On 28 February 2025, thirty-five children with cerebral palsy in Nakhon Si Thammarat Province received wheelchairs. Behind each one is a family whose daily life just got a little more manageable.
On 28 February 2025, a group of Rotarians gathered at a care centre in Nakhon Si Thammarat Province, 780 kilometres south of Bangkok.
Thirty-five wheelchairs were distributed to children with cerebral palsy and their families.
The delegation included PDG Peter Wong and PP Dr. Albert Poon from the Rotary Club of Kowloon East — our sister club in Hong Kong — alongside AG Vasana Mututanont and PP Dr. Charles Cheung from Bangkok. They hadn't come to make speeches. They came to be present at something that had taken years of careful work to reach.
Why Wheelchairs Matter Here
Nakhon Si Thammarat Province has about 1.5 million people. Over 760 children in the province need specialised care for cerebral palsy — a condition caused by brain damage before or around birth, affecting movement and coordination. In rural communities, the combination of limited healthcare resources and inadequate equipment means many of these children spend their days on beds or floors.
A properly fitted wheelchair isn't a luxury. It's the difference between being able to sit at a table with your family, attend school, interact with other children — or not.
The Project Behind the Wheelchairs
The wheelchairs came out of a broader Global Grant project (GG 2351163). The main work wasn't the wheelchairs themselves — it was training. In January–February 2024, an international team of physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and specialist teachers from Canada and Hungary delivered a three-week intensive programme for local therapists, teachers, parents, and volunteers in Nakhon Si Thammarat.
The principle: rather than flying in experts indefinitely, transfer knowledge to local practitioners who can keep applying it after the international team goes home. The February 2025 visit was a follow-up — eleven months after the training — to assess the project's impact and distribute equipment funded under the grant.
The project happened through the partnership of the Rotary Club of Bangkok, the Rotary Club of Kowloon East, and the Rotary Foundation's Global Grant matching mechanism.
A Second Project Already Running
Encouraged by the results in Nakhon Si Thammarat, the Club started a second cerebral palsy project in January 2025 — this time at the Ubon Ratchathani Special Education Center in the northeast, which supports 24 satellite locations across the province. Initial assessment at the end of January: outstanding.
Final impact assessments for both projects are scheduled for 2026.
The Rotary Club of Bangkok manages multiple active Global Grant projects in Thailand. To find out more about partnering on a project, contact the Club directly.