Michal's trip • adapted to people with physical disabilities who love nature

Challenge trips with a chair adapted for women and men with physical disabilities who want to continue enjoying the many routes that nature offers.

All in your head

I met Michal Yadgar about six months ago when the activists of the group 'For Haifa' joined her as companions for a trip in the Ofer forest, on the Carmel ridge. Michal did the rocky route in front of the banana plantations of the Carmel Coast Council settlements, the open fields and the blue sea, on the chair and with the help of attendants who supported him on the steep descents.

Michal, a teacher in her soul and profession, married to Yossi and mother of four children, was diagnosed in 2018 with ALS, a muscular dystrophy disease. The physical limitation has not prevented her for six years from going out and conquering more challenging routes in the open spaces of nature, thanks to a chair designed for her.

Today she is promoting an exciting project of donations to purchase more chairs for the war wounded, who want to continue to travel and feel again the nature surrounding them and the wind blowing on their faces.

A trip without limits for people with disabilities

Michal Yadgar tells Lahi Pa News Corporation:

I love to travel. really love. When I first sat in this chair, I felt as if I had arrived at a safe beach. This is the chair that will lead me through the waters of the Majesa, together with my whole family. It's great! If I had not been in such a chair, I would have been destined to move along the accessible dry path, apart from all my children. In the heat of July, it's better not to leave the house at all. Stay by the air conditioner and act like I'm not excited about a water trip.
But I do want to be with my family, so why should I reduce my existence to the accessible path? Why?
I watched in the chair like a princess and around my children, what happiness, what contentment.
After the majersa came more trips to the tops of the mountains, to pools in the water of the streams, along the sea and even in a canoe I swam non-stop. From here you can do almost anything. Since I started I haven't stopped, once a week or two weeks I go out.

GMC Chairs

The chair that Michal uses is manufactured abroad and its high cost, about NIS 21,000, does not allow anyone to purchase it. Out of a desire to allow people with disabilities like her to travel and enjoy the routes that nature offers, Michal founded Home Page - Michal's Hike (michalhike.com) In which she describes how to learn to travel again and how to equip yourself with the right chair and the right team.

Michal continues to tell:

When the damn war broke out with all its wounded, I realized that there was nothing to wait any longer. Action must be taken. This is how the idea of ​​a chair warehouse arose. GAM for travel chairs for the disabled. Like Yad Sara for medical equipment, free of charge, so is GAM for chairs. But first you need to raise donations. Not a simple matter at all. But what needs to be done - then we do it.
Creating a better reality. Recruiting for society in Israel, creating something out of nothing with your help. So donate, share, distribute everywhere, each according to his own vision and ability. We are in a reality where each of us can and should see the other. So come on let's create a new reality that is good to live in.

The chairs that Michal wants to raise for their purchase, float in the water and anyone can manipulate them, even those sitting in them. Through the GAMH, the chairs will be loaned to anyone who wants to use them to travel in nature independently, free of charge and for a deposit only.