After recently delivering hundreds of wheelchairs to needy folks in Mexico and Costa Rica, the Church and its partner, the Wheelchair Foundation, continued its humanitarian mission through several South American countries. (See the Dec. 21, 2002, Church News for coverage of the wheelchair program.)
More than 850 wheelchairs were delivered in Uruguay. Deliveries of 568 chairs each were also made to Argentina and Chile.
• In Uruguay, Church and Wheelchair Foundation representatives met with First Lady Mercedes Menafna de Batlle prior to a symbolic distribution of 25 wheelchairs to those selected by the National Commission for the Physically Handicapped. Mrs. Batlle expressed appreciation to both the Wheelchair Foundation and the Church for their shared gift.
The distribution ceremony was held in the presidential offices in Montevideo. The First Lady and the NCPH asked Church missionaries to provide service at nine distribution points throughout the country. A pair of missionaries also participated in placing disabled recipients in wheelchairs at the ceremony.
Elder L. Whitney Clayton of the Seventy and a member of the South America South Area Presidency took part in the event.
• In Argentina, 20 recipients received wheelchairs at a symbolic distribution at the Presidential Home in Buenos Aires. Argentine First Lady Hilda Duhalde said she was grateful for the Church's involvement in the wheelchair program. She also thanked the Church for its earlier assistance in connection with the drought in the nation's Tucuman area along with a recent shipment of medical supplies from the Church humanitarian center.
Mrs. Duhalde added the Church has also assisted Argentina during its recent economic crisis.
Missionaries and members are expected to assist with the wheelchair distribution in about a dozen other locations in Argentina. The event reportedly gleaned extensive television and radio coverage.
Elder Carlos E. Aguero, Area Authority Seventy and member of the South America South Area Presidency, was involved in the distribution.
• In Chile, First Lady Luisa Duran de Lagos met privately with Elder Carl B. Pratt of the Seventy and counselor in the Chile Area Presidency, along with Area Authority Seventy Elder M. Gonzalo Sepulveda and Sister Patricia Holland, prior to the wheelchair distribution ceremony.
Chilean government officials also recognized the Church for its food and humanitarian assistance in the immediate aftermath of severe flooding last June.
Prior to the recent distributions in southern South America, the Church also helped provide 564 wheelchairs to each of the following countries: Belize, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago and Ecuador. The Church has helped place some 17,000 wheelchairs in countries throughout the world, thanks to the generosity of Church members.
