In many cultures, families and individuals dealing with disability are thought to be cursed. Some think a child is disabled because of shameful family behavior. They are left feeling ashamed, isolated, and rejected. When disabled children grow too large to be carried, they are frequently left on the floor in a back room or sent out to beg on the streets.

Jesus offers an entirely different perspective. "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me." (Matthew 25:40)

A catalyst brings together different initiatives that in themselves may not have connected, but which have great potential to work together. A series of articles in Lancet in 2015 estimated that, in many African countries, faith-based health initiatives provide more than half of the medical care. These hospitals have a great record of sharing healthcare, and if they have the resources, would be able to scale up to provide appropriate whole person care to those with disabilities.

Our goal is to link resources for appropriate wheelchair provision and whole person care with faith-based hospitals. One part of that is building bridges to and strengthening wheelchair manufacturers who are building wheelchairs for children in low-resource countries. One of our partnering wheelchair providers is BeeLine wheelchairs under Mission Impact in Guatemala. The end goal is that children with mobility challenges and their families will receive help that will heal physical and spiritual pain, and open doors for all to become active members of community life.

We are a team of professionals with different skills and from different organizations who are working intensively together on the Catalyst Project. A core team of us is with the IDEAS AT Catalyst project. There are also others collaborating closely with us. Click here to see an executive summary.