Wheelchairs For Kids Australia

🎅 Santa's Wheelchair Appeal ... giving the vital gift of mobility this Christmas. 🎄 🙏 Thank you to everyone who has already supported Santa’s Wheelchair Appeal. We know cost of living is biting for people on low and fixed incomes and so we feel blessed to have our amazing supporters continue to support our mission. As we go to our much-needed festive break, we have wheelchair orders on our books to the end of June. We’ll be busy once we get back and hope to make 2025 a record year as we strive toward our goal of making 6000 wheelchairs a year by 2027. The demand is there, we just need to raise the funds. https://lnkd.in/gauQvkP9 🩷 Please help boost Santa’s Wheelchair Appeal for 2024 if you can. Together, we can deliver the joyous gift of mobility to more children who need it most. 🙏 Thank you for your compassion and generosity. Season's Greetings and Goodwill to All. 🌟 https://lnkd.in/gauQvkP9 #WheelchairsForKids #christmasspirit #giftofgiving #MakeADifference

#volunteers Friday 13 December was the last working day of 2024 for our amazing factory volunteers. We headed off to the Woodvale Tavern for a traditional British Christmas Lunch with 186 people including spouses and guests who joined in for a well earned celebration. It was a big year for our small Perth-based charity. We achieved a 'diamond jubilee' seeing our 60,000th wheelchair leave the factory in June 2024. By the end of the year over 61,600 chairs have now been made in our Wangara factory - all with love by the Big Blue Army who even donned their polos with pride for Christmas! We hope you enjoy a happy video of this wonderful lunch shared together with all the warmth of the festive season. Friendship and fellowship is an important part of our mission to ensure an inclusive working environment for our volunteers. Our Board and CEO would like to take this opportunity to extend our heartfelt gratitude to the more than 250 men and women who have volunteered in the factory this year and to all those who knitted, crocheted and sewed at home. We wish you a truly Merry Christmas and a new year filled with much joy and good health. #WheelchairsForKids #volunteeringwa Volunteering WA Roger Cook Don Punch MLA Tracey Roberts MP Dr. Anne Aly Paul Lilburne MLA Greg Hebble Tina Williams Lee-Anne Ashley

#KidsHelpingKids What a lovely visit yesterday from young 9 year old Alice, her sisters Amy and Audrey and mum Anne! Alice decided she would like to help buy a wheelchair for a child this Christmas so set about creating a fundraiser. To raise money, Alice and her friend Olaia made a selection of beeswax candles, Christmas tree decorations and resin jewellery as well as running a guess the lollies in the jar (always a crowd favourite). They held their fundraising stall at the end of school year sundowner meaning they had to forfeit an afternoon of fun activities to run their stall. With the money collected from her activities Alice achieved her goal raising $300 enough for a complete all-terrain wheelchair for a child in a less developed country. Anne drove the kids up this afternoon to drop in the money raised and show them around the factory. Our CEO Greg Hebble showed the girls some of the children, all about their age, who have received wheelchairs from kind donations like theirs. Darren Meakins the President of Scarborough Rotary Club happened tp drop in at the same time, which was great. Scarborough Rotary founded the wheelchair project back in 1998. Thanks to Alice and her lovely sisters and mum we can't tell you how much it means when kids raise money to help other kids. If you would like to help Santa raise funds for a wheelchair this Christmas, please donate online via: https://lnkd.in/gauQvkP9 Every dollar helps make a new wheelchair for a child in need. #WheelchairsForKids #PhilanthropyInAction

#longserviceaward Our factory has closed for 2024, so last week volunteers enjoyed a rolling celebration of 'long service awards' during their morning teas. 7️⃣ 4️⃣ With an average age of 74 years, many of our volunteers left work only to step into another career making wheelchairs for kids! 🌟 Proving age is but a number, these dedicated and long-serving volunteers have clocked up from 10 to 20 years Honestly, what can we say? These remarkable milestones bring such pride and a sense of camaraderie and connection, changing the lives of tens of thousands of children around they will never meet. T H A N K Y O U 🙏 T H A N K Y O U 🙏 T H A N K Y O U Awards we handed out by our chief volunteer - WA's Senior Australian of the Year 2025 - Br Olly Picket who has completed a lazy 28 years of his own! We wish all our wonderful factory volunteers a joyous, merry and restful festive season and a Happy New Year. We can't wait to see you all back in January #volunteering Don Punch MLA Volunteering WA Tracey Roberts MP - Federal Member for Pearce Dr. Anne Aly Paul Lilburne MLA

