Muslim Americans and Disability Groups Partner to Get Medical Equipment to Hurricane Survivors With Disabilities

Salam/Peace:

WASHINGTON, Sept. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- 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.

[...]

"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."

Read the whole article at:
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/09-09-2005/0004103846&EDATE=