Latest small grant award: Appropriate and affordable emergency wheelchairs

Lucie Pannell- Programme Coordinator, Motivation

You’ll have seen the distressing news coverage of the famine in East Africa – the worst food crisis in 60 years.

Hundreds of thousands of people have poured into the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya and those with disabilities are among the most vulnerable. Many disabled people arrive at the camp pushed in wheelbarrows or carried on the backs of family members.

Despite the huge need, right now there are no appropriate wheelchairs available for use in emergencies.

Thanks to the grant we’re received from Humanitarian Innovation Fund, we’re going to change that. Working in partnership with Handicap International, we are going to develop the first wheelchair specifically designed for the challenging contexts of emergencies.

We’ve already identified the design specification required based on experience in the field, most recently in Haiti, and research on existing products. Our next steps are to evaluate existing designs, look at a first prototype and evaluate it against the design specification.