Whirlwind Women Train Mexican and Ugandan Disabled Women to Build Wheelchairs 

By Helen Vozenilek

Whirlwind Women is affiliated with the two-decade-old Whirlwind Wheelchair International (WWI), a loose coalition of wheelchair designers, builders, and users from 30 different countries who exchange information on "appropriate technology" wheelchair building. Whirlwind Women's goal is to help disabled women in developing countries design, manufacture, and repair wheelchairs. The idea is not only to provide the women the ability to build and repair their own chairs - thus giving them increased physical independence - but also to give them the power to build and repair chairs for others, a vocational skill that could lead to increased financial independence. The November trip was the first phase of what organizers expect will be an ongoing relationship between Whirlwind Women and the Women's Independent Living Center. 

"Our hope," says Jenny Kern, director of Whirlwind Women, "is to develop a solid local base of trained women wheelchair builders who are able to travel to Mexico on an ongoing volunteer basis to help with the teaching." 

Given the limited time and financial resources, the first focus will be caster production. These small front wheels are the Achilles' heel of the chair; constant impact with rugged surfaces makes them vulnerable to breakage. Training the San Luis Potosi women in the manufacture and replacement of casters may help make them employable. 

The alliance in Mexico will be much easier to organize and fund than the one started in Kampala, Uganda, a year ago by Whirlwind Women. That project, the Mobility Appliances by Disabled Women Entrepreneurs (MADE), has already begun production of the Whirlwind wheelchairs. 

Kern traveled to Kenya and Uganda in 1997 and 1998 to set up Whirlwind workshops. A lawyer, she's put her practice on hold while attending to the all-encompassing job of director and fundraiser of Whirlwind Women. 

"The international disability movement is the ultimate antidote to pity," she says. "It's the antithesis of pathetically waiting around for something to happen. Which is one of the myths about disability - that we are just sitting around waiting for the cure." 

"In Uganda women came crawling into our trainings with kids on their backs," she says. "They have so little. Even in the poorest communities here in the U.S. - Appalachia or the Indian reservations - most of the people are still able to get wheelchairs even if they aren't the best." 

Kern has just received one of the $10,000 Paul Hearne awards for young disability advocates in recognition of her Whirlwind Women leadership.