Women and Wheelchairs in Uganda

by Jan Sing (jsing@sfsu.edu)

Whirlwind Wheelchair International (WWI) has been working in East Africa and Southern Africa since 1993.  I have been developing wheelchair technology specifically for Africa, and teaching mostly disabled men and women wheelchair technology in Africa since 1996.  Much of my own experience has been with our pilot project, Mobility Appliances by Disabled (Women) Entrepreneurs (MADE) in Uganda.  However, we now know of several other women involved with wheelchairs in Africa.  Needless to say, our experience and network is growing.  Following is some background and news about our experience in Uganda.

After receiving a request for training, Whirlwind Women brought three Ugandan women with disabilities to a wheelchair building training in Kenya.  The women represented three areas of Uganda, the north, the central and the east.  All of them were active in the women with disabilities movement and were supporting families and children by weaving hats, lanterns and straw mats.

Birth of MADE in 1997
In August 1997 Jenny Kern of Whirlwind Women and I helped the three women  start MADE, finding financial assistance, giving program guidance and helping them to develop a very supportive Board.  It was challenging because the three women had only 4 weeks training in basic metal working, and wheelchair building.  Only one had experience with typewriters.  They had no office or communication facilities.  Two of the women, Fatuma Achan and Sharifa Mirembe had to depend on their tricycles or wheelchair to move about, paying double to triple fare for transportation in taxis and on buses.  Their average income was about $50 per month.  Rent for a one-room dirt floor dwelling with no running water or electricity in Kampala is about $25/month.  Bus fare across town is about $2, a rice and beans meal in a local restaurant is $.75, bottled water is $.30.

Jenny and I gave them a choice, they could wait until Whirlwind staff could return in April or begin constructing wheelchairs starting with a small grant from the Global Fund for Women.  They, as well as one disabled man who Whirlwind had also trained, decided to start as soon as possible.  Fatuma moved from Northern Uganda to Kampala leaving her children with other family members.  Sharifa moved her family across town.

And so they began the process of getting to know how to open up a bank account, pay rent, shop for supplies, remembering how to use vise grips, move their wheelchairs around a workshop and most importantly how to work together.  Action on Disability and Development, a British-based NGO working in developing countries, allowed them to use their office space and provided much guidance along the way.  Soon, they moved into the premises of the Kampala School for the Physically Handicapped.

Step by step into small business development
WWI has made several short visits to MADE, providing what technical and organizational advice we could.  Kurt Kornbluth of WWI visited MADE for a week in December 1998.  I stayed with MADE for two months in April 1999, joined by other WWI members Honora Hunter and Ralf Hotchkiss.  Kurt Kornbluth and I finally spent one week with the group in November 1999.  During those trips we concentrated on organizing their workshop for production and accessibility, setting up the business formats, a wheelchair subsidy program, a quality control mechanism, teaching them how to shop for supplies, production techniques, finding markets and facilitating the growing leadership and structure of the organization.

By November 1999, they had produced 19 wheelchairs.  Rotary Clubs of Corvalis and Greater Albany, Barclays Bank, Uganda Society of Disabled Children and some other individuals have been purchasing their wheelchairs.  They now have three women with disabilities (2 using wheelchairs) working steadily and are hiring two disabled men and two disabled women who will be paid piecework.  MADE will be busy this year keeping up with its orders for at least 60 wheelchairs!  We figured that MADE can pay all of its bills and salaries  - if they can build and sell 7 wheelchairs a month.  They just bought a new MIG welder which will allow the women to do more of the welding and a container for Ruth Nakamaniysa's office.  Ruth had been working in the open workshop, while  trying to protect all of her papers from the dust and dirt.   While we were there the group elected Fatuma Achan to be the Program Manager in recognition of her  leadership in the shop production as well as management of the organization.  She is definitely a great  "mother figure" for the group.

Becoming breadwinners while still making the bread
Teaching women wheelchair technology in Uganda has been challenging.  Most of the men we have worked with in Africa have technical college training in metal working and experience working in a workshop and within a structure.  None of the women have had any opportunities close to that experience.  I remember listening to some men comment that I as an American woman sure work hard, much harder than the women of Uganda.  I had to remind them that I was not up cleaning the house, getting the children fed and dressed at dawn, shopping, cooking with a charcoal stove, carting water home, washing and drying all of the families clothes by hand  - all from a wheelchair or a tricycle - and plenty of other things I probably do not know about.  However, the women face the same challenges the men have in keeping a business running and production high enough to feed their families and pay the business bills.  It's a challenge that the women in Uganda are working out in their own way.  But it has been important that they keep these business and life realities in mind as they forge ahead.

Looking back, I think we set quite a challenge before the women.  They were going from  small scale craft work to a very difficult business venture with an undeveloped market.  It has been difficult with many mistakes along the way, but I think that now, their group has become much stronger, gradually becoming more confident in their own views and ideas.  Sharifa with her folding Whirlwind can zip across town organizing other disabled women and has shown a talent for measuring and working with young wheelchair riders.  Ruth is finding more confidence running the office under Fatuma's direction.  Fatuma is learning to think of the work in the workshop as a whole production rather than the pieces.  She told me that her favorite part of the work is the administration and keeping everything and everyone together.  I believe that they are all now the main breadwinners of their families.  And through it all we always get an open and warm greeting from them and a good laugh and smile from them and all of their children.

This article previously appeared  in the Whirlwind Women Newsletter