 Whilst on holiday on the Isle of Wight this summer, it was a real privilege to be escorted around Wheelchair Workshop1 at Parkhurst Prison where Wheels for the World send their wheelchairs to be refurbished.
Glenda Pike, Wheels for the World Co-ordinator, very kindly arranged for us to meet the men who skillfully dismantle old NHS wheelchairs, paint, renovate and refit them with tyres fit for rough terrain. They are then ready to be shipped to the developing world in nearly new condition.
As Glenda showed me around, I was introduced to Raj who oversees the work in the workshop and he explained, with great enthusiasm, how much he took pride in his work and gets great satisfaction from working there. The storeroom was very well organised, with labelled boxes full of nuts and bolts, wheels, footplates etc. At one end of the workshop the frame parts were being spray-painted and then hung to dry. Elsewhere, other men were busy fixing frames and foot plates. Each wheelchair is logged in a book and once finished is labelled and lined up, smart and gleaming, ready to be taken to its destination. It was a delight to see the old, tired wheelchairs, ready for the scrap-yard, then transformed into nearly new.
 While we were there one young man, Dave, was working hard to finish a gleaming yellow and black children’s wheelchair and it was obvious he was very proud of his achievement. It was so good to see the men using their skills, helping them to restore their dignity and self-worth.
It is always hard to see photos of disabled people struggling along the ground by any means they can and so good to see their dignity restored as they are fitted with a wheelchair just right for them, but I have now had my eyes opened to a new dimension of the work of ‘Wheels’. Seeing the men in the prison taking so much care over their work is giving them a real purpose and enabling them to give of themselves in a very positive way.
Wheels for the World has now fitted approximately 6,000 people, including children, with wheelchairs in developing countries. Distributions have taken place in Jordan, Ghana, Kenya, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Romania, Albania, Ukraine, Nigeria, Tanzania and South Africa. In 2010 the first distribution to Uganda will take place.
 Wheels for the World is one of four programmes working together within Through the Roof whose vision is ‘To see all disabled people be free to reach their God-given potential’. For more information on their work please see their website. If you would like to volunteer to join a wheelchair distribution team as a physiotherapist, occupational therapist, mechanic, administrator, photographer, or offering pastoral support and teaching please ...
contact 01372 749955 or
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