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PETs are sturdy three-wheeled carts with a wooden box for a seat and hauling space. They are moved by a hand-cranked bicycle chain. PET recipients are people without legs, or without the use of their legs, due to injuries, amputations, birth defects, polio, etc.
This project would fund the purchase and distribution of 36 PET vehicles for handicapped persons in urban and rural areas of Guatemala. PET recipients are selected by social service agencies (municipalities) in the target communities within local communities and receive their PETs at distribution centers where they are taught how to use and repair their PETs. AER will provide $4,500 and the District is requested to provide $4,500 for this project.
The benefits of such a program are significant. PET recipients become much more independent and can often have small businesses so they can support their families, rather than be a burden on them. In short, receipt of a PET revolutionizes the life of the PET recipient and that person's family.
Rotary clubs have partnered with different PET distribution centers and PET International to provide the funding for PETs ($250 each), and they have participated in the PET distributions. In 2013, without a district grant, Anchorage East Rotary provided funding for 28 PETs that were distributed in three locations in Guatemala in partnership with Hope Haven International and PET-Columbia and PET-Kansas, two of the workshops that produced the PET kits that were assembled by volunteers in Guatemala, including a member of AER.
The acquisition and distribution of these vehicles will occur within one year. Effectuation is expedited by a production capability in the US (at no cost) and by the presence of an existing organization (Hope Haven International)that ships the material to the country and assembles/distributes the vehicles there.
AER member will be actively involved in administering the project and, almost certainly, will be in country for vehicle distribution. (This occurred in a previous AER project of this type.)
Addendum to Project Description (added after the project was signed)
On March 16 and 17 Anchorage East Rotary member Duff Pfanner participated with a team from PET-Kansas, to which our $9000 project funds were provided, in the distribution in Guatemala of 30 PET carts, in association with Hope Haven Guatemala, the distribution partner that received the PET kits from PET-Kansas and organized the distribution. The project is complete, except for submittal of the final report.
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