Andrei is our 9-year-old friend from Galati, who uses a wheelchair due to his muscular dystrophia. His mother offers him support in everything he does. Besides her, she tells that his friends, family, teachers and therapists working with Andrei all have an important role in his life.
Andrei’s mother found about Motivation 6 weeks ago from the doctor helping her son with his physical recovery, who directed us to get in touch with our team for a wheelchair fitting her son’s age and needs. Andrei was then recommend a proper chair, bought by the family, however with the passage of time, as he grew up and his needs changed, replacing the equipment became necessary.
She recalls meeting the Motivation team fondly and describes it as being “brilliant”. I found a competent, involved and flexible team, perfect to help us. Because of the interest shown by the Galati Motivation team, we have always been able to give a shape to the vision I had of helping my son. Their services included both information regarding proper posture and preventing any possible danger, as well as counseling to help adapt the workspace to make day to day activities easier.
After a re-evaluation, our colleagues offered Andrei a light, Panthera brand wheelchair with manual drive. He also received from them a pillow to help reduce pressure and a bathroom wheelchair, both of which help him out daily.
Asked what the hardships of not having the right wheelchair were, Andrei’s mother explained that she compared these obstacles with “finishing a puzzle – you start with the borders, then everything fits easily. This is exactly how I see our experience with the wheelchair. Once we started to use an appropriate wheelchair, the puzzle of a better life for Andrei started shaping up.
A scenario lacking the right chair in Andrei’s life would have led to missing out on educational activities so necessary to his development and would have limited his exploration of the outside world, for socializing and relaxation. The absence of the right wheelchair would have also negatively influenced the possibility of and independent life for him, along with reaching the optimal level of control over his own life and his ability to make his own way through it.
In the long term, everything about choosing the right equipment can make the difference between just surviving and having a quality life. I believe that the wheelchair being a part of our lives created the proper context for overcoming the limits of Andrei’s disabilities, for helping make his wishes come through, increasing his chances of integrating in society and the possibility for a future that is now easier for him to shape. In our experience, the wheelchair meant, and still means, what the creation of airplanes meant for those dreaming of flight, or what ships represented for those wishing to roam the water: a broader meaning of life, reaching the potential of human genius specific to each individual in the shape in which they enter the world and an opening towards a promising unknown shaped by our ideas.”
Andrei received a wheelchair through the Wheelchair Fund, with the help of the Swedish Agape Foundation, of individual donors and the companies that help us #change lives for the better together. Find out here how you can join us.