthcareand education. Life at the extremities ofChina means that the most basic medicalsupplies and technology are scarce, thatc h i l d ren are often out of the reach of main-land vaccination programs and that pooreducation prevents the development of ef-fective and proper health habits. Living onthe edge of geography and culture meansp reventable disability goes unprevented andthat congenital disability goes without pro p e rc a re .

Even in just one county in the Kham re-gion, we could find 3,300 people with disabil-

ities ranging from spinal cord injury and birt hdefects to loss of limbs and old age. In No-vember of 2000, the Wheelchair Foundationsought to bring relief, hope and mobility topeople in Kham, where the average healthyf a rmer can make a few hundred dollars a year,but the disabled struggle. Thanks in part to agrant by the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foun-dation, the Wheelchair Foundation was able top rovide 240 wheelchairs to the Tibetans of

Kham and other needy and deserving people inthe Sichuan Province. Working in part n e r s h i pwith Wheels for Humanity, and the Kham AidFoundation, the Wheelchair Foundation wasable to change 240 lives.

A Kham Aid field teamc o o rdinated on the gro u n dwith two local humanitar-ian groups to identify peo-ple in need and bring backtheir stories from afar.They tell the story of JingXiaoyong, a 25-year- o l dman who was physicallyand mentally disabledf rom a fever he suff e red asan infant. Cared for by hism o t h e r, who was unableto move him, Jing spentthe bulk of his life on abed inside a small wooddwelling. Kham Aid Pre s i-dent Pamela Logan re c a l l sthat Jing’s face was “thepalest I've ever seen on a

Tibetan.” A wheelchair would soon bring thes u n ’s warmth to that same face, and a smilewas not far behind. Logan explained, “Jinglooked wondrous, as if he had suddenly beenbeamed to a never dreamt-of world. WhenDavid [of Wheels for Humanity] tilted thechair backward to go over the doorsill, Jingb roke out in a huge grin. He loved it! After 25years in bed, a tilted chair was like a ro l l e rc o a s t e r. ”

Like Jing, many recipients were shy butgrateful. One 70 year-old Tibetan mannamed Zhang Dongwen, however, wouldnot accept a wheelchair until he had made aspeech through an interpre t e r. The spon-taneous orator addressed the group, say-ing, “You have come so far to this re m o t eplace to help us. On behalf of disabled peo-ple here, I thank you. For disabled people,s e l f - s u fficiency is really important. We wantto take part in the opening and develop-ment of this area. I promise to do my best totake advantage of this gift.”

Zhang Dongwen’s words cut to the heartof what the Wheelchair Foundation’s mis-sion is all about. For some, a wheelchair is a

means to leave the prison of a small room. ForZhang and many others, a wheelchair is also atool of independence and of participation inthe betterment of the community. BecauseZhang and others like him are now free towork as a part of the Tibetan society in Kham,his neighbors will now see the contributionpeople with disabilities can bring to the com-m u n i t y.

For some very thankful people in one ofthe most isolated places in the world, Kahm hasbecome a little less lonely.

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Jing Xiaoyong

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The Wheelchair Foundation welcomes a relationship with RotaryClubs worldwide that will soon bring wheelchairs to people thro u g h-out Latin America and around the globe. Rotary International is an or-ganization of business and professional leaders that provide human-itarian service worldwide, and their mission is good news for peoplewith disabilities throughout the world.

R o t a ry Clubs and Districts in the US areworking with Clubs and Districts aro u n dthe world and the Rotary Foundation top rovide considerable financial support to-w a rd the distribution of wheelchairs.T h rough the Rotary Foundation matchinggrant program, the Wheelchair Founda-tion is able to double the amount of wheelchairsdonated by Rotarians. The local Rotary Clubs inthe area of wheelchair distribution coordinate withentities that can distribute the wheelchairs to peoplein need and assist those organizations with distrib-ution, documentation, follow-up, and getting workfor the disabled.

The Wheelchair Foundation is excited about the relationship andis grateful for the Rotarian’s overwhelming genero s i t y. WheelchairFoundation Fundraising Director Chris Lewis believes that workwith the Rotarians will be huge contribution to the successful achieve-ment of the Foundation’s mission. “In all of my years working tohelp the disabled, I have never encountered such a large, consistent,and dedicated group of people that really care about helping the lessf o rtunate people of the world.” Curre n t l y, Rotary International has a

membership of 1.2 million individuals in 29,000 local Clubs and al-most 200 nations.

A new relationship with Goodwill Industries should also incre a s ethe impact of the Foundation’s work with Rotary and other org a n i-zations throughout the world. Goodwill social workers plan to help

R o t a ry and other organizations locatepeople who need wheelchairs, but

cannot aff o rd them. Once thosepeople receive wheelchairs, Good-will and the Rotarians will work tohelp the recipients find jobs. Good-will, Rotary and the WheelchairFoundation share the understand-

ing that while a wheelchair alone can open upa whole new world to a recipient and theirf a m i l y, helping those individuals find mean-ingful work brings them independence and

e m p o w e rment. The Foundation, Rotary and Goodwillwill launch a pilot test of this project with their upcomingdistribution in Panama, and they look to expand this co-

operation in the future. With Goodwill Industries affiliates in 34 nations and Rotary Clubs

in almost 200, the Wheelchair Foundation hopes these re l a t i o n s h i p swill ensure that the message of hope and jobs for the disabled will havelong lasting roots in every corner of the world.