Dompu Regency, West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia Updates from EF Dompu Sumbawa and Irfan Dompu EF It can be confronting at times to see the physical and living condition of children in less developed communities who have no access to the same healthcare and disability support as a child in Australia. It is not easy work for the amazing distribution partners we have, many who are volunteers and many who work on very low budgets. Then you see the amazing smiles on children who receive a wheelchair, many for the first time, many who have been living on the ground, left at home or abandoned in orphanages. And then, even though your head feels sad, your heart is filled with joy 🩷 We cannot thank organisations like EF Sumbawa, HABAS Forgotten Children and Endri Foundation and all their local supporters who make their wheelchair missions possible. These are photos shared over the last 90 days from children who have received a wheelchair made here in Perth, West Aust. Also lovely to see the crocheted rugs and gifted toys that so generously made or donated for distribution with every wheelchair we send. Little things can make a big difference. 💛 Thank you everyone involved - these charities work in Sumbawa, Flores, Bima, Lombok and within West Nusa Tenggara Province of Indonesia. #wheelchairsforkids #makingadifference

🌟 Important Update from Wheelchairs For Kids Australia 🌟 Dear Friends, Unfortunately, we discovered on Tuesday that our mailing house did not post our end-of-year newsletters as planned as planned in late November. Our newsletter is a vital part of our annual fundraising, as it informs our donors about our work and the impact their donations are making. The generosity and kindness of our donors is how we are able to made an incredible difference in the lives of children with disabilities in less developed countries. Your support helps us provide the life-changing wheelchairs, made with care by our wonderful volunteers. So unfortunately, Santa had been checking the mailbox every day and wondering why it was empty! 📭 😔 We are deeply disappointed with this situation as we reply on these donations to buy the materials that go into making a wheelchair. If you were expecting our newsletter and haven’t received it, it should be with you soon. You can still help by donating online via: https://lnkd.in/gauQvkP9 Every dollar helps bring mobility and hope to children who need it most. It’s a challenge we never expected (really, a mailing house has one job, right!). Please help us boost Santa’s Wheelchair Appeal for 2024. 🙏 Together, we can continue to change lives and bring smiles to children around the world. 🩷 Warm regards, The Wheelchairs For Kids Australia Team

🙌 Partner Update - the amazing team at Global Village Foundation. Bali have been out spreading joy and mobility once again this week. Fauzi (age 13) & Dafi (age 6) are brothers. They come from a small village in West Java. Sadly, both boys were born with severe physical disabilities. Mentally they are both very sharp & alert, but as a result of their disabilities, they are both unable to speak or walk. They hear, understand & can respond to everything that goes on around them. Due to poverty, & unable to pay for specialist medical advice, their neurological condition remains undiagnosed, and untreated. They have spent their whole lives on the floor in their simple home. Mum stays at home to care for them while father travels around making a small income selling sweetcakes from the back of his motorcycle. The two boys travelled with their Mother & Aunt from their village to Ciamis city to be fitted with two brand new fully adaptive Wheelchairs For Kids wheelchairs by the Global Village Foundation. Bali team. Mum was so very grateful for the two wheelchairs. Their lives have been changed. Mum & Aunty explained that because the boys were getting too big to carry any distance, the two boys now rarely left the house. Going outside was going to be so mush easier from now on. Fauzi is already so keen to power his own wheelchair, Dafi will not be far behind him. With the new wheelchairs the two boys will soon be enrolled at the special needs school which is close to their village. Two delightful & very happy young boys. You have only to see the photos to see just how happy these two boys were to finally have the gift of mobility, to have the opportunity to go to school, to make new friends, and to enjoy many new adventures outdoors. Well done GVF - you are amazing! You can help us change the lives of more children in 2025 with a donation of size to: https://lnkd.in/dfKPkKEv #WheelchairsForKids #makingadifference #MobilityMatters

