From Rotarians build Mobility Carts to transform lives in Gabon:
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On a bright and sunny January 5th, a group of a dozen Rotarians from the Ann Arbor Rotary Club assembled at Mobility Worldwide in Milan to spend a few hours building Mobility Carts that will transform the lives of disabled people half a world away. After some brief training the group got to work and the assembly line style manufacturing process hummed away with wood fabrication, painting, final assembly and packaging all taking place, offering a welcome boost of production for this 100% volunteer led Mobility Worldwide affiliate.
When one member arrived at the site, he was surprised to see that our “volunteers were not only assembling the mobility vehicles, but essentially building them from scratch. They were painting, sanding, drilling adjusting and packaging these vehicles.”
The contribution of the Ann Arbor Rotary Club is more than needed labor on a Saturday. The club and district have awarded a $3,000 grant to a non-profit called E4 Project who has partnered with Mobility Worldwide to transport and distribute a shipping container filled with 185 of these assembled Mobility Carts to Gabon, Africa to help those with leg disabilities. Many of the people receiving these carts will be adults who suffered from Polio as children and have spent their lives needing to be carried or often crawling on the ground in the dirt to get around. These carts will truly transform the lives of these people in an amazing way, allowing them to achieve practical mobility and the freedom to fully participate in their communities for the first time.
By Dan Lewan
