Wheelchair Interviews in Paraguay

Bonnie and I were able to spend January 19-23 in Asunción Paraguay. Over the past year, without a humanitarian missionary couple focusing on Paraguay, things have gotten behind in doing wheelchair interviews. We're trying to help catch up. We're supposed to talk to 10% of the recipients at some point; and between the Argentina and Paraguay projects, we are currently due to complete 253 interviews in the coming year. Can't complain, really; we love doing the interviews.

The purpose of the interview is to 1) evaluate the donation process of our partners, making sure they are following the right procedures in sharing the chairs with recipients; and 2) evaluate the satisfaction level of the chair user, making sure the chair is working well and functioning as it should. As we do these one-on-one interviews, we have the fascinating opportunity to spend a few minutes learning about the life of some pretty courageous and impressive people, and often to receive their expressions of appreciation on behalf of the Church.

We have two partners in Paraguay, one a private foundation (Fundacion Solidaridad) and the other a government organization (SENADIS). They operate quite differently, each having some different strengths. During our four days in Paraguay, we were able to complete 19 interviews with Solidaridad and 7 with SENADIS. Those 19 were our primary goal, so we were pleased to reach it.

We love these interviews, and the one-on-one time we can spend with very interesting people. Here is a sampling (click on any photo to view enlargement):

We often meet people in their homes, but we talked with several of these men at their workplace. The woman at the top of the post is another—she is a medical doctor. It's always inspiring to see how they have overcome challenges to find success and fulfillment in their employment. They vary in their stories; but in most cases, disease or accident took away the ability to walk, but not the ability to think, communicate, and contribute. They face physical challenges, obstacles and barriers in many cases; and sometimes discrimination too. All of those things contribute to making their jobs more difficult; in this respect, Argentina seems to be ahead of Paraguay in promoting laws to ensure equal  access and opportunity for the handicapped.

Others live in much more rustic and challenging conditions. This young man was alone in a small, remote home. He was grateful for the quality of the wheelchair that enables him to get around in the undeveloped environment around his home.

This older man was in a tiny shack. The bedroom doubled as a living room, and a small adjoining kitchen was about all the space the home had to offer. But his chair gave him the ability to occasionally get out of the house and was a source of great pride for him.

These two young women both had interesting stories. The one on the left struggles to control her hands, but she has learned to crochet the little bunny dolls like the one she is holding. It takes her about 4 days to complete one. She is able to sell them to bring in some income. The girl on the right was very shy and hesitant to talk; but she has taught classes in wheelchair dancing at the Foundation, and has won a number of wheelchair racing events including marathon distance!

Speaking of athletes—this fascinating man refuses to slow down. He uses his Church-donated chair for most of his life, but switches to a highly-customized chair to play te extremely fast-moving sport of wheelchair rugby!

This young mother lived with her parents. They are members of the Church; we had met the father previously, when he gave us a ride from the airport to the Church office. She was raising a cute toddler in spite of being limited in her movement. The handsome man on the right is one of many amputees we've encountered, usually suffering from diabetes.

Two more examples. The man on the left is intelligent and articulate; he enjoyed practicing his English with us during a long conversation (he was reluctant to let us go). He is an engineer and programmer, able to continue working only because he invents and adapts the tools he needs for his own handicaps. He has a single finger on his right hand with a little movement; he can slide his left arm around but not lift it. He's managed to attach a mouse-like device to his left wrist so he can move the cursor on his computer screen. Under his chin, he has a click pad that he can touch by opening his jaw. So using this adapted setup, he's able to continue work as a programmer; quite impressive!

The sweet child in the final photo has very limited mobility, and his parents carried him everywhere until he grew too big. They were excpetionally grateful for the chair. The child, on the other hand, was very upset to see us. The parents suggested he probably thought we were doctors and he was going to be subjected to some kind of medical procedure. He refused to be comforted, so our visit was pretty brief!