Fountain Hills Homeschoolers are collecting crutches, walkers, canes and other walking aides for Crutches 4 Africa.

Lucas Splittorff, director of the students’ Gifted Hands Homeschool Interact Club, said donations can be left at Shepherd of the Hills, 16150 E. El Lago Blvd., classrooms five and 6, from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Mondays only; and First Baptist Church of Fountain Hills, 10215 N. Saguaro Blvd.

They also will accept baby joggers, rollators and walkers without wheels.

The last pickup will be Feb. 20. Splittorff can be reached at 480-620-7937 or lucassplittorff@icloud.com.

The items are distributed to more than three million people who have been stricken with crippling diseases in undeveloped countries. They are individuals who have no health care.

While producing a documentary film in Uganda, David Talbot saw people who had survived polio but were rejected by their communities.

A polio survivor himself, he realized that many people have a lightly-used and no-longer-needed mobility device from a twisted ankle, ski accident or operation. He saw crutches at garage sales, in dumpsters and in roll-off containers headed to landfills.

He and his wife, Candice, started collecting mobility devices in 2006. Their initial collection totaled 235 pairs of crutches. To date, more than 103,000 mobility devices have been collected, shipped and distributed to 16 African and 10 other countries.