About the project
Our initial goal
Our goal is to enable wheelchair users to have a more active role in their community through provision of wheelchairs that are appropriate for the user and terrain. The concept behind the project is that change can best be affected at a grassroots level working with demographics without formal support.
The initial target was to transport and distribute forty manual wheelchair to those who most need them within rural communities in Casamance (the south of Senegal) and Gambia. We are happy to say that this first stage of the project is now complete.
Background
There are many wheelchair users in Senegal and Gambia and the vast majority rely on cheap, folding frame wheelchairs in bad states of repair.
Due to a combination of factors, including extreme poverty, a private healthcare system and social exclusion the many people in Senegal who require wheelchairs are often forced to rely on family support for healthcare costs and provision of a wheelchair; which when possible is almost always of poor quality.
The difference between a fixed frame ‘active’ chair that individuals in the Western world might use and a larger, bulkier folding frame chair (of the sort often seen in hospitals, airports or supermarkets) is dramatic and constantly affects the quality of life of the user. It is for these reasons that the project aims to provide compact, high quality wheelchairs which are suitable for the individual and environment and are fitted appropriately.
In Senegalese cities there are often ‘Association des Handicapes’ which while under resourced can usually offer some degree of support for members of the disability community. It is because of this that ‘Diam Rek’ aims to deliver wheelchairs specifically to rural areas where access to these resources is not available.
