The Birth of Mujeres Torbellino
Whirlwind Women Director Alicia Contreras and Occupational Therapist and WW Wheelchair Technician Honora Hunter Russell returned to San Luis Potosí, Mexico, in June 2003 to continue training 20 area disabled women in wheelchair maintenance and business entrepreneurship. This is their report.
As we had somewhat anticipated, the trip to San LuisPotosí did not go quite as planned, but we seized our chance to take advantage of unexpected opportunities, and many things turned out better than we could have hoped.
As soon as we arrived, we inspected the 80 wheelchairs we had bought fromFundación Bertha, the wheelchair factory in San Juan delRio,Querétaro, as recounted in theFall 2002 Newsletter. It is important to mention that these wheelchairs were the first production of Whirlwinds made by Bertha, and since inMexico there are no laws requiring either quality control in wheelchair factories or adherence to the testing standards of the international Standards Organization, it was new to Bertha engineers for consumers to nitpick the quality of their wheelchairs. These first wheelchairs had a variety of technical problems including:
· Most of the right front wheels were well off the ground
· The rear wheels were not parallel
· The brakes were too hard to engage
· The wheelchairs were too hard to fold
· The footrests would not fold up completely
· TheZimbabwe wheels were cracking and splitting
· The seat back fabric was too loose
After mulling over our options and the reality of the situation (and pulling our hair out), we decided to incorporate the fixing of the wheelchairs as a part of our training, but we needed help. Alicia persuaded the Bertha factory owner to come to DANE, a local disabled children’s organization, which is our headquarters in SLP, to inspect and repair the wheelchairs that he had sold. He came with another engineer and an apprentice. Together we decided to fix 20 wheelchairs for the women in our group immediately, and for the Bertha people to return to fix the rest the following week (which they did). The owner left the first night, but we refused to let the other two leave until the 20 wheelchairs were aligned and fixed. With Honora leading the process, it took three days of nonstop work late into each night, but we fixed them all.
To start the training part of our program, we taught all 20 participants basic measuring and wheelchair fitting. Each woman was fitted for a wheelchair that she was encouraged to use and critique throughout the training. We facilitated formal and informal discussions about mechanical problems and design-based problems with this wheelchair, as well as the advantages of the Whirlwind wheelchair over other designs. The focus of the discussions was to allow the participants to think about what they and others needed from a wheelchair and how to meet those needs through adaptations—some simple and others not so simple.
The Vital Fit
Although veteran wheelchair users, many of the women commented on how this training was the first time that anyone had ever talked with them about the importance of having a wheelchair that fits properly. Many of them had back, shoulder, and wrist problems that they did not know were caused by the heavy and poorly fitting hospital wheelchairs they had been using.
We also included hands-on classes on tire changing, bearing concepts and adjustment, basic maintenance, and tool use. This course was the first time that many of the women had changed a tire or used a wrench with confidence. Throughout the week, we taught alignment concepts to small groups of women by involving them in the testing of their own wheelchairs. Many of the women were involved in the alignment of rear wheels and the judgment of whether their wheelchairs rolled straight after adjustment. A huge part of what we taught had to do with quality standards. In the beginning, most of the women could not recognize when a wheelchair was not rolling straight. By the end, each woman had contributed to the alignment of the wheelchair she was riding.
A big challenge for us was to accomplish our original goals, including advocacy, business, and wheelchair use, while fixing the wheelchairs. It really does make a difference to have good and hard-working partners in the countries where we work. For this training we partnered with four organizations: DANE; Tlachtli, a non-profit group that organizes leadership training; the State Institute for Women; and Nahui-Ollin, a new organization founded by a quadriplegic woman for the purpose of promoting the inclusion of disabled women in the work force.Tlachtli took care of all the logistics and emergencies. DANE let us use their wheelchair shop and their entire building to host all the participants and do the training. The State Institute for Women provided training on business and organizational options to establish a women’s network. Nahui-Ollin did an amazing job training the women in fundraising, wheelchair use, and the prevention and treatment of pressure sores.
This training was a great success. Previous to the training, some of the participants had to borrow a hospital wheelchair to come to the training and some others’ chairs were at the point where some part could break at any minute. Most of the trainees were totally afraid of rolling down on a ramp without help and also wanted to wait for someone to push them around. (This is not uncommon in many cultures where people with disabilities are treated as if they are ill, and independence is not encouraged.) After this training, most of the participants are able to push independently their very own Whirlwinds, even doing “wheelies” and going up and down on a curve.
They all learned that women can and should speak up to the factory-owners and demand quality even when wheelchairs they are using were sold at very low cost or even donated. The women are now able to recognize when someone is trying to sell them an inferior wheelchair. They are prepared and empowered to support and to sell appropriately fitted wheelchairs to people who need them and who are isolated in their communities. Many of the women now have the confidence to perform basic maintenance on their own and on others’ chairs.As a final measure of success, the group as a whole had the initiative to create its own business entity to sell and maintain wheelchairs. They decided to call themselves “Mujeres Torbellino” (Whirlwind Women). As far as we know, this is the first organized network of women with disabilities/business entrepreneurs inMexico. Altogether, it was a pretty amazing week!
WOMEN
PUSHING
FORWARD (wpf): The power of mobility!