Who are we?
Ayady Helping Hand Association Inc. is a non-for-profit community organisation registered in the State of Victoria and based in Melbourne, Australia. Ayady caters for individuals with a physical disability who live in socio-economically disadvantaged communities, and thus struggle to gain access to medical equipment.
Ayady endeavours to support people with physical disability in order to build their confidence, encourage their independence and improve their health and wellbeing.
Ayady aims to raise awareness within the local Iraqi community in Australia to support its work in providing medical and mobility equipment and aides, particularity electric scooters, to people with severe physical disability in Iraq and Australia.
In this regard, Ayady’s main work is to deliver electric scooters with rechargeable batteries and other relevant spare parts to individuals with physical disability in Iraq and Australia. The medical equipment are provided free of charge to those identified with desperate need throughout Iraq irrespective of their religion, cultural, ethnic and political backgrounds. We give a priority to victims of war, terrorism and violence.
Ayady also aims to reach out those in need in socio-economically disadvantaged communities in Australia.
Progress Statistics
Our recipients
Donations
Scooters
History
Ayady started as a simple idea in 2013 through one individual’s initiative. Mr Ahmed Alsaabary initiated the idea when he donated and delivered an electric scooter to his disabled brother in Iraq. The idea received very well both in Iraq and within the local Iraqi community in Victoria. The idea then expanded, and few other people within the local Iraqi community made generous donations towards the purchase of a small number of scooters that were sent to Iraq. A year later, more donations were made and more scooters were sent to iraq. Ayady Hand Association Inc. was officially established in 2015 and registered as incorporated Association within the state of Victoria in 2016.
Our objectives
AYADY is a Melbourne based non for profit community organisation that seeks to:
- advancing the health of people with physical disability and their families in Australia and Iraq, by alleviating their suffering through the donation of mobility equipment such as electric scooters, wheelchairs, frames, hospital beds and electric wheelchairs.
- advancing social welfare by relieving the distress and disadvantage of individuals and families of disabled members. Members with a disability represent a burden on the whole family who cannot afford a mobility equipment.
- advancing positive community support by promoting the morals of giving generously to people with special needs within the Australian community in general and the local Iraqi community in particular.
- contributing and promoting Australian image in helping people in disadvantaged communities around the world in particular in Iraq and in supporting victims of war and terrorism.
Summary of the scooter collection and distribution activity
The search, purchase and distribution of scooters is Ayady’s main activity. It is a voluntary activity managed and carried out by dedicated and enthusiastic volunteer. However, this activity is a relatively complicated process that requires ongoing monitoring of the market for the availability of second-hand but of very good condition scooters. This usually involves the following four steps:
Purchase of mobility equipment
After we collect donations, our volunteers start the process of purchasing mobility equipment, they use different methods in their search, it includes but not limited to, online search, networking and visits to second hand dealers. Commercial apps and websites such as EBay, Facebook and Gumtree have been our mean source of purchasing these equipment.
Some of our dedicated members have travelled hundreds of kilometres to areas like Bendigo, Warrnambool, Traralgon for some electrical scooters using their own cars and fuel. We have even purchased small number of scooters (about 5% of the total quantity purchased) were purchased from interstate (Queensland, South Australia and NSW). For long distance and areas outside metropolitan Melbourne, we endeavour to purchase more than 1 item at a time to save our volunteers time and resources.
Our members would inspect the electric scooters and examine their validity and conditions before they finally decide to purchase. After the purchase, they would be transported to a holding area for inspection by qualified mechanic to ensure use worthiness, if any issues are found our team will immediately attend to fix the issues to ensure the final users safety and wellbeing.
After the equipment passes and ticks all the safety checks, they will be held to be loaded and exported to their final destination.
Transportation of mobility equipment
We have reached a deal with a freight forwarder company (ICAL) for the transport of scooters to Iraq. Like all any exports, we use special purpose and amended shipping containers to ensures safe transport of the scooters. Our kind-hearted, qualified and volunteer carpenters are usually involved to set up metal frames inside the container, not only for safety reasons, but also to construct multi-levels scooter loading frames in order to fit as many scooters as possible in the container at any given time. It is our practice to engage our mechanics again for pre-loading final inspection to ensure all the equipment is safe and sound for use.
In addition to the search, purchase, inspection and the transportation of the scooters thanks to our active volunteers and donors, we also started purchasing most needed spare parts, batteries, battery chargers and other tools and scooter accessories for our Iraqi branch in order to offer after delivery free service.
Delivery and Allocation
After long 6 weeks journey and crossing few oceans finally the container arrives at the Iraqi port. Our dedicated Iraqi volunteers in Iraq will start their hard work with the Iraqi authorities to obtain custom clearance. Once all the local legalities are met the container will make its way to our Iraqi branch in the historical city of Babylon, middle of Iraq. After post-delivery safety inspection is completed by mechanics in Iraq the allocation and distribution process starts. Good news will be passed on to the families, relatives or carers of eligible recipients and meeting times will be set. Our beneficiaries usually accompanied by their carers or family will attend our location to receive their scooter, our experienced staff will assist the family and the recipient and will demonstrate and induct them on how to safely use the mobility equipment and will run a short training session. After the beneficiary collect his or her scooter, happiness can be seen on their faces and our lucky volunteers have witnessed many joyful moments and leave with incredible happiness and excitement in their hearts.
After Delivery Care
Our volunteers usually contact the recipients 1 week after the delivery to answer any potential questions or concerns and listen to any comments or feedback as we value their feedback to improve their experience with our organisation and to improve our practise in general.
On ongoing bases our volunteers do stay in touch with all the recipients to ensure soft and easy use of the scooters and to assist with any repairs if required, we also arrange ongoing maintenance and service to the scooters. In Iraq, our volunteers work tirelessly to ensure the safety and functionality of the scooters for that we say big THANK YOU.