The Wheelchair Foundation, in partnership with Johnson & Johnson, a sponsor of the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games, announced the donation of 1,000 sport wheelchairs to the China Foundation for Disabled Persons. These sport wheelchairs are specialized for disabled basketball players and will be distributed to 20 community organizations and centers across China that work with disabled people, thus giving them the opportunity to achieve a healthy lifestyle through sport.

 

The Wheelchair Foundation is a nonprofit organization leading an international effort to create awareness of the needs and abilities of people with physical disabilities, to promote the joy of giving, create global friendship, and to deliver a wheelchair to every child, teen and adult in the world who needs one, but cannot afford one.

 

Kenneth E. Behring is the founder and president of the Wheelchair Foundation.

 

"When I was young, I tried to be an athlete. I know how important it was in my life to learn how to compete, and how to get along with other people. We've been given sport wheelchairs, and we also like to see young people take up sports so they can be competitive; they can get along with each other and have opportunities to participate, rather than just watch television of sports."

 

Tang Xiaoquan is vice president of the China Disabled Persons Federation. She thinks this donation is significant for disabled Chinese people's sports development.

"These 1,000 sport wheelchairs will be distributed to 20 training centers for disabled persons at provincial levels in China, and the 1,000 disabled people will have access to sports and will be able to realize their dreams of rehabilitation and a happy life through sports. The special significance of the sport wheelchair will deliver a strong push to further development of the wheelchair basketball movement in China."

 

Following the donation ceremony, a wheelchair basketball player showed six young people with disabilities how to use the wheelchairs.