Emerson is an intelligent young man, now 20 years old, who has a form of progressive muscular atrophy. He lost the ability to walk when he was 4 years old. He has a dislocated right hip and severe contractures of his fingers and one wrist, and severe scoliosis.

When the course participants talked with Emerson in his home, they first suggested a wheelchair. But the youth refused, insisting that he wanted to walk. Unrealistic as this seemed, the group designed a walker for him.

In a plenary session (below) they demonstrate how the walker is designed to support his forearms and chest, so that only part of his weight will be on his deformed feet.

Mauricio, head of the Paraplegics Association of Pichincha, helped with building the walker (modifying one his team had already built) and then he welded 2 wheels on the back and 2 castor wheels on the front. Through trial and error and a lot of suggestions from Emerson himself, the arm-rests and chest support were adjusted to suit him.

When Emerson first tried the walker, he was unstable and his dislocated hip hurt. An elastic hip-band seemed to help, and he took a few steps. He was thrilled! It was the first time he had walked in 16 years! With practice he improved, and to everyone’s amazement, at the day’s end he walked proudly to the bus.

Yet another group made a simple night splint (a padded piece of wood) to help gradually straighten Emerson’s contracted wrist and fingers.

Both Emerson and his mother (who helped make some of the equipment) were delighted with the results of the workshop. Emerson’s spirit was lifted greatly by realizing that so many people cared about him and responded to his felt needs.

Javier is 18 years old and has spastic cerebral palsy that greatly limits his movement and speech. When a small group from the course visited his home, at first his family was quite scepitcal. His mother explained that time and again charitable programs had come, given advice without listening, taken photos and made promises for assistance, but without results. The family was fed up.

In a corner of the house, gathering dust, was a donated wheelchair. For Javier it was useless. It was so wide he fell sideways in it. The arm-rests were way too high. The foot-rests projected far forward, out of reach of his contracted legs. His pulled-back feet bumped into the front caster wheels.

At the workshop the group modified Javier’s wheelchair to meet his needs. To make it narrower they reduced the width of the vinyl seat and back. This closed the X-brace somewhat (which also raised the seat, in effect lowering the arm-rests.) They cut and rewelded the foot-rests between rather than in front of the castors. And they added a seat belt to keep his butt from slipping forward.

Javier and his family were so delighted, they joined the course the next day, to help others learn from such interactive problem-solving.

Overall, the workshop was a great success. Altogether the course participants designed and made 14 devices for 7 children.

Most importantly, they learned how to work together with disabled persons and their families as partners and as equals.