Photo By Cory Welch | Lt. Col. Collin Rose, Multi-National Corps - Iraq, 143rd Military Police provost...... read more read more
SADR CITY, Iraq - Members of the 143d Military Police Detachment took a break from their law enforcement mission to assemble wheelchairs for Iraqi children, Aug. 9. Working with the Human Terrain Systems organization, the volunteers assembled wheelchairs bound for hospitals and orphanages in Sader City, Iraq; a city which has been dealing with the realities of a years-long conflict.
The Human Terrain System organization works with brigade level commanders to help bring an understanding of local social needs and events to bridge the gap of knowledge and understanding the military may have of a culture or geographical area.
Members of the Military Police unit from Montana and more than a dozen other volunteers spent the afternoon fulfilling one of those needs.
Leslie Kayanan, Human Terrain System organization, project management office forward, in Iraq, Staff Sgt. Brent Cisler, Provost Marshals Office non-commissioned officer in charge and Jeff Russell, colonel, Montana Army National Guard retired, organized the day's event.
"Our military provides, through security, the means for the Iraqis to better understand what it means to live in freedom," Kayanan said. "Today, each of these volunteers is doing his or her part to help about a dozen Iraqi adults and children to move around their country with dignity and grace. These are the things that Americans do best!"
The wheelchairs came unassembled to Iraq by freewheelchairmission.org, an organization dedicated to providing durable, safe and inexpensive wheelchairs to reach as many disabled impoverished people in developing countries as possible.
The wheelchairs consist of a modified plastic lawn chair, wheels, cushions, harness and metal framework.
Officers and enlisted from all branches of service, as well as civilian contractors, worked side by side to take the individual components and make useable wheelchairs out of them. Groups of two and three worked with each set of components, working like teammates toward a common goal.
At the end of the day, more than a dozen wheelchairs were assembled from the parts.
Teams of volunteers were able to assemble the components to make a durable wheelchair to give mobility to persons who may otherwise never have this option.
Staff Sgt. Shaun Spencer, patrolman, 143rd Military Police Detachment, one of many volunteers on this project, summed up his feelings of the project.
"What a wonderful opportunity this was," Spencer said. "Being a father and growing up with a disabled sibling always causes these sorts of things to tug at my heart strings."
| Date Taken: | 08.09.2009 |
| Date Posted: | 08.21.2009 01:56 |
| Story ID: | 37766 |
| Location: | SADR CITY, IQ |
| Web Views: | 188 |
| Downloads: | 139 |
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