For questions about Rotary participation, please contact Rotarianvolunteer Dr. Jon Grant (California) at (650) 574-0520, Fax (650) 571-0965, JonBGrant@aol.com or Chris Lewis at (877) 378-3839.

On Febru a ry 14, 2001 in Washington, DC,Wheelchair Foundation founder and chair-man Kenneth E. Behring received the pre s t i-gious Jose de Marcoleta medal from Nicaraguahonoring his humanitarian eff o rts in deliv-ering needed wheelchairs to disabled Nicar-aguans. The medal is Nicaragua’s highestdiplomatic decoration.

“ T h rough compassionate and humanitar-ian eff o rts, Ken Behring is perf o rming an extraordinary service to the people and thegovernment of Nicaragua,” said Eduardo J.

Sevilla Somoza, Nicaraguan Ambassador tothe United Nations. “By helping people whostruggle daily with immobility, he is settingan example for us all.”

Behring received the medal, off i c i a l l yknown as the Orden de Jose de Marc o l e t a ,during a reception at the Hall of the Americ-as at the Organization of American States inWashington, DC. This cocktail fundraiser,which was attended by leaders in the Wa s h-ington diplomatic, medical and businesscommunities, was organized by Dr. and Mrs.

Steven B. Hopping and their daughter, JuliaSacasa. Sevilla Somoza bestowed the award onbehalf of the President of Nicaragua.

Recipients of the medal, which is namedafter a Spaniard who defended Nicaragua’ss o v e reignty in the 19th century, are honore dfor excellence in diplomacy and service toN i c a r a g u a ’s people and government. TheWheelchair Foundation has already pro v i d e d175 wheelchairs to the Central American nation of Nicaragua and plans for more chairsa re already underw a y.

E v e n t s

Nicaragua Awards Prestigious Jose de Marcoleta Medal to Wheelchair Foundation Founder

Rotary Clubs and Goodwill Industries

We l c o m e

As I was crossing Battery Street near Em-b a rc a d e ro Center in San Francisco, I heardthe familiar chirp of my mobile phone. Itwas my old friend and colleague, ChrisLewis. Chris and I go way back to the earlydays of Intern e t — c i rca 1996. Chris in-f o rmed me that he had accepted a positionas Director of Marketing at a new non-pro f-it organization, the Wheelchair Founda-tion, and that he was officially back in theBay Are a .

As we had not spoken in some time, wea rranged to have lunch later that week.During the course of our conversation itbecame evident that the Wheelchair Foun-d a t i o n ’s web site was in need of a serious re-vamp. We discussed various options—in-cluding utilizing a freelance designer—anda rrived at the conclusion that the new com-pany I had joined could potentially assist.

I had only been at Quidnunc (www. q u i d-nunc.com) a short while, and I knew thatwe were interested in pursuing more worka round branding and customer experienceto create richer user experiences for ourdigital pro j e c t s .

It was not difficult to con-vince Quidnunc’s seniormanagement in San Francis-co that this would be a veryw o rthwhile cause. Quidnunchas always placed a great dealof emphasis on its people andc u l t u re, so it comes as no sur-prise that they were morethan willing to indulge in our

excitement about this project and donate100% of our work for the Foundation.

It became clear that the Foundationneeded a strong global brand which couldbe leveraged across all media, offline andonline. Within a few days our team cameback to Chris with several campaign ideas.In the end we settled on a campaign baseda round the inspiring idea of “momentum.”T h roughout all media (including the per-manent Wheelchair Foundation display atthe Blackhawk Museum in Danville, Cali-f o rnia) the idea of momentum would bec a p t u red and port r a y e d .

The challenge for Quidnunc was to im-plement this brand online in a way whichspeaks clearly to and addresses the needs ofthe site’s two main target audiences: indi-vidual visitors and potential corporatesponsors.

Choosing the right display technologyfor the site is as important as coming upwith the right design. Pages with excessivegraphics or advanced technologies canquickly isolate users and make for a fru s-

trating online experience.Given that our target audience is tru l y

global spanning countries around theworld, we elected to build the site in basicHTML with some simple JavaScript. In thisw a y, we can ensure that the pages will dis-play correctly on the majority of webb rowsers and platforms in use around theworld. Avoiding more exclusive technolo-gies such as DHTML also meant that wew e re able to keep the page download timesto a minimum, an important benefit to ourvisitors in Africa (and other less techno-logically developed countries) on slowerc o n n e c t i o n s .

Once we had come up with the right de-sign and messaging for the new site’s home-page, we quickly proceeded to build outthe second levels. At this stage we had afully functioning static site with first andsecond level content. It was now time toinitiate the hand-over to Universal Inter-net, the firm handling the hosting and data-base functionality for the site.

