Antonia Lopez

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For 31 years, Antonia Lopez has been immobile — without a wheelchair, without a walker, crutches, or any type of adaptive device. For 31 years, that’s been Antonia Lopez’s whole life. Without any type of mobility, Lopez has spent her entire life crawling on the ground. Anywhere she has ever gone, she’s had to crawl. But in [...]

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Gustavo Vasquez

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Gustavo Vasquez works at the wheelchair factory in Antigua, Guatemala building chairs for disabled individuals like himself. Vasquez has been in a wheelchair for 14 years following a medical operation where he claims the doctor made a mistake. “Since that time I haven’t been able to walk,” Vasquez said. Vasquez assembles the sides of the [...]

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Mailee Andrea Ramirez

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Mailee Andrea Ramirez was only 3 years old when doctors diagnosed her with a disease that’s kept her in a wheelchair all her life. Ramirez works in a wheelchair factory, building wheelchairs for other individuals with disabilities. What makes it special for Ramirez is that all the individuals building the wheelchairs are in wheelchairs themselves. [...]

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Antonio Quinonez

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All it took was one hour, but if you ask Antonio Quinonez, January 25th, 2009 is a day he’ll never forget. Quinonez was riding his motorcycle when he attempted to pass a big truck. The truck ended up hitting him and throwing him off the road. The accident left him with life threatening damages to [...]

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Oscar Costillo

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All it took was one day for Oscar Costillo’s life to change forever. He was climbing a coconut tree, when he fell more than 70 feet to the ground. Costillo was 48 years old at the time. The next five years of his life he spent in his bed. “I felt so sad, because I [...]

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Maria Christina Mendoza

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It’s a problem Maria’s mother has never been able to figure out. All she knows is that her daughter has spent every day of her young 22-year-old life immobile. For the past 22 years, Maria Christina Mendoza, has never been further than the sidewalk in front of her house. Her brother, Rigoberto, is disabled as [...]

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Sabino Lopez

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Sabino Lopez starts his workday at 8 a.m. every morning transporting medicine and people all day until 6 p.m. He serves as a driver for a health care clinic, but like everything else in his life, he does it all with only one leg. Doctors diagnosed Lopez with Gangrene – a disease that arises when [...]

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Nancy Gentzsch

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It’s an old saying, but in many cases so very true: It’s the small things in life that can make such a big difference. Nancy Gentzsch took some time away from helping build wheelchairs at a Guatemala distribution in September to give out toys to the young people in the crowd. “You don’t realize how [...]

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Terry Furstenau

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Terry Furstenau spends much of his time in Mid-Missouri building Personal Energy Transportation devices, providing mobility to more than 20,000 individuals worldwide. All of that he enjoys, but one thing he loves, is when he gets to see the individuals receive the device he helped build. “It’s great to give it here and to see [...]

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Amy DeYoung

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If you ask Amy DeYoung, she knew she was never meant to live her life in the United States. DeYoung grew up in Illinois, but moved to Guatemala after receiving her college education. Her training is in occupational therapy, but she helps with a little bit of everything in the developing world. Much of her [...]

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