Imagine being unable to walk safely, attend school, reach work or visit a clinic—not because the support does not exist, but because something as basic as a pair of crutches is beyond your reach.

Earlier this year, we visited remote communities in southern Mauritania, and witnessed thisdaily reality for many children, adults and older people living with disabilities or injuries. Some have been forced to rely on roughly made wooden supports that hurt their hands and bodies. Others remain dependent on relatives or confined to their homes because they have no suitable mobility aid at all.

We have seen this need for ourselves.

During our visits to Mauritania, we met people whose opportunities and independence were severely restricted by the absence of basic equipment. The photographs on this page show some of the people who received crutches last year. Their joy demonstrated how something so ordinary to us can be genuinely life-changing for someone else.

Our mission

When we went in May, Wheels to Heal kindly gifted us as many crutches as we could carry, and we arenow preparing a container carrying more than £40,000 worth of good-quality mobility aids, clinical equipment and support packages.

The equipment will support patients at the local clinic and people living in some of the most underserved communities in the region, arriving in December when our next UK group will be visiting. It will help children and adults to:

- Move safely and with dignity

- Attend school or pursue employment

- Reach healthcare and community services

- Reduce pain and avoid further physical injury

- Regain independence and participate in family and community life

- Ease the physical burden placed on relatives and carers

Wheels to Heal rescues and reuses good-quality mobility equipment that might otherwise go to waste in the UK, giving it a new life with people who have little or no access to such support.

Why we need £10,000

The equipment is ready—but we need your help to get it to the people who need it.

We are raising £10,000 solely for transportation, covering the container’s journey:

Glasgow → Nouakchott → Touil, deep in southern Mauritania

Reaching Touil involves much more than international shipping. Once the container arrives in the capital, Nouakchott, it must be cleared and transported overland to the remote south, where access to disability support is extremely limited.

All funds raised through this appeal will be restricted to the transportation and delivery of the container. Your donation will therefore help unlock and deliver more than four times its value in essential equipment.

Your donation can open up a life.

This is not simply about transporting a container. It is about enabling a child to attend school, helping an adult pursue a livelihood, allowing an older person to move without pain and restoring dignity to someone who has lived without appropriate support.

The equipment already exists. The need is clear. We now need to bridge the distance between them.

Please donate whatever you can and share this appeal with your family, friends and networks. Together, we can deliver mobility, independence and hope to people who have waited far too long for something as basic as the ability to move safely.

Help us raise £10,000 to deliver over £50,000 of life-changing equipment to South Mauritania.