Some inspiration from a man that discovered passion after personal crisis

Subject: Some inspiration from a man that discovered his passion after experiencing personal crisis

I wanted to share my new goal with you - I have decided to help a young man I met in Colorado last month. Alexey Talai is a dynamic and driven young man who is on a quest to bring wheelchairs and services to the disabled children and orphans of his small Eastern European country: Belarus. Alexey also happens to be a quadriplegic amputee himself.

When Alexey and I sat down and talked last month, he told me how when he was brought back from the hospital he was "planted" on a couch, just like a "flower". His family watered and fed him, just like they would to care for their other plants and flowers. He sees the disabled children in his country facing that same stigma. No way to gain independence. There are no chairs for disabled in Belarus. There are not even accessible buildings. Belarus is only 100km outside of Chernobyl. There have been many birth defects, as you can imagine, as well as injuries caused from left over land mines.

I honestly feel compelled to assist Alexey in reaching his goal to get chairs for the children of Belarus. I have made this my personal goal for this year. I have been reaching out to local connections to try and find one which Alexey can partner with. I contacted the Executive Director of Wheels for Humanity and have begun the process of bringing Alexey to Los Angeles to solidify a partnership agreement. If that agreement is executed, we will only need to raise $50,000 to bring 200 custom fitted chairs and other durable medical equipment to Belarus.

Right now Alexey is touring the East Coast speaking to various groups to raise awareness and to gather assistance for his quest. He has a phenomenal spirit and one of the most inspirational people I have met.

One of the local papers in Texas featured Alexey in a recent issue 

(http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/cleveland/news/article_79d3616c-dfc8-53fc-b4c5-442b9b3e4604.html)

 and I wanted to pass this on to you. If you know of any audiences that would benefit from his speaking, let me know. His goal is to raise awareness of the plight of the disabled children and orphans in Belarus. You can read more about Alexey's dream on his website: http://cafeindependence.webs.com/

I attended an abilities exposition and conference this past weekend and was able to meet with a business owner from Northern California who has a warehouse to store chairs until we can get them deployed. This business owner has been actively helping the disabled left in the aftermath of a war-torn Afghanistan. He owns a few dealerships and has promised me a loan of an accessible van so I can transport Alexey when he is here.

I met with the publisher of a magazine which focuses on active disabled, and he would like to run a feature story on Alexey.

I have also called my alma mater - California State University in Long Beach and spoke to the director of their disabled services program to try and schedule Alexey to come and speak to the students. CSULB has a student body of over 35,000 students.

I am very optimistic that we will be able to do this over the next year.  It is funny how before I came out of the closet about my own disability I tried to not even think about my disability or about others with disabilities. I viewed my disease as a condition. Now I see it as an opportunity.

If you know if any speaking opportunities for Alexey, please let me know.

  Best regards,

  Valerie

         

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