Dinero Leaving home to work or study abroad is an adventurous leap into the great unknown, especially if your destination is a remote, lawless Mexican village in the middle of nowhere. Two Dutch gringos, Marcel Plomp and Fashad Soleymani, put their undergraduate Industrial Design studies to good use this summer, designing wheelchairs for children in Mexico.
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Ajoya, Mexico, is an unlikely place for a wheelchair workshop. The village, a cluster of run-down houses slowly baking in the hot Mexican sun, is buried deep in the Sierra Madre mountains, where peasants are dirt poor and local drug-lords murder each other for control of the region’s marijuana crop.
“We knew we were heading to the wild Wild West, but the work was too important to turn down,” says Plomp. In Mexico, parents who can’t afford to buy wheelchairs must carry or drag their disabled children around.
Promijo, a community-based rehabilitation project run by and for disabled people, aims to empower local people by providing training and self-help medical manuals. With their meager funds unable to meet the overwhelming demand for their services, Primijo was delighted to welcome two TU students.
Plomp’s and Soleymani’s destination was Primojo’s ‘Children’s Wheelchair Project’, where Gabriel, a paraplegic, runs the workshop. Using wood, metal, bicycle tires and basic designs, they build six wheelchairs a month. The wheelchairs are built from scratch, right down to putting the spokes on the wheels. Soleymani says, adding that the wheelchairs are then transported down the mountain to Mazatlan, where they’re distributed to children.
Having endured a 24-hour bus ride from Mexico City to Arroyo and been rudely introduced to a tarantula, Plomp and Soleymani set to work completing a project begun by Mauritz Zijp, a TU student who had worked in Ajoya.
Plomp and Soleymani redesigned and completed an ‘evaluation measurement wheelchair’, to be used during consultations. “Before, children were measured with tape measures, which is not precise enough,” Soleymani says, “All of our evaluation chair’s parts are adjustable and we painted it with bright colors to make it fun for kids.”
They then made a standardized form to be filled in during consultations. “Previously, measurements were scribbled on scraps of paper, often illegibly,” Soleymani explains. “Consequently, mistakes were made during construction and children were hugely disappointed when their new wheelchairs didn’t fit them properly.”
Plomp and Soleymani also wrote a wheelchair design manual, detailing the TU’s Method of Industrial Design. “Our guidelines can be used in Ajoyo and also in other poor countries where people want to start a wheelchair workshop.”
Arroyo proved to be a productive place to work. With no television or Internet, the only distraction was the occasional sound of government helicopters flying off to drop pesticide bombs on marijuana fields. “Of course, drug-lords pay off the pilots to make sure they don’t drop the pesticides on their marijuana crop,” Plomp says.
It was a hot night, 35º C. The heat and a chorus of madly barking village dogs made sleep impossible. At 2 a.m., a masked gunman entered Plomp’s and Soleymani’s bedroom, pointed a pistol at them and demanded “Dinero!”
Although their assailant wore a balaclava, Soleymani recognized his eyes. “It was a young guy from the village,” Soleymani recalls. “It was no big deal, but if we gringos reported the crime, local thugs might retaliate and we’d lose more than just some money. Everyone in Arroyo has been scarred by violence, it comes with the territory and you accept it.”
A few pesos poorer, Plomp and Soleymani pressed on with their final project, designing and building a special seating wheelchair for children afflicted with Cerebral Palsy (CP). “Chairs for CP victims must have adjustable seat angles,” Plomp says. “And because CP children have great strength and can crack metal frames, we decided to use wood.”
Wood offered several advantages. It’s supple, bending without snapping under pressure, unlike metal. And in poor regions, wood is usually available and inexpensive. Moreover, wooden wheelchairs can be built and repaired using hand-tools. Plomp and Soleymani completed their prototype wheelchair, but some fine-tuning work remains. They hope other TU students will follow their trail to Arroya and design wheelchairs.
Despite the extra pressures of working in Arroya, Plomp and Soleymani are glad they accepted the challenge and helped the needy. “A life-changing experience,” Plomp says, “professionally, culturally and spiritually. It also made us value the law, order and quality of medical care we enjoy in Holland.”
caption: The specially-designed wooden wheelchair built by, Marcel Plomp and Fashad Soleymani, for Mexican children afflicted with cerebral palsy
Leaving home to work or study abroad is an adventurous leap into the great unknown, especially if your destination is a remote, lawless Mexican village in the middle of nowhere. Two Dutch gringos, Marcel Plomp and Fashad Soleymani, put their undergraduate Industrial Design studies to good use this summer, designing wheelchairs for children in Mexico.
