We're less than a week into the summer-long 2012 Valour-IT fundraising competition, but generous and caring Americans have already donated over $7,000 to provide laptops to severely wounded troops!
Thanks to their gifts, laptops are already flying out the door! This week, four catastrophically-wounded heroes will receive a voice-controlled laptop that will enable them to reconnect with their world, to gain a bit more control of their environment thanks to technology and the loving hearts of donors.
In recent months the lethality and sophistication of IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) used against coalition troops in Afghanistan has markedly increased and survivors who have lost two or three limbs are not uncommon; three of the warriors who will receive Valour-IT laptops this week are triple amputees who were recently wounded in the same blast, and another wounded warrior scheduled to receive a laptop thanks to the new donations is an EOD (Explosives Ordinance Disposal) expert who lost both his arms in an IED blast.
There are currently 38 fully-vetted wounded warriors on the Valour-IT waiting list, with many more than that in the middle of the request/approval process. Every single one of them has suffered a catastrophic injury in combat and until people started donating last week, they weren't going to receive a laptop.
Though the Valour-IT mission has expanded in recent years, recipients like the four described above are the core of Valour-IT's mission--the wounded warriors for whom it has the most impact: severely wounded heroes who need a voice-controlled laptop to regain some independence and reconnect with their world. As IEDs have grown more sophisticated and successful in Afghanistan, the need for Valour-IT's fundamental benefit to the wounded has ramped up significantly.
Project Valour-IT is more powerful than words can truly explain. A wounded warrior who is coping with the catastrophic rearrangement of his body and his psyche needs the familiar reassurance of doing something he could do before--surfing the web, controlling a piece of his environment, and reconnecting with his support system. Putting a voice-controlled laptop in front of a wounded hero gives him back a piece of his life and hope for the future that he WILL do what he did before, even if he has to do a it a bit differently, now.
Words are vital--they soothe the battered heart and soul... but Valour-IT goes further. It's not just warm feelings and needed reassurance of support; it's a powerful tool handed to a hero by dozens of Americans who gave what they could, did what they could when they could do nothing else. It's a physical proof of two things: "We're here for you, and you are still a part of our world."
Please give what you can by clicking a "Donate" button, do what you can by emailing a friend or sharing it on Facebook with a personal comment. Together we can reach out to these heroes at the most difficult times in their lives, offering them a true hand up to the new life they are struggling to construct.
They have sacrificed pieces of themselves for us. Can we sacrifice a couple of dollars for them?
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