Soldiers deliver donated wheelchairs to Iraqi youth

Soldiers deliver donated
wheelchairs to Iraqi youth

Aziz showed up at the Q-West Base Complex Civilian-Military Operations Center with a wide grin and a story of need.

The young boy told Soldiers of the 4th Battalion, 11th Field Artillery Regiment and a team from the 403rd Civil Affairs Battalion about his family and siblings, five of whom suffer from a degenerative disease. As a result, Abdul Karim, Bishra, Mahmoud, Ra’ad and Raija Salman, each received a new set of wheels in the form of pediatric wheelchairs donated by charitable organizations in the United States. The Soldiers delivered the chairs to the family June 29 here. Wheelchairs for Iraqi Kids and ROC Wheels provided the 12 pediatric wheelchairs, which the 4-11th Counter Rocket Patrol, medics from the battalion aid station, and the 403rd delivered to the siblings, as well as to another disabled 19-year-old in the neighboring town of Ujbah.

Sgt. Jason Foy, of Indio, Calif., and Spc. Christopher McCuiston, of Ann Arbor, Mich., both combat medics, showed their fellow Soldiers and the Salmans’ family members how to fit the wheelchairs to each patient and make adjustments. The medics were chosen for the mission due to their prior experience in fitting wheelchairs, said Foy. They received additional training from another medic as well as a training video included with the chairs. Each wheelchair came with a Paralympic Champion Barbie
Doll named Becky. Bishra, who appeared much younger than her 15 years, smiled when the Soldiers handed her the doll. Her older sister, Raija, passed the doll to a younger female relative, and instead
offered one of her silver bracelets to the female civil affairs Soldiers fitting her wheelchair.

Spc. Nicole-Marie Toledo, of Binghamton, N.Y., and Staff Sgt. Sayoko Stevenson, civil affairs specialists, fitted the wheelchairs with some assistance from Foy. Raija, a very shy, modest patient, preferred that the two female Soldiers help her with the wheelchair. The family owned two wheelchairs already, which showed signs of extreme wear, originally donated by the 101st Airborne Division during the first year of Operation Iraqi Freedom, according to Mohammed, a local doctor. In the second village of Ujbah, Staff Sgt. Rolando Molina, noncommissioned officer in charge of the Counter Rocket Patrol, helped adjust the final wheelchair for 19-year-old Aziz Farouk. Molina, of Bronx, N.Y., joked with Farouk, calling him “homeboy” as he helped him into the chair. Previously, Farouk moved around by dragging himself across the dusty courtyard of his family’s home.