Wheelchairs

This was a small ‘one off’ project, but like all projects it was dependent on the generosity of others.

In The Gambia when you greet friends you ask for their family. So on this occasion the question elicited the unexpected reply.....”the boy is now too heavy for his mum to lift, so we are having problems... he will never go to school.” The boy was his oldest kid, at the time he was a big 4 years old who had spina bifida. Like any health issues the costs of anything is prohibitive for ordinary families.

When I got back to the UK I started researching the possibility of sourcing a child's wheelchair. New ones were lightweight (no good for the rough tracks they call roads in The Gambia. Second Hand ones were like ‘hens teeth’. So I started asking around and this led to the beautiful Rhona who worked at Raigmore Hospital. She sourced 2 kids wheelchairs and arranged for them to be fully checked by the maintenance. They were due to be crushed because they were too heavy and old fashioned. Exactly what was needed for The Gambia.

Next problem was how to get them out there. A few emails later the Gambian carrier GBAY volunteered to take them out for nothing as long as we could get them, suitable wrapped, to their container depot at Corby. Wrapping was no problem, my friend Sue and I had great fun with a roll of bubble wrap and lots of clingfilm!

So how to get them to Corby? This was when the lovely Bob (Sue’s husband) came to our rescue. His boss was due to visit Inverness from down south, so they were loaded into his van, which in turn was loaded onto another van going to Corby. 2 months later 2 wheelchairs were delivered by the wonderful Sam, to 2 kids with spina bifida in The Gambia. The most wonderful thing was that it cost us nothing, thanks to the help of a few great people.

The update to this story is that my friends kid now goes to school with his younger sister. It has taken over 5 years to set up schooling facilities for him, but a very big achievement for his future. (Some of the picture quality is poor because old second-hand phones in The Gambia produce poor pictures)