Aussie Bread Tags for Wheelchairs

Our 80th wheelchair is a very special one. Twelve year old Anushca lives with lissencephaly, a rare brain condition. Her new wheelchair-stroller properly harnesses and supports her growing little body and also has space to carry her ventilator on board. It enables Anusha’s family to provide easier and better care for her: being mobile is now so much easier – from attending doctor’s appointments and go on outdoor walks. With her new corrected posture, her reflux is also under control and her body doesn’t get as tired and sore as before.The wheelchair was provided through Christian Ministry Moreleta in Pretoria, and due to our supportive contacts there, we will be able to keep ongoing contact with Anushca’s family and provide you with updates.

This week we are celebrating the huge milestone of 10 TONNES of Aussie bread tags we have collected for recycling over the last four years. That’s a lot of tags!

Thanks to the generosity of our recyclers, Transmutation – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, we are running a competition to win one of their long bowls, made from about 1,200 bread tags – you may even win back the tags you collected! To enter the competition, like our Facebook post and tag a friend before Sunday night.

Also, it’s National Volunteers Week, so a big THANK YOU to everyone who helps us with collecting, coordinating, colour sorting and transport – we couldn’t do it without you!

Elzibe and Justin are our two latest wheelchair recipients in South Africa. Elzibe has ties to Parow High School, who are committed collectors for Bread Tags for Wheelchairs there, so she wanted her photo taken with some of the students from the school. Our wheelchair tally now stands at 72 funded by Aussie bread tag recycling.

Our latest batch of wheelchairs has been provided to clients of Includid in South Africa : Gert, Petrus, Sally, Toscha and Annie. Includid’s mission is to enable and empower people with intellectual disabilities. This takes our total number of Aussie funded wheelchairs to 61.

During April our longest serving regular colour sorter celebrated her 94th birthday! Jean still gets through a heap of tags each week. We have three ladies over 90 as well as several others sorting for us at home. In Adelaide, the Transition to Work program at Sunedin Special School and The Wirreanda Secondary School’s Adaptive Vocational Education program also sort for us, as well as the (self named!) Old Codgers group at Glynde Lutheran Homes. In Melbourne, Phillip and Linda sort at home and in Perth Dianella Secondary College Education Support Centre and Aveley Secondary College do our bulk colour sorting. Quite a team!

Another monthly pallet load of tags (ten 25kg boxes) on its way to Robe thanks to the generosity of H.F Dicker & Son pty.ltd. Going to Robe sometime? Make sure to visit Transmutation – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle to hear the bread tag story and see the beautiful bread tag bowls, boards and pens.

We have recently been able to fund wheelchairs for Luca and Mpho, who are both living with cerebral palsy and Keenan, who has a heart condition. This takes our Aussie grand total to 50 wheelchairs – keep up the good work, bread tag collectors!

In addition to providing wheelchairs in South Africa, we have recently been able to help fund an outreach program in PNG through Motivation Australia, performing assessment, fittings and follow up for prosthetic and orthotic users, wheelchair and walking aid users.

Woo hoo, we have now collected more than 5 tonnes of plastic bread tags in Australia, and sent these to Robe, SA for recycling into beautiful home wares by Transmutation – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

In December 2021 Aussie bread tag recycling and donations enabled seven more wheelchairs to be provided in South Africa. This took our total to 47 Aussie funded wheelchairs since we started late 2018.