Philanthropist Kenneth Behring Discusses Wheelchair For The World Foundation Goals
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: It's been estimated that at least 20 million people in the world are immobile because of war, disease, disaster or advanced age. Most would have better lives if they simply had a wheelchair. Our next guest has a dream: to get a wheelchair to all who lack them. Philanthropist Kenneth Behring has formed the Wheelchairs for the World Foundation toward that end. And he is joining us from Washington this morning.</s>KAGAN: Mr. Behring, good morning. Thanks for joining us.</s>KENNETH BEHRING, WHEELCHAIRS FOR THE WORLD: Good morning.</s>KAGAN: You have had quite the life: a self-made man, an NFL owner, and now wheelchairs. Why wheelchairs? How did you get there?</s>BEHRING: Well, I have finally found something that I feel that is really worth while to give back. I've been a very fortunate person all of my life and I'm at that point in my life where I'd like to give something back. And what I've found with wheelchairs, it's something that makes a complete difference in a person's life in a matter of minutes.</s>KAGAN: Share with us...</s>BEHRING: And there's such an overwhelming need throughout the world.</s>KAGAN: We'll talk about the need in a second. Share with us first some of the experiences you've already had in giving away wheelchairs?</s>BEHRING: Well, it started, really, in Vietnam. We went over and I personally lifted people into wheelchairs that were brought in that were carried in. And I had different -- I had one elderly lady that wanted to thank me when she came over. She got very close to me and she said, you know, I wanted to die, but I've not been able to -- and then she got a little closer and grabbed my two hands and squeezed them -- but, she said, now I don't want to. So right there it told me that one wheelchair makes the difference between people wanting to live and wanting to die.</s>KAGAN: So help us think a little bit outside of our American perspective here, because we might think, well, you need a wheelchair, you get a wheelchair. But when you go outside the U.S, it's not quite that simple.</s>BEHRING: The wheelchairs that we're delivering would sell for $375. And the people that we're giving them to maybe make $250 per year. So they never have a possibility of purchasing a wheelchair. And these people are discarded. I mean, their families are ashamed of them, in Third World countries especially. It's kind of a curse. So they're put in a back room and they're -- really, they have no hope and no future. And we're their hope and future. And the more we get into it, it's an awesome responsibility that we're just getting started in.</s>KAGAN: Tell us about your very ambitious goal, the numbers you're looking at.</s>BEHRING: Well, right now, we're delivering in 58 countries in the next 60 days about 30,000 chairs. I did have a goal of a million. I sure hope it can be more than that. And we hope that some in the public will help us so that we can really help these people that so desperately need help. I mean, immobility is as bad as being blind. If you have no mobility, you're put in the back of a room and you really have no life.</s>KAGAN: And real quickly as we say good-bye, I want to put that Web site up at the bottom of the screen one more time: wheelchairsfortheworld -- is that right? -- .org?</s>BEHRING: Right. Or our phone number is 877-378-3839.</s>KAGAN: To do it the old-fashioned way or the modern way.</s>BEHRING: And $150 will buy a wheelchair and give somebody a new life.</s>KAGAN: Well, Kenneth Behring, you have a very big goal out there and we wish you well. And thanks for sharing your dream with us today.</s>BEHRING: Well thank you for permitting me to be here.</s>KAGAN: Thank you for your time.