Fun on wheelchairs

Wheelchair users with their family and friends at the MVA Fund’s annual Wheelchair Fun ride last week Friday. It is the 5th MVA Fund Wheelchair ride and it is aimed at raising awareness of the social and physical impact caused by road crashes and it coincided with the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

The MVA Fund held its annual Wheelchair Fun ride on 3 December 2014 under the theme Sustainable Development: The Promise of Technology. The Wheelchair Fun Ride kicked off with a race from UNAM Main Campus and turned into different sport codes by the wheelchair users and members of the public at the Wanderers Sports Field in Pioneerspark.

Persons with disabilities who are also referred to as “the world’s largest minority”, face barriers to participation in all aspects of society. For this reason, people with disabilities are often disempowered and therefore have no access to education, employment, transportation and their social interaction is also limited. The fund through the fun ride attempt sto bring about social change by including its customers in such activities. The MVA Fund initiated the Wheelchair Fun Ride in 2009 as part of the rehabilitation programme, specifically looking at the social aspect of rehabilitation through integration to ensure that every person injured in a road crash is successfully rehabilitated and that they return to work or independence in the shortest possible time. The Festive Season is the time when road crashes are rife and lives are lost on the roads, therefore all road users are urged to be considerate towards other road users, in order to prevent the needless loss of lives on Namibian roads.