Wheels of Hope
Posted by John Ester
on Sep 10, 2013
Ayuba Gufwan thanked Sunrise Rotary not only for helping Rotary International in its efforts to eradicate polio, but also in supporting the Wheels of Hope program that supplies wheelchair trikes to polio victims in his native Nigeria.
Like many Nigerians, Ayuba was stricken with polio as a child. While he did not attend school until he was 19, he eventually graduated from law school. Rather than practice law, in 2007 Ayuba founded the Handicapped Advocacy and Rehabilitation Center and began building wheelchairs for Nigerian polio victims who otherwise would be relegated to begging in the streets.
In 2008 Al Bonney of the Rotary Club of Traverse City learned of HARC and prepared a grant application that ultimately led to a $120,000 Rotary Foundation matching grant for supplies and equipment to build 1000 wheelchairs. In January of 2010 the Rotary Club of Naraguta in Jos, Nigeria received the funds. Since then Ayuba and his colleagues have built 7,000 trikes. Impressive as this number is, Ayuba says that they have just scratched the surface.