I am very pleased to say that we suc-cessfully launched Wheel-c h a i rf o u n d a t i o n . o rg earlythis year, and the re s p o n s ehas been very positive. Wecontinue to work closelywith Chris and the Founda-tion to keep the site fre s hand interesting, and comeup with new strategies forleveraging the brand withinthe off and online mediums.

The Wheelchair Foundation On the Web ~ Around the WorldBy James G. Stolich

I n t e r n e t

• THE WHEELCHAIR FOUNDAT ION •Page 1 4

• THE WHEELCHAIR FOUNDAT ION •Page 1 5

Enclosed is my tax-deductible donation of:($75 delivers a wheelchair for a limited time.)

■■ $25 ■■ $50 ■■ $75 ■■ $150 ■■ Other $________

Your gift can be made in honor or in memory of a special person.

Donor’s Name________________________________________________________________________________

Address___________________________________________________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

City____________________________________________ State__________ Zip__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

■■ In Honor Of ■■ In Memory Of_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Presentation Folder Sent To_________________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Address_______________________________________________________________________________________

City____________________________________________ State__________ Zip_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Credit card: ■■ Visa ■■ Mastercard ■■ American Express ■■ DiscoverName as it appears on your card _____________________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Card Number ___________________________________________Exp. Date_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _

■■ Please charge my credit card $25 per month for ■■ 3 months ■■ 6 monthsSignature___________________________________________

PLEASE MAKE CHECKS PAYABLE TO: The Wheelchair FoundationPost Office Box 2973Danville, CA 94526 USAToll Free (877) 378-3839

�he Wheelchair Fo u n d a t i o n will deliver a future toa child, teen or adult who has been disabled by war,disease or natural disaster. The wheelchair that willallow a future including school, worship and interac-tion with family, can be donated in the name of aspecial person in your life.

$150.00 buys and delivers a wheelchair to a person indesperate need of Hope, Mobility and Freedom. T heWheelchair Foundation has been gifted a specificamount of funds to combine with each new $75 do-nation to deliver one wheelchair.

For each new $75 donation, you will re ceive a beauti-ful presentation folder with the picture of a wheel-chair recipient and a certificate with their name, age,country, and wheelchair number, until these combine-able gifted funds have been exhausted.

To mark a birthday or annive rsary, in honor or mem-ory of a loved one, a wheelchair brings a new life to aperson in such desperate need.

Q: How many people need wheelchairs but cannot af-ford one?

A: It is estimated that at least 20 million children and adultsworldwide need a wheelchair but cannot aff o rd one.Some international organizations believe that the numbercould be as high as 1-2 percent of the population.

Q: How much does a wheelchair cost?A: We can purchase and deliver a wheelchair for $150. This

wheelchair would normally cost $375, but the large quan-tities that we purchase allow us to deliver one for only$150.

Q: How do I know that my money has purchased and de-livered a wheelchair?

A: For every $150 tax-deductible donation, you will re-ceive a beautiful presentation folder containing a 5x7inch, color photograph of a person in the wheelchairthat you provided for them, along with a cert i f i c a t etelling you the person’s name, age, country and thewheelchair number.

Q: Are all of the wheelchairs going tocountries other than the UnitedStates?

A: No. The Salvation Army is working with us here in the USto distribute wheelchairs to people that need one butcannot afford one.

Q: A re these wheelchairs designed for rough, third worldconditions?

A: Yes. The wheelchairs that we distribute are specifically de-signed for the rough conditions of developing countries.Extra heavy wheels, tires and additional welding makethese wheelchairs the best possible for most conditions.

Q: How can I help?A: 1. Your tax-deductible donation will make the diff e r-

ence between people wanting to live or die. 2. Get theword out! Tell everyone you know that you are now a partof the most ambitious relief mission of its kind in thehistory of our civilization! 3. Have a fund-raiser! Localbusinesses, organizations and schools can all help. Wewill supply everything you need to help us change theworld. 4. Corporate Sponsorship. Help us find corpo-rations that have interests in countries that need ourhelp. We can target their sponsorship to specific countries

and needs. They will be a hero, and somany people will be given a new leaseon life.

Frequently Asked Questions

To watch our videos of wheelchair distribution around the world or to donate online, please visit – w w w. w h e e l c h a i rf o u n d a t i o n . o r g

WheelchairFo u n d a t i o n

“ S e rving the Wo r l d ”

The Wheelchair Foundation will deliver a fu-ture to a child, teen or adult who has beendisabled by war, disease or natural disaster.The wheelchair that will allow a future includ-ing school, worship and interaction with fam-ily, can be donated in the name of a specialperson in your life.

$150 buys and delivers a wheelchair to a per-son in desperate need of Hope, Mobility andFreedom. The Wheelchair Foundation hasbeen gifted a specific amount of funds tocombine with each new $75 donation to deliv-er one wheelchair.

For each new $75 donation, you will receive a beautiful presentation folder with the picture of a wheelchair recipient anda certificate with theirname, age, country, and wheelchair number,until these combinablegifted funds have beenexhausted.

$75 can now deliver a new life!

To mark a birthday or anniversary, in honor or memory of a special person, a wheelchair brings a new life to people in desperate need.

Worldwide toll free (877) 378-3839