Ajoya, Mexico, is an unlikely place for a wheelchair workshop. The village, a cluster of run-down houses slowly baking in the hot Mexican sun, is buried deep in the Sierra Madre mountains, where peasants are dirt poor and local drug-lords murder each other for control of the region’s marijuana crop.
“We knew we were heading to the wild Wild West, but the work was too important to turn down,” says Plomp. In Mexico, parents who can’t afford to buy wheelchairs must carry or drag their disabled children around.
Promijo, a community-based rehabilitation project run by and for disabled people, aims to empower local people by providing training and self-help medical manuals. With their meager funds unable to meet the overwhelming demand for their services, Primijo was delighted to welcome two TU students.
Plomp’s and Soleymani’s destination was Primojo’s ‘Children’s Wheelchair Project’, where Gabriel, a paraplegic, runs the workshop. Using wood, metal, bicycle tires and basic designs, they build six wheelchairs a month. The wheelchairs are built from scratch, right down to putting the spokes on the wheels. Soleymani says, adding that the wheelchairs are then transported down the mountain to Mazatlan, where they’re distributed to children.
Having endured a 24-hour bus ride from Mexico City to Arroyo and been rudely introduced to a tarantula, Plomp and Soleymani set to work completing a project begun by Mauritz Zijp, a TU student who had worked in Ajoya.
Plomp and Soleymani redesigned and completed an ‘evaluation measurement wheelchair’, to be used during consultations. “Before, children were measured with tape measures, which is not precise enough,” Soleymani says, “All of our evaluation chair’s parts are adjustable and we painted it with bright colors to make it fun for kids.”
They then made a standardized form to be filled in during consultations. “Previously, measurements were scribbled on scraps of paper, often illegibly,” Soleymani explains. “Consequently, mistakes were made during construction and children were hugely disappointed when their new wheelchairs didn’t fit them properly.”
Plomp and Soleymani also wrote a wheelchair design manual, detailing the TU’s Method of Industrial Design. “Our guidelines can be used in Ajoyo and also in other poor countries where people want to start a wheelchair workshop.”
Arroyo proved to be a productive place to work. With no television or Internet, the only distraction was the occasional sound of government helicopters flying off to drop pesticide bombs on marijuana fields. “Of course, drug-lords pay off the pilots to make sure they don’t drop the pesticides on their marijuana crop,” Plomp says.
It was a hot night, 35º C. The heat and a chorus of madly barking village dogs made sleep impossible. At 2 a.m., a masked gunman entered Plomp’s and Soleymani’s bedroom, pointed a pistol at them and demanded “Dinero!”
Although their assailant wore a balaclava, Soleymani recognized his eyes. “It was a young guy from the village,” Soleymani recalls. “It was no big deal, but if we gringos reported the crime, local thugs might retaliate and we’d lose more than just some money. Everyone in Arroyo has been scarred by violence, it comes with the territory and you accept it.”
A few pesos poorer, Plomp and Soleymani pressed on with their final project, designing and building a special seating wheelchair for children afflicted with Cerebral Palsy (CP). “Chairs for CP victims must have adjustable seat angles,” Plomp says. “And because CP children have great strength and can crack metal frames, we decided to use wood.”
Wood offered several advantages. It’s supple, bending without snapping under pressure, unlike metal. And in poor regions, wood is usually available and inexpensive. Moreover, wooden wheelchairs can be built and repaired using hand-tools. Plomp and Soleymani completed their prototype wheelchair, but some fine-tuning work remains. They hope other TU students will follow their trail to Arroya and design wheelchairs.
Despite the extra pressures of working in Arroya, Plomp and Soleymani are glad they accepted the challenge and helped the needy. “A life-changing experience,” Plomp says, “professionally, culturally and spiritually. It also made us value the law, order and quality of medical care we enjoy in Holland.”
caption: The specially-designed wooden wheelchair built by, Marcel Plomp and Fashad Soleymani, for Mexican children afflicted with cerebral palsy
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