Joel Tereoha was born 11 years ago with severe Cerebral Palsy.
His grandmother, together with his loving family, have coped with his disability until he became too heavy for them to lift.
The Rotary Club of Honiara are engaged in an on-going project to source medical equipment for hospitals and clinics throughout Solomon Islands through Rotary in Australia.
Francis Kennedy, an Australian nurse at NRH, who assisted the family manage Joel’s care, was contacted by the Rotary Club of Honiara and she identified Joel’s specific needs.
With the help of The Rotary Club of Surfers Sunrise on the Gold Coast, a specially built wheelchair was sourced, together with a portable bed hoist unit that is able to lift Joel from bed to the wheelchair and to/from other parts of the house.
The next issue was to get the equipment to Honiara. It was very heavy and would be expensive through normal routing.
Rotary approached the Australian Defense Force, that is currently working in Honiara; they agreed to airlift the equipment on one of their military aircrafts that comes in regularly from the Amberley Airbase in Brisbane.
Colin Laurenson, Club member of Rotary Surfers Sunrise and Director of Medical Repurposing Network Inc, undertook to deliver the equipment to the base.
The chair and the hoist machine arrived last week in Honiara.
With the assistance of Francis and Kevin Kennedy the equipment was delivered to the parents’ home of Eve and Opaka Tereoha.
Mother Eve said “it is like a dream come true”, and a huge blessing for the family to receive such a wonderful gift for Joel!
The whole family were so grateful for the donation.
