The gift of opportunity

By technologists

From Mel West:
3-15-19
BALLOONS, OR A LOTTERY TICKET?: # 965
Persons who receive the gift of a Mobility Worldwide (PET) three-wheeled, hand-cranked wheelchair immediately have a strong desire to use the hauling space on the vehicle to enable them to make an income, to support themselves and to pay back those who have supported them in their handicap. Here are some of the ways they have become entrepreneurs:

*** A man in Viet Nam went to a nearby park where people and children gathered and sold balloons.
*** A man in Guatemala who went to Mexico every year to pick coffee tried to jump on a train to return home, slipped, and lost both legs at the crotch. After six months he got back home totally depressed and suicidal. But he received a PET. He loaded it with school supplies, pencils and writing pads, and sold them to students at the school entrance. What a wonderful combination. He was a role model for the children, and their youth and liveliness inspired him.
*** A young woman in Honduras, who had been crippled by polio for 20 years, received a PET. She took it to her priest to have him bless it. Then she began to sell homemade bread that her parents made, going from house to house.
*** Many persons who receive PETs start selling lottery tickets out on the streets.
*** Some years ago we here in Columbia began sending along a “mini-mart” with some PETs. It is a big picnic cooler chest, some heavy plastic containers, and a special pad to attach it to the PET. Recipients of those become street vendors of food, hot or cold.
*** Some start a shoe-shining service, and we have sent along the needed items. But shoe-shining seems to be a forgotten market.
*** A man in Viet Nam with no legs at all (landmine) repairs shoes, and uses his PET to deliver them..
ONE OF THE MOST WONDERFUL GIFTS ONE CAN EITHER GIVE OR RECEIVE IS THE GIFT OF AN OPPORTUNITY.
Mel West