🙌 International Volunteer Day 🙌 Today, we celebrate the incredible volunteers at Wheelchairs For Kids Australia who dedicate their time, skills, and hearts to creating life-changing wheelchairs for children in need. Your compassion and commitment give these kids and their families the priceless gifts of mobility, independence and joy. We also extend our gratitude to the amazing volunteers in our distribution partner networks worldwide. Your efforts ensure these wheelchairs reach children who need them most, transforming lives and spreading hope across the globe. We would like to pay special tribute to the "great eight" in the photo who we nominated to participate in the Department of Communities WA and Minister Don Punch MLA International Volunteer Day Lunch today. These is just a handful of our wonderful Wangara Factory team (from left to right) John, Nanette, Don, Lyn, Robert, Phil and Jenny. To everyone who volunteers - you truly are making a world of difference. #InternationalVolunteerDay #WheelchairsForKids #ThankYouVolunteers #makingadifference

💛 What a lovely update to share following International Day For Persons with Disability yesterday. Cerebral palsy is a physical disability that affects movement, posture, balance, muscle tone, coordination, and reflexes. It's the most common lifelong physical disability in the world and is far more prevalent in low and middle income countries. Dự Án Nụ-Cười Nhân-Ái (Smile Of Compassion Projects) work in Vietnam. Last week they completed their third wheelchair mission for 2024 in Hà Nam Province in northern Vietnam for children with cerebral palsy and other mobility conditions. Over two remarkable days, the team assembled and fitted 37 wheelchairs at Hà Nam Red Cross Centre. 🙌 These wheelchair fitting events generally involve a large number of people and organisations coming together to fit a large number of children over a short period of days. Children often come from many hours away with extended families so caring for everyone during that time is indeed a “mission”. Thanks to Smile Of Compassion Projects for this update: 💛 Each child received a custom-fit wheelchair carefully measured and assembled by technicians trained to WHO standards. The wheelchairs are designed to ensure comfort during activities like eating, learning, or moving around. Each wheelchair is accompanied by a blanket, a teddy bear, two packs of milk, and a box of cookies! 💛 Heartfelt thanks to the Hà Nam Provincial Red Cross Association for their dedicated and thoughtful organization, for providing the venue for assembly and distribution, and for donating 43 gift sets to the children receiving wheelchairs. 💛 Sincere gratitude to the Vietnam Cerebral Palsy Family Association – Hà Nam Chapter for coordinating the list of beneficiaries, contacting families, assisting with initial measurements remotely, and providing lunch for the families and children receiving wheelchairs. Sadly due to customs clearance issues, no new wheelchairs were able to be imported by Smile Of Compassion Projects so these wheelchairs were the remainder of a shipment sent late 2023 . We all hope that wheelchairs will not be blocked in 2025 so this wonderful organisation can continue their fantastic mobility project. Well done to all involved 👏 #vietnam #WheelchairsForKids #cerebralpalsy #mobilitymatters

💛 **Today is International Day of Persons with Disability** 🙌 At Wheelchairs For Kids, we witness every day how a simple wheelchair can transform lives. For children with disabilities in poorer countries, mobility isn’t just about getting around – it’s about being seen, included, and embraced by their communities. We acknowledge the incredible strength it takes for parents to care for a child with disabilities, often in places where support is scarce. A wheelchair brings hope, independence and dignity to these children and their families. As 2024 comes to and end, we are celebrating over 61,600 wheelchairs helping children with disability live better lives and find greater acceptance in their communities - the goal of #IDPWD. Every wheelchair we make in our Wangara factory is made with care by our dedicated volunteers. But we can’t do it without your support. Your donation helps buy the materials to make these life-changing devices for the children who need them most. Please consider making your gift on this special day to our Santa's Wheelchair Appeal. https://lnkd.in/dfKPkKEv #InternationalDayOfPeopleWithDisability #WheelchairsForKids #Inclusion #IDPD2024 #wheelchair #MobilityMatters