Positive Impacts In The Kingdom Of Eswatini

Over the past year and a half, Free Wheelchair Mission (FWM) has become a diligent partner of Brother’s Brother Foundation (BBF). Many of our partnered shipments have gone to the Kingdom of Eswatini, previously called the Kingdom of Swaziland, a landlocked country in the eastern flank of South Africa, where it adjoins Mozambique. Eswatini has had additional needs for healthcare support due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Our healthcare shipments include durable medical equipment, such as canes, crutches, walkers, and wheelchairs. These items are often donated by individuals in the Pittsburgh area. This necessary medical equipment supports even more individuals in need without access to such devices. It also helps reduce our carbon footprint by keeping these items from going to the landfills.

An earlier shipment to Eswatini which had crutches, among other supplies, and were able to help a young man who had been bitten by a snake and required several debridement procedures and physical therapy to regain function in his legs. This man is named, Neliswa, the crutches allowed him to have mobility while his leg healed and slowly regained normal function.

Another major part of our healthcare shipments is mixed medical supplies which include IV sets, syringes, needles, and bandages; all of which have all been essential to the fight against Covid-19. We receive these donations from our generous hospital donors in the Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C., areas. The hospitals in Eswatini which received these items reported that as their inpatient numbers swelled the quality of these supplies allowed them to fill essential gaps and allowed their remarkable staff to save many lives.

These are a few examples of the ways in which our individual and organizational donors help our partnerships promote positive impact across the Kingdom of Eswatini and the globe.