80-year-old gets ‘Christmas’ wheelchair
Christmas came early for 80-year-old Pauline Forbes who received a new wheelchair from the Registrar General’s Department (RGD) and Food For the Poor (FFP) Jamaica yesterday.
Forbes, who is an amputee living in Brandon Hill, St Andrew, expressed gratitude for the generous donation, exclaiming “I feel good! Thank you for the chair.”
She told JIS News that she lost her legs from a series of ailments, including high blood pressure and diabetes four years ago, and was happy that the RGD was able to assist her.
The executive agency recently revised its core value to ‘RGD Cares’, and CEO Charlton McFarlane said that it was Tamar Blake, parish officer for Kingston, who identified the need for the new wheelchair when she went to Forbes’ home to conduct an on-the-job interview. Blake was gathering information for a customer who was applying for a certificate of late registration.
Having learned of the need, McFarlane then reached out to the FFP Jamaica for assistance in acquiring the wheelchair. On receiving same, he and his team journeyed to Forbes’ home to hand over the birth certificate to the applicant and present Forbes with her new wheelchair. The CEO also handed over an additional birth certificate for the son of the geriatric nurse who is caring for Forbes, as well as a marriage certificate for one of her children.
“We are happy that while it’s not our core business, this is what I believe partnership is about. This is what we should be doing as customer service agencies. We should not just be attending to the immediate needs, in terms of the services that we offer to our customers, but if through interaction with them, we see that there are alternate needs and we can help. I think it is something that we should embrace,” McFarlane said.