MPAC’S Role Lauded

Washington, DC: 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 facilitated trucks filled with wheelchairs, hospital beds, catheters, walkers, nutritional supplements, and other essential medical supplies to leave Atlanta, GA to head 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 its 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 Ro th, 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.”
For more information about NSCIA, please visit http://www.spinalcord.org. For more information about hurricane survivors with disabilities, please visit http://www.katrinadisability.info. For more information about MPAC, please visit http://www.mpac.org

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