CityNews – The Foundation to Encourage The Potential of Disabled Persons visited the regions of Tung Hua Chang and Viang Yang at the southern end of Lamphun to aid disabled persons living in the area last week.
Co-founder Donald Willcox reported that the organisation was asked to visit Viang Yang by the district administration organisation in order to assist a 60-year-old mentally disabled grandfather who was caring for two small grandsons, ages eight months and four years, who were abandoned by their 21-year-old mentally limited mother, who is now living somewhere in Southern Thailand.
“The grandfather and 2 small children were living in ‘barely-a-house’ at the end of a dirt road about one kilometre from the nearest neighbour without electric, water, or even a toilet,” reported Wilcox. After checking on the family and discussing options with the district administration organisation the children were moved to an orphanage in Vieng Ping. The foundation and the district administration organisation aim to deconstruct the family’s home and rebuild a house on former community school property in about one month, giving them access to water and electricity.
The Foundation to Encourage The Potential of Disabled Persons then visited several disabled families in Karen minority communities near Tung Hua Chang. The foundation was made aware of a man that had been injured 10 years ago in a motorcycle accident and cared for by his younger sister. Because of the injury, the man is unable to support his own weight and cannot sit up. The Foundation will donate a wheeled sectional hospital bed that will allow the man to be moved around and to sit upright.
The foundation also visited an eight-year-old Karen boy with a severely deformed left leg below the knee. The boy is unable to walk, and his only form of mobility is to hop on one leg due to the deformity, which has also prohibited him from attending school. The foundation planned with local officials to admit the boy to the government Prosthesis Foundation in Chiang Mai for a medical and mobility evaluation.
A 58-year-old Karen man who injured his spine after falling from a tree 18 years ago received a donated tricycle as a mobility aid. The man has been unable to use his legs and will now be able to move around the village on his own.
“In addition to having provided more than 5,200 free wheelchairs, we are often called upon to assist in providing toilets, house repairs, electricity, bedding, and often food or therapy support for disabled rural families,” remarks Wilcox. “Tomorrow, for example, we drive up near Fang where we have been asked to assist in providing toilets or toilet repair to 7 disabled families near Mae Ka.”
For more information please visit www.assistdisabled.org.