10/16/2026
You Do Not Have to Go Without
Today we held a Mobility Clinic with Office for the Aging. I want to share what happened, because it’s exactly why we do this work.
This is one of Afya’s most beautiful ecosystem circles. Families who have lost someone they love donate the medical supplies that remain: wheelchairs, walkers, canes, crutches, tub benches. We put them into the hands of people who need them and can’t afford them. These are our Mobility Clinics, and we are leading them across New York.
In the Warehouse
Our occupational therapy students, doing fieldwork alongside our neurodiverse volunteers, were assessing older adults who came seeking help. Grace, an OT and our Manager of Education and Training, was assessing alongside them. I was also meeting with people one by one.
There is one woman I cannot stop thinking about.
Her Story
She had just been cut off from Medicaid. She is growing frailer and needs many devices to stay safe at home. We sat together, and as we began handing her the supplies, she started to cry. She cried out of sheer gratitude.
Then she told me something I will never forget. She had been borrowing briefs (disposable protective underwear) from her aging mother, because since losing Medicaid she can’t afford her own.
Let that sink in. A woman in need, borrowing protective undergarments from her elderly mother, because the system that was supposed to help her said no.
We Are All Connected
Here is what I know to be true: we are all connected. The family who donates their mother’s walker after she passes. The OT students learning in our warehouse. The Department of Aging. The woman crying in the chair across from me. Every one of us is part of the same circle.
When a huge need shows up because of a gap in funding and resources, Afya gets creative. That is what innovation looks like here. It’s people finding new ways to show up for each other.
Join us. Donate the wheelchair sitting in your garage. Volunteer in our warehouse. Share our work with others. And give to support this life-changing, life-saving work:
https://afyafoundation.org/donate/
-Danielle
Founder, CEO
