Next month, Fayette and Coweta residents and businesses will have an opportunity to participate in an upcoming wheelchair drive which will help provide wheelchairs to people in need around the world. The drive is sponsored by Wheels for the World, a disability outreach ministry of JAF Ministries, based in California. Established in 1933, the organization has delivered 6,000 wheelchairs to people in 23 countries including China, Poland, Ghana and Russia. Wheels for the World is bringing its wheelchair collection to Fayette and Coweta counties on May 15.

Wheelchairs collected are shipped to the Wheels for the World refurbishing center in a prison in Nashville where prisoners make any necessary repairs or adjustments. After refurbishing, the wheelchairs are delivered to people in various countries, accompanied by a team of professional disability specialists, wheelchair mechanics who can customize the chairs, and others.

During the drive, Wheels for the World will also accept collapsible walkers, aluminum crutches and canes, quad canes, wheelchair cushions and bedside commodes. Unacceptable items include motorized wheelchairs, geriatric wheelchairs with small wheels, wooden crutches and canes, and noncollapsible walkers.

Local organizers for the Fayette and Coweta drive say they hope to collect 150 to 200 chairs.

Collection sites will be announced closer to the May 15 drive date.

For more information, or to volunteer the day of the collection drive, contact Martha Trisler at 770-631-1831.

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