MUSLIM AMERICANS AND DISABILITY GROUPS PARTNER TO GET MEDICAL EQUIPMENT TO HURRICANE SURVIVORS WITH DISABILITIES - TOP
9/9/05

WASHINGTON—The National Spinal Cord Injury Association (NSCIA) and a national coalition of disability organizations had to look beyond conventional disaster relief to aid Katrina survivors with disabilities. The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) has stepped in with a $25,000 solution. The donation from Muslim Americans will allow essential medical supplies to be delivered to those most in need. This has been necessary as desperate survivors with disabilities are repeatedly turned away or ignored by the Red Cross and other disaster relief groups.

Beginning on September 9th, the MPAC donation will allow trucks filled with wheelchairs, hospital beds, catheters, walkers, nutritional supplements, and other essential medical supplies to leave Atlanta, GA headed for evacuees with disabilities along the Gulf Coast stopping first in Jackson, MS., and Shreveport, LA. Paul Timmons, CEO of Portlight Strategies Inc. is coordinating the effort. Since it’s inception in 1997, Portlight Strategies has provided medical equipment free of charge to people with disabilities in need.

Hurricane survivors with disabilities are in imminent danger due to a lack of basic medical supplies such as sterile catheters and wheelchair cushions that prevent urinary tract infections and pressure sores which often lead to systemic infection and death. While the majority of evacuees wait in long lines for relief, people with disabilities often are denied access to assistance through the conventional relief organizations and FEMA.

“Thanks to the Muslim Public Affairs Council who stepped in to help while other funding sources bogged down in their own bureaucracies, Portlight Strategies will be able to deliver a minimum of five truckloads of supplies and equipment to hurricane survivors,” said Marcie Roth, CEO of the National Spinal Cord Injury Association. “We are deeply grateful to MPAC for their generosity and commitment to assist fellow Americans in the direst of circumstances.”

For more information about NSCIA, please visit http://www.spinalcord.org/ . For more information about hurricane survivors with disabilities, please visit http://www.katrinadisability.info/ . For more information about MPAC, please visit http://www.mpac.org/ . MPAC works to promote an accurate portrayal of Islam and Muslims in mass media and popular culture, educating the American public (both Muslim and non-Muslim) about Islam, building alliances with diverse communities and cultivating relationships with opinion- and decision- makers.

CONTACT: Marcie Roth of the National Spinal Cord Injury Association,
+1-301-717-7447, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) ; or Paul Timmons of Portlight
Strategies, +1-843-817-2651, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Web site: http://www.spinalcord.org/
http://www.katrinadisability.info/
http://www.mpac.org/