National Institute of Rehabilitation and Wheelchair Repair

Pictured in the group above are the therapists and technicians that received training this week in advanced repair and maintenance techniques for wheelchairs.

Wheelchair Repair

Photos:  

*Group photo (beginning of post) of the therapists and technicians that received training this week in wheelchair repair and maintenance techniques.  

*Patio area where wheelchair repair training was taught. This area is used for therapy for people who are in wheelchairs to play games with balls. This is just before we began to set up for the training.  

*Same patio area with wheelchair repair in full swing.  

*Classroom instruction area for the course.  

*Wheelchairs being gathered to be repaired.  

*Rob giving some instructions to the students on wheelchair cushions, their purpose and how to make a proper wheelchair cushion.  

*Prepping this chair for a new seat and back. The new wheels have already been added. The most expensive part of the chair is the frame. A wheelchair can be used for a long time by fixing or replacing parts as they wear.  

*Installing new front and rear wheels to extend the useful life of this chair.  

*This chair is getting a new back.    

This week was spent at the Instituto Nacional de Rehabilitación (INR) [National Rehabilitation Institute] in Chorrillos, which is about an hour from our home. We have been preparing for this course with our technical specialists since before we left Wenatchee and it was satisfying to see all the preparations come to fruition this week. We are responsible for all the in-country coordination for this course. Our technical specialists worked with us to make sure we knew what we needed to do and when we needed to complete it.

We spent most of November purchasing and assembling tool kits for the participants to use during the course and take with them to their respective cities and departments to have the appropriate tools to repair wheelchairs as needed. (Not quite the same or as easy as placing an order on Amazon and having them shipped to your address!) We would purchase all the tools we needed that were available in one store, go to a different store and repeat the process, go to yet another store in a different part of town to buy all the tools they had, and slowly we were successful in obtaining all the tools we needed for the course. Rob has discovered that he enjoys shopping in Lima about as much as he enjoys shopping in Wenatchee, so not much has changed there. Mary wishes that the purchasing card were in her name so she could just go and buy the stuff and leave Rob at the office where he would be happier.

The containers of repair parts and new wheelchairs that were shipped from China arrived at Lima's port in mid-November and our partner (INR) was responsible for moving them through customs and into their storage facilities, which they did in an effective and timely manner. INR also collected wheelchairs in need of repair for use during the training course.

We met with the leadership of the program at INR early in the week to finalize last minute details regarding the course, then went to their storage facility to select the parts that were to be used in the course to teach repair and maintenance. While the parts are designed to be used with the wheelchairs the church has donated to INR (some 2,876 chairs during our partnership with them), the course also taught technicians how to modify the parts to use them in virtually any brand of wheelchair to be able to extend its useful life.

In 2014 the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints donated wheelchairs for 57,800 persons in 48 countries of the world. INR has been a partner in Peru for nine years, and has become more self-sufficient and capable over that time in training others in proper patient assessment and wheelchair delivery techniques. This repair training workshop was one more piece of the puzzle to help INR become more self-reliant and sustainable.

Rob was asked to provide some training (after being instructed by our technical specialist) in the importance of a proper seat cushion for most wheelchair recipients. A proper cushion relieves pressure on the bony areas of the pelvis where sitting for prolonged periods can result in bed sores that are the most serious and life-threatening risk for wheelchair users. Once the theoretical and medical reasons for cushion design were explained and questions asked to assess understanding, he then taught them (with help from a video presentation) how to construct a cushion that provides relief for the pelvic bones (the ischium if you must know which one!) and modified for various wheelchairs. The participants then went to work with the practical application of that teaching.

The course was held with presentations in the tent and practical applications on the patio. There were some technicians who came for training after a 36-hour bus ride from their homes and then had the same long bus ride to return home. They stayed with family 2-hours north of where the course was held so had a much "shorter" commute to the course each day.

It was really fun for us to see how excited patients at INR were as they happened to pass near the course area since many of those had chairs which needed repairing and they were able to get their chairs repaired immediately. It was also fun to see how excited the course participants were to be able to provide this service to those in need. They were visibly energized as they took on the task of these repairs for people they had just met.

Repairing a chair costs a fraction (a very small fraction) of the cost of a new chair. Repairing a chair to extend its useful life means that an additional person will be able to receive a new donated wheelchair since a current user can continue using a repaired chair. INR also hopes to add wheelchair repair to the occupational therapy program it provides to disabled people in its programs. This skill can help the people to become more self-sufficient since it is a higher paying job skill than many of their other offerings.

The course participants also learned how to identify and refurbish usable parts from wheelchairs that can't be fully repaired. These parts can then be used to repair other chairs. Sustainability is one of the key objectives to our work here.

Red chair repair

This chair needs some help. Notice how worn out the wheels are and how rusty it is. The chair is stripped down to the frame and the rusty parts are sanded. The unusable parts are discarded and replaced with new parts. This chair received new wheels (front & rear), footrest plates, seat, back, and cushion. Our good friend Sergio fixed up this chair for a patient at the hospital. In the last photo, Sergio is hard at work while everyone else is watching a demonstration. He is a very ambitious and talented technician.

Blue chair repair

Notice the worn tires, deteriorated armrests, sagging back, missing paint on the frame, and seat worn with a hole in the center. This chair is not intended to be used as a chamber pot. This chair was stripped down to the frame and painted before replacing the worn out parts. The owner of the blue chair was very happy to have her old chair made new again. She was borrowing the larger chair while her chair was being repaired. It can actually be harmful to the health of a person who is in a chair that is not properly fitted to them. 

More from the repair workshop

There were 43 wheelchairs repaired during the course. The technicians will take the skills learned and repair many more. In addition, some of them work for INR and will teach others the same skills to permit many, many more wheelchairs to be repaired, benefitting needy individuals by giving them (or returning to them) their mobility.

Rob gave some remarks at the closing ceremony and as he had watched the profound impact the repairs had on those who brought in their broken down chairs, he felt prompted to share the words of the Savior found in Matthew that conclude with:"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” (Matthew 25:34–40)

Repaired wheelchairs can help the lives of those being served for the better, giving them mobility and releasing them from the confinement many encounter when they cannot get to school, jobs, shopping, or visiting neighbors, family, and friends--things that most of us simply take for granted.