Sunday, April 3, 2011

An exciting journey

Louise Whitaker
March 31th 2011

What an effort. It was an eye-opener getting two severely disabled children- Lurdes and Jose Alfredo, plus their mothers, Jose Alfredo´s little brother, two volunteers and Leander and myself to dinner and then to the bus station ahead of the children´s 10 hour overnight bus journey to Arequipa to collected bespoke wheelchairs.

Even before the journey started we were on a mission. To be eligible to get these wheelchairs, the family of each child had to provide:  the child´s birth certificate and DNI number (like our NI number), the parents DNI, case notes from the hospital on the child and proof of address in the form of a light or water bill. The team had 4 days to gather this information which was made more difficult due to the bureaucracy, red tape and out of date systems that exist in rural Peru. All of our team here had a task to do, which normally involved waiting….and waiting and paying a few extra soles to the correct people get the whole thing sped up.

Once we reached the bus station Lourdes, Jose Alfredo and his little brother Abel were so excited to be going on a journey. We bought them drinks and snacks and saw them safely on the bus with their escorts Sunny from Awamaki and Cristian, from MysmallHelp.  We had also met another mother who was at the station with her severely disabled son Frank. She was desperately hoping that someone would give her the money to make the journey to Arequipa. We decided to help her and so she joined the group as they drove off to Arequipa to receive their wheelchairs from Equip Kids International. Once again I was reminded of the colossal effort it had taken to get the guys on their way to receive such kindly donated wheelchairs. A reminder that even such a lovely gesture as giving a wheelchair to a disabled child who so desperately needs it, requires patience, relationships with families and knowledge of how to get around the Peruvian health and social services system.

Jose Alfredo filling up before the journey










Saying hello to Frank who was travelling
 to Arequipa for a wheelchair


Jose Alfredo receives help to board the bus





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