Konbit Sante consigns wheelchairs for HCBH

Konbit Sante recently consigned a shipment of wheelchairs from Walkabout Foundation for distribution to patients with spinal cord injuries at Hopital de la Convention Baptist d’Haiti (HCBH) in Quartier Morin near Cap-Haitien.

Walkabout Foundation is a nonprofit organization that funds research to find a cure for paralysis and provides wheelchairs for people in developing countries. Konbit Sante has a franchise with the Haitian government that allows us to import supplies duty-free, and we often partner with Walkabout Foundation to ship wheelchairs to healthcare facilities in Haiti.

Supported by Konbit Sante and the UK-based nonprofit organization Hope Health Action, HCBH houses the leading spinal cord rehabilitation facility in northern Haiti, which Konbit Sante helped fund in 2011 following a devastating earthquake near Port-au-Prince that left thousands of Haitians with injuries that impacted their mobility. HCBH has been one of our partner healthcare facilities since 2010.

Many Haitians lack access to transportation and walk to work, attend school, receive medical care, and purchase food and other supplies. For those who cannot walk, wheelchairs not only provide mobility but hope for a better life.

“Before I couldn’t go anywhere,” said Joseph Dieudonne, 51, who received one of the wheelchairs at HCBH. “Now that I have a nice chair to ride in, I can get fresh air regularly. I can even do my own shopping and, most importantly, look for work.”

“My new wheelchair will help me seek work and other things,” said Herod Lamour, 39, another wheelchair recipient at HCBH. “My chair is my life.”