Costa Mesa, CA [August 17, 2005]—Free Wheelchair Mission recently shipped a container of 550 wheelchairs to the port of Shuwaikh, Kuwait in a momentous humanitarian mission to aid Iraq’s disabled and poor. United States Military Major Glenn Rubalcava, Public Health Officer stationed in Kuwait City, coordinated the compassionate effort through the Humanitarian Operations Center (HOC) located in Kuwait

Both the Iraqi and Kuwaiti governments waived import fees for all the humanitarian aid that involved the HOC. The wheelchairs were convoyed from Kuwaiti to Iraqi military bases and then were picked up from the military bases by civilian contractors. The civilian contractor transportation companies then delivered the wheelchairs from the military bases to their final destinations throughout five geographical locations in Iraq. Wheelchairs were distributed to camps, hospitals, clinics, and orphanages throughout the country.

200 wheelchairs were distributed to the British and Polish sector (southern Iraq), which includes An-Najaf, Ad-Diwaniyah, An-Nasirayah and Al-Basrah. 300 wheelchairs went to the Iraqi Assistance Center (IAC) in Baghdad. They will distribute to Civil Affair units in Fallujah, Ramadi, Baghdad, and Samarra.

"This is truly a team effort in every sense of the word. We would not have accomplished this necessary endeavor if it were not for exceptional humans beings like Major Glenn Rubalcava and his staff,” said Free Wheelchair Mission President and Founder Don Schoendorfer, 55. “The Iraqi Ministry of Health employees, Iraqi volunteers and Coalition Military Personnel assembled the wheelchairs and made this effort come to life. We hope to continue distributing wheelchairs to help support the disabled and injured Iraqi people in this significant and transitional era”.

About Free Wheelchair Mission
Free Wheelchair Mission, the Orange County California based non-profit organization is committed to providing the transforming gift of mobility to the physically disabled poor in developing countries. Free Wheelchair Mission creatively partners with like-minded international humanitarian and indigenous organizations and plans to distribute 20 million wheelchairs by the year 2010. For more information, visit www.freewheelchairmission.org.