WheelsPlusWings Foundation Information

The WheelsplusWings Foundation started in Beijing, China, when a number of friends first encountered the difficulties faced by children born with disabilities in the country. One of the group of friends was a successful businessman who happened to have been born with Osteogenesis Imperfecta, known as "brittle bone disease" to some. But Stuart was also lucky enough to have been born into a family that didn't see why his condition should change either his ambitions nor what he could actually achieve with his life. Stuart's success story served as the first example for families in China who, up til then, felt that no real life was possible for heir children. The early goal for WheelsPlusWings was thus to help local children achieve the same simple, normal success (friends, school, work) and show all the others, and the society around them, what was possible. From China we then started to work with volunteer groups in other countries to encourage support groups to help children in their local areas. In seeking to lift the expectations of what children who are “Differently-Abled” can do in life, we hope to change attitudes about what is possible in Asia and around the world. Our goal is to erase the mental and physical fences between able-bodied and less able-bodied individuals, in the minds of the families, the communities in which they live, and the children themselves. The hope is that if we expose more people to stories of children with disabilities leading normal lives (attending school, going to University, getting jobs and becoming happy contributing members of society) that fewer parents will then abandon their own babies born with disabilities; and fewer will hide the ones they keep.