The christmas present that resulted in a one-week project for Transiciones together with Design without Borders

Just before christmas we (my family and I) had the opportunity to give a wheelchair to Janet, a wheelchair that could help the design team at Transiciones to get feedback on what the challenges are living in rural areas. Janet lives in Villa Nueva, just  outside Guatemala City, together with her mum and her two sisters. Janet is 14 years old, and has been carried around for most of her live. So we are hoping that the wheelchair would give Janet and her family a slightly easier life…

 

 

 

 

 

However, as you can see in the previous pictures, Janet could not reach her foot rest… So Transiciones went back to adjust the chair with Fredy and Juan Buch.

 

 

 

This time we also got to talk to Janet’s mum, and she told us that Janet used to have a walker to get around in the house. The one she had broke five years ago, and since then she has not had the opportunity to walk…

 

When we got back to the Transiciones workshop the designers from Design without borders asked the guys to be a part of a mini project, where the design process was used to develop a new walker that could be produced in the workshop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All the guys in the workshop did an amazing job, and they were able to design, develop, produce and paint the walker within a week!

 

 

As it was 5 years since the last time Janet has been in a walker, she was a bit worried sitting in it. However she got more comfortable the longer she sat, and her mum is going to spend some time adapting her to the walker.

 

A big thanks to Transiciones who made all of this possible!

Jannicke