The Wheelchair User Support Program

Implementing Partner: Motivation Charitable Trust

Funding Period: September 2004 - July 2009

Amount: $2,702,781

Purpose: Address the physical, social, and economic needs of persons requiring wheelchairs.

Within its wheelchair initiative, USAID’s War Victims Fund is teaming with the British organization, Motivation Charitable Trust, to implement a comprehensive program to address the physical, social, and economic needs of wheelchair users. The project covers the geographical regions of South and Southeast Asia, East and Southern Africa, and Eastern Europe. Motivation works with local partners to implement the program’s goals in the five key areas of poverty, rights, services and capacity, products, and collaboration and dissemination.

To address poverty, the project seeks to ensure that even the poorest people with disabilities are afforded access to appropriate, well-fitting wheelchairs, and that wheelchair users are provided access to employment opportunities that will enable them to support themselves and their families.

To ensure the rights of wheelchair users, the program organizes peer-group training for wheelchair users by wheelchair users to demand and access their rights.

Since 1999, Motivation has worked with the USAID-funded TATCOT program to train wheelchair technologists on appropriate methods of wheelchair production and distribution.

Today, the project works with local partners to design and produce low-cost, environment-appropriate wheelchairs.

Finally, the project works to strengthen collaboration between organizations involved in wheelchair production. For example, the project worked with Mobility India to host the program’s first external “Fit for Life” course. Both wheelchair prescription and fitting courses were run by Indian staff with nominal support and input from Motivation.