WHEELCHAIR CLINIC        

 
Freedom Wheelchairs was established in 1999 as a project of the Foundation To Encourage The Potential Of Disabled Persons.  The goals of the project include providing free mobility to poor and needy disabled persons living in rural and remote areas of north Thailand; providing free hands-on home visits to each mobility recipient; providing employment for our disabled staff; providing therapy; and providing self-help training  via our growing library of free self-help publications to all of our clients.
Freedom Wheelchairs today services 6 plus provinces of north Thailand – a geographical area that includes both farmland and mountainous terrain…extending from the Lao/Burma border on our north to as far south as Mae Sariang, Uttaradit, and Phrae, or a distance of approximately 200 kilometers wide by 300 kilometers in length. 
As the Foundation matured, we became very aware that therapy, home visit, and mobility services remained literally non-existent for rural residents.  We also became aware of the increasing urgent need for these services. Today’s need, even after 9 years, remains great.  There are literally thousands of rural and remote area disabled persons who still cannot afford to purchase mobility aids, who cannot afford transportation into urban medical centers, and (because of immobility) who’s lives remain limited to or trapped inside their houses. 
We serve a broad variety of disabilities including stroke, heart attack, cerebral palsy, diabetes (particularly diabetic amputees), polio, muscular dystrophy, birth defect, and a broad spectrum of accident victims.  As of January 2009, we had provided more than 1000 free mobility aids and our client list had grown to beyond 1500.  Our clients range in ages from 3 to 90.  As far as we know, we still remain the only free service of its kind in our entire area.
Our mobility aids have included standard 4-wheel chairs; 3-wheel all terrain chairs; reclining wheelchairs; wheeled beds and gurneys, amputee skateboards, standard walkers, wheeled walkers, hand propelled tricycles, crutches, canes, ramps, and even grab bars.  All of our mobility aids are made from locally available materials that can be repaired by our staff. 
Our current expertise in building aids of all types has brought us students from both Laos and Cambodia and our PVC wheelchair book is now in use in many countries around the world. 
All of our free services are paid for through wheelchair sponsorship.  A single wheelchair sponsorship costs $280 U.S. and includes home visits, therapy, repair or replacement, and self-help publications.  Our sponsors come from many countries and include individuals, foundations, and companies.  There is no more immediate life-affirming gift than to provide mobility to someone who has been denied mobility access.  We always welcome new sponsors and are happy to provide information and photos of each sponsored wheelchair recipient.

Our Foundation fixed savings account is 501-1-13375-7 in the Siam Commercial Bank, 17 Thapae Road, Chiang Mai 50100, Thailand, swift code SICOTHBK. Our email address is:  assist@loxinfo.co.th