This young paraplegic is being helped into his new chair.

ELEVEN paraplegics who were yesterday invited to collect free wheelchairs at the offices of the Paraplegic Development and Outreach Foundation (PARADOF) at 92 Hanover Street in downtown Kingston, failed to make the trip because they could not afford the transportation costs.

"People with disability are at a disadvantage and are not getting the privileges they should receive from the society," argued Errington Pellington, PARADOF's founder/ director, adding that the increase in transportation costs over the last two months had badly affected disabled persons.

On August 13 this year, the Government hiked busfares in a bid to rescue the ailing Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC).

According to Pellington, the one-way taxi fare from Waterhouse to the foundation's office increased from $200 to $300, while the one-way fare from downtown to the Mona Rehabilitation Centre moved from $300 to $450. He added that busfares had also increased by more than 100 per cent in some cases.

"Disabled persons are finding it difficult to pay the additional amount," he emphasised.

Yesterday, the PARADOF founder/director said only 14 of the 25 invitees were able to pay their fares to attended the formal handing over ceremony and take home the wheelchairs donated by the Rotary Club of St Andrew yesterday.

Negotiations between the Rotary Club and the Wheelchair Foundation of California over the last two years culminated in the recent shipment of 240 wheelchairs valued at $6,000,000.

The club handed over the first 25 wheelchairs from this shipment, valued at $750,000, to PARADOF.

Dr Lloyd Eubank-Green, immediate past president of the Rotary Club of St Andrew, who addressed the gathering, expressed the hope that the wheelchairs would provide the paraplegics with hope and motivation.

He said told the gathering that the club had negotiated with the Rotary Club of Pemberton, New Jersey through IPP Gregory Dix, the head office of the WheelChair Foundation, the regional office in Florida and the president's assistant in Haiti.

"We are fully aware that in countries such as ours, the government alone cannot meet the needs and demands of all the constituents and that is where service clubs such as Rotary lend a hand," he said.

Rushaine Hastings, 13, who attends Albion Junior High, was one the recipients of the wheelchairs.

Rushaine's mother, Annette Hastings, told the Observer that she only recently learned that cerebral palsy had caused her son's disability.

"Recently, a doctor told me that during his delivery prematurely (at seven months), they pulled on his neck and damaged the nerve which takes signals from the neck to the brain," she alleged.

Hastings said Rushaine's condition was improving, but said she cannot afford the treatment he needs.

"Sometimes I take him to a private chiropractor, but the fee is high and I cannot afford it," the single mother who also has a 15 year-old son and an eight year-old daughter, said.

She is now planning to take him to the physiotherapist at the Cornwall Regional hospital, but must obtain a referral for treatment from a private doctor.

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