Larry and Darla's Mission to India Blog: Visak and Srikakulam Wheelchair Distribution--Completed 8 Dec 2016

On 22 Nov 2016 we traveled north to Visakhapatnam (Vizag), about 3 1/2 hours by car, for a wheelchair assessment of 57 potential recipients.

We were at the United Christian Interior Ministries (UCIM) Campus, just north of Vizag on the highway to Srikakulam.

As people began to gather, a large bus arrived with over 40 disabled adults and children.

Our partner for this event was Bishop K.R. Singh, brother of Bishop Sinha, from the Pastor's Fellowship in Rajahmundry.

Johnson and Prasanth from Motivation India assessed the candidates and measured them for their custom wheelchair.

Here, Brother Veturi Srinivas--Vizag 3rd Branch Elders Quorum Secretary is measured for his new chair.

Each person...

Each family...

Showed smiles of anticipation for their potential of newfound mobility.

Raju Neelapu, our driver and 2nd Branch Mission Leader, helped with the assessment and measuring (top left).

The next day, we traveled north another 3 hours to Srikakulam, where we assessed another 60 people to receive wheelchairs.

This area is very remote. We were told that nobody comes this far north to help them.

On 2 Dec we returned to Vizag for final fitting and distribution of the wheelchairs.What excitement!

Sister Neelapu, 2nd Branch Relief Society President, was able to join us (top left). Raju came too (bottom right).

Big smiles, maybe a little apprehension, and mostly anticipation of new mobility!

We celebrated together.

It was time to demonstrate the chairs, do a little maintenance training...and let the recipients get the feel of their new chair.

We gave the school--the Eastern Visakha English Medium School--on the UCIM Campus, several pieces of sports equipment... soccer balls, jump ropes and ring tosses. We also gave them a box of 40 children's books of Indian fables, written in English with colorful illustrations.

The teachers received them with smiles.