Hope Haven International is a 501(c)(3) charity organization based in Rock Valley

Rock Valley, Iowa

Rock Valley is a city in Sioux County, Iowa, United States, along the Rock River. The population was 2,702 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Rock Valley is located at ....

, Iowa

Iowa

Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...

, that is best known for its United States and international distribution of refurbished wheelchairs for adults and children. The organization was founded in 1964 as a Christian

Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

 charity to provide services to disabled persons in its community. Hope Haven collects, repairs, and distributes wheelchair

Wheelchair

A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, designed to be a replacement for walking. The device comes in variations where it is propelled by motors or by the seated occupant turning the rear wheels by hand. Often there are handles behind the seat for someone else to do the pushing...

s domestically and internationally, in addition to providing rehabilitation

Physical medicine and rehabilitation

Physical medicine and rehabilitation , physiatry or rehabilitation medicine, is a branch of medicine that aims to enhance and restore functional ability and quality of life to those with physical impairments or disabilities. A physician having completed training in this field is referred to as a...

 and vocational training. The organization relies upon volunteers

Volunteering

Volunteering is generally considered an altruistic activity, intended to promote good or improve human quality of life, but people also volunteer for their own skill development, to meet others, to make contacts for possible employment, to have fun, and a variety of other reasons that could be...

 and prison inmates

Prison

A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...

 to transport and refurbish the wheelchairs.

Hope Haven has been refurbishing, and providing shipment and trained personnel to fit wheelchairs, for physically disabled and poor Palestinian refugee

Palestinian refugee

Palestinian refugees or Palestine refugees are the people and their descendants, predominantly Palestinian Arabic-speakers, who fled or were expelled from their homes during and after the 1948 Palestine War, within that part of the British Mandate of Palestine, that after that war became the...

 children since 1998, with the political and logistical assistance of the Palestine Children's Relief Fund

Palestine Children's Relief Fund

The Palestine Children's Relief Fund is a registered 501 non-governmental organization established in 1991, by, according to its website, "concerned people in the U.S. to address the medical and humanitarian crisis facing Palestinian youths in the Middle East... The main objective of the P.C.R.F....

. The costs of wheelchairs is beyond the means of many families, and government funds are also not available, in many countries, such as Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

, served by Hope Haven with donations of wheelchairs and staff to properly fit the wheelchairs to users.