A wheelchair for developing countries
Gemini/Aase Dragland
Photo: Jan D. Martens
This wheelchair will cost you around one thousand NOK. It comes flat-packed and is easily assembled with basic hand tools.
Project leader Tone Oederud assemblying a new wheelchair using only a wrench and a screwdriver.
At long last SINTEF have succeeded in producing a value-for-money wheelchair. It is functional, hard-wearing - and inexpensive - for disabled people in developing countries.
This low-cost wheelchair is the result of collaboration between SINTEF Unimed Rehab, Alu Rehab AS and The Mobility for All Foundation. In addition, Norad has given finacial support to the project.
There is a great need for this kind of equipment in developing countries. In fact, 80% of the worlds 500 million disabled people live in that part of the world. Many previous attempts have been made to manufacture and distribute wheelchairs, but few of these projects have succeeded. The wheelchairs have become too expensive for users in poor countries and the chairs have not taken into account local conditions such as distribution systems, training and repair facilities.
Tried out in Palestine
We carried out a new project with manufacturers, the scientific community and designers, and the result was a prototype of a wheelchair which is simple to construct, easy to adjust and easy to repair, says Tone Oederud from the Rehab department at Unimed in Oslo.The wheelchair was first tested for strength and then approved by the Swedish Handicap Institute. It will be tried out this autumn by users in Gaza and on the West Bank.
The Norwegian industrial concern Alu Rehab has manufactured this non-folding, aluminium chair. The success of the chair has depended on us being able to identify specific critical components such as wheels, bearings and fasteners. These components are especially vulnerable to wear and tear, and therefore the challenge was to find ingenious solutions, and inexpensive but solid materials which would make the chair last.
The project aims to provide handicapped people with a larger degree of self-management.
«We know that communities in developing countries do not need all these experts coming in to solve their immediate problems. They need to develop their own competence in order to achieve self-mangement and it is very important that as many parts of this chair as possible can be produced locally. It is just as important to build up an infrastructure at the receiving end as it is to deliver the product itself», says Tone Oederud.
Prefabricated relief packages
Researchers at Rehab are working on «prefabricated packages» which contain technical equipment such as wheelchairs, crutches and prostheses to countries that have been hit by a disaster.Such packages could be sent out accompanied by the relevant, qualified personnel. If this concept catches on, it could lead to the delivery of Norwegian products.
The idea was prompted by the NOREPS system, in which complete field hospitals containing all the equipment for a surgery, with beds and emergency generators, are sent as parcels to areas in need of aid. This form of aid can be in place within days, fully staffed.