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 News from Around Banderas Bay | December 2005 
More Than a Journey
 Elaine Pennington - Camrose Canadian
| | The gift of mobility is well worth the trip to Puerto Vallarta every year for Rotary Club of Camrose members. It started out with a chance meeting between Camrosians Don and Chris Rebus, and Ivan Applegate Curiel in 1999 and it has turned into a major international project. |
The gift of mobility is well worth the trip to Puerto Vallarta every year for Rotary Club of Camrose members.
It started out with a chance meeting between Camrosians Don and Chris Rebus, and Ivan Applegate Curiel in 1999 and it has turned into a major international project for the Rotary Club of Camrose. Curiel was in the process of constructing a centre in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico to assist and empower the disabled in the poverty stricken area.
“They were at a meeting where Ivan was giving a talk. He became a quadriplegic at the age of 17 after a diving accident,” Bob Bell said.
When Don and Chris returned to Camrose they told fellow Rotarians about Curiel’s plight and within a few months Rotarians had secured an old bus. They refurbished it and packed it with wheelchairs, crutches, walkers, canes, typewriters, adding machines and other supplies that would help Curiel get his project off the ground. The connection between Camrose Rotarians and Curiel has grown as local Rotarians have continued to gather wheelchairs, crutches, canes and walkers. Bob Bell delivered them in person in Nov. 2002, Nov. 2003 and on Nov. 19 of this year, he returned once again.
Inspiration
“He is very involved and a great inspiration,” Bell said of Curiel.
Puerto Vallarta has a population of approximately 300,000 and Bell said 10 per cent of those people have some sort of disability. “The need (for wheelchairs) is very great.”
In Nov. 2003 local Rotarians delivered 25 children’s wheelchairs and the response was incredible, Bell said, as many families cannot afford the cost of a wheelchair so many construct some sort of makeshift system, including putting wheels on a kitchen chair.
This time Bell, Larry Sharuga and Elwyn Grattidge were joined by Orest Fitzowich of Calmar. They flew down with 68 wheelchairs, 25 canes, 11 pairs of crutches, 29 walkers, 227 ball caps and 16 replacement wheels for the wheelchairs.
“We have delivered over 200 wheelchairs since October 2000 when we took the bus down. This is the most wheelchairs we have ever taken,” Bell said. Each time the wheelchairs and other mobility devices have been donated to the Puerto Vallarta Rotary Club which then turns them over to DIVAC, Curiel’s disabled association.
It is always an emotional experience for Bell and others who have joined him on the trip. “We have provided mobility for people that have not been able to basically get out of the house.”
Bell said this time he met a man who received a wheelchair in 2000. He has taken advantage of the mobility it has provided to travel downtown and set up a stand where he can sell crafts and items he has created. “The mobility has given him the chance to be self-sufficient.”
It is what the DIVAC program in Puerto Vallarta is all about as Curiel hopes to train disabled people so they can become self-sufficient.
Given the extent of the situation, Bell admits it is unlikely Camrose Rotarians will ever be able to meet the need, but helping one is better than doing nothing at all.
“I expect we will be able to take another load down next fall. We need wheelchairs, crutches, canes and walkers.”
The project would not be possible without the contribution of Rotarians here in Camrose.
“A special thank you to Lynne Chernin, of The Camrose Canadian, who has stored the wheelchairs for the past year and to Hauser Home Hardware for the use of their truck so we could get them from Camrose to the airport and Bob Bell Chevrolet where some of the items are dropped off. Also to Larry Sharuga and Waste Management for assisting with the project.”
Emotional
For Bell and his fellow Rotarians, delivering the items is a heart wrenching experience.
“For people that could never afford to buy a wheelchair and suddenly have mobility it is unbelievable. To go from no mobility to having mobility... it was a tearjerker, they were breaking up they were so emotional and it was hard not to myself. They don’t have anything, there is no health care, no nothing,” Bell said.
With the assistance of Camrosians, Bell knows another trip is just around the corner. |
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