Australian Goodwill Bicycles Abroad

Carlito de Cruz and Isabella de Cruz

Carlito was 23 years old and 90% deaf from the age of 5 years due to an Indonesian shell burst that ruptured his eardrums. We first met Carlito in Darwin when we arranged for hearing aids to be fitted at the Darwin hospital. Carlito had developed a great skill at lip reading people from a distance and could speak five languages. This made him in constant demand by the Dili police and Civpol in detecting criminals. Isabella his wife worked as a midwife around villages in Dili. We caught up with them in Dili and were in desperate need of transport to assist in their demanding work. Carlito was given a bike and his wife also. They sent many police to us with requests for Isabella with the children bikes as there was no other transport available to them. Isabella was able to attend to her duties quickly and also sent other midwives and nurses to us for bikes.