PROJECT PROPOSAL

 

CUSTOMIZED TRANSPORTATION PROJECT

 

ILAN – Background:

 

ILAN, the Israel Foundation for Handicapped Children, cares for some 15,000 physically disadvantaged adults and children suffering from diseases that affect the muscles and nerves such as cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis and other neuromuscular diseases.

ILAN has 46 branches all over Israel that are in constant contact with the disabled and that represent a channel of information for tracing and assisting this population and its special needs.  When it was founded in 1952, ILAN located child victims of the polio epidemic and organized mass vaccinations for children in Israel. In time, the State has accepted responsibility for providing this service and has freed ILAN to concentrate its efforts and resources on providing assistance and relief for the severely disabled individual and his family, promoting facilities for the physically disadvantaged and their special needs, and developing services for the disabled within the context of the community.  These services include a network of kindergartens, special schools and vocational training centers, sheltered workshops, rehabilitation and occupation units, residential homes for physically disadvantaged adults, as well as social centers and sports facilities.

Contributions constitute the main source of finance for the ILAN projects.  

 

 

The Customized Transportation Project

 

Specially modified minibuses are needed for the transportation of  disabled persons.  These minibuses are equipped with lifting devices for wheelchairs.   Each vehicle is supplied with state of the art medical appliances and utilizes the latest technology to ensure absolute security of the wheelchairs while traveling.  

 

The vehicles are needed:

 

   To transport the most severely disabled to and from their homes to therapeutic and occupational centers that would otherwise be inaccessible to them..

 

   To enable the physically disadvantaged to take part in social and communal activities that are some distance from their homes..

 

    To provide a daily transport service to schools and kindergartens for disabled children who are unable to use existing transport systems..

.

The project aims are to provide 5 – 10 customized minibuses to answer the transportation needs of severely disabled people who have to travel to and from their homes or ILAN residential homes to educational institutions, occupational and treatment centers and to social and sporting activities. These vehicles will serve the urban centers but will also provide a vital link for the most severely disabled people who live in rural border settlements and who otherwise would have no means of accessing the services and activities they need. 

 

Safe transportation is often the disabled person’s life line to the vital services that are needed to ensure his physical well-being and to give him or her the only available opportunity to join in cultural, social and sports activities that take place in the centers that are some distance from their homes.  The ability to enjoy these activities adds an extra dimension to the quality of life as it would for any other member of society.  These minibuses serve the most severely disabled section of the population for whom no other adequate transport facilities are provided.

 

BUDGET

The estimated cost of each customized minibus:                 US $ 60,000 – 70,000

v    Each minibus is a one-time purchase that serves the disabled population for at least ten years.

 

v    The purchase of each minibus means that ILAN enters into a commitment to maintain minibus in good and safe condition throughout the useful life of the vehicle.

 

v    ILAN undertakes to guarantee the running costs of the vehicle and in this way to ensure maximum service over the optimum number of years.

 

v    The running costs of the vehicle include drivers’ salaries, a not inconsiderable item of expenditure.