a year behind and a year ahead–at a glance

Hi friends.  My projects seem to be getting bigger and bigger, so I’ve decided to celebrate with a blog.

For the last year (since I graduated from Hampshire College) I’ve been designing wheelchairs and wheelchair propulsion devices with Whirlwind Wheelchair International and teaching at Hampshire College on Appropriate Technology Design and Implementation.

Until I get it posted here, here is a gallery of some of my recent work, including cargo bicycles, lever drive wheelchairs, wood burning cookstoves, and bicycle trailers.

I’m in the planning stage for a project in Namibia (Southern Africa) involving the design, fabrication, and implementation of bicycle ambulances. According to the WHO and UNICEF in 2000, sub-sararan africa had a 1% maternal mortality rate. Some of those deaths could be prevented if women had access to transportation to clinics and hospitals. I’ll be working with Bicycling Empowerment Network Namibia (BEN Namibia or BENN) on a project to design a bicycle-pulled ambulance, set up a fabrication shop in Windhoek, Namibia to prototype and build the production version, and train local fabricators in the design and manufacture of these ambulances.

BEN Namibia currently imports used bikes from Europe and North America, trains local mechanics to fix them and start bike shops, and helps these shops sell affordable bikes. they also distribute a large number of bikes to women working as volunteers in HIV/AIDS home-based care. Namibia has a 21 percent HIV prevalence rate according to the CIA worldfactbook (we might suspect underreporting) and 40 percent prevalence in some regions. As the second least densly populated country (and 6th least densly populated country/dependency) in the world, transportation is a large issue for health care workers. (from Wikipedia, data from UN world population prospects) Bicycles can help home based care providers move between homes and carry testing equipment, ARVs (anti-retroviral drugs), and condoms.

There are two similar african-based bike ambulance projects about which I know. Niki Dun has designed a bicycle ambulance for Malawi, and now has an organization called Design For Development that facilitates projects like this outside of an academic setting, where most appropriate technology projects have historically been based in recent years. Another collaborative project between MIT’s D-lab, Whirlwind Wheelchair, and Disacare in Zambia is underway to build a fleet of ambulances and sell them to village health committees.

All in all, it’s exciting to be working on the forefront of such a pertinent, creative, and inspiring field. I’ll use this blog to post photos and updates as plans progress.