innovation in Gifts of Mobility with Partners for Care in Kenya

By technologists

From Craig Anderson:

Team – I am about ready to depart Kenya for the U.S. It has been a great learning experience. I will close out these updates with the following stories.

The first two photos are of a 31 yr old man who uses his cart to sell snacks. I know it is hard for us to understand the economics of how all this works – but he sells enough product on a busy corner to put two sisters through high school, put his brother through college and help his mother renovate her home. Kenyans have an incredible loyalty to family and as the first born – he finds great joy in giving back.

The third photo is a Jim Sweitzer/ Don Mayer special. This young man has customized his cart by moving the wheels back and building a rather large frame around the original cart body and drive train. He uses this cart to provide product transport services in his community and earns enough to support his family. And yes – he requested a motorcycle engine to help him when he has heavy loads. You can do this Jim and Don.

And finally – I received the last two pictures at the airport just prior to leaving Kenya. Our Step2 carts arrived as I was leaving. Fred and Vince sent me these as they were opening boxes and teaching the Kenyan team how to assemble the carts. They plan to deliver these carts to recipients on Wednesday – their last day in Kenya. I am sure there will be some fun stories in the shop regarding how the recipients reacted to these new designs. We met the two Kenyans who will receive these carts. Both currently have older carts that are in pretty rough shape. So – more to come on that from Vince and Fred.

We are coming back to the states with a great deal of information and experiences to help us all improve the service we deliver to those in need of the gift of mobility. And YOU are key to helping us making that happen.

Working Together We Will Win Together – Hopefully many of you can join the next trip to Kenya.

KEEP SMILING – Craig

From Scott Walters:

A team of key staff/volunteers from the Columbia, MO and Stow, OH Affiliates (including Craig Anderson and Gary Moreau) are finishing up a distribution trip to Kenya.

For the past week, they worked with Partners for Care to distribute Mobility Carts and make connections. What is especially exciting about this trip is that our new test carts, made of molded resin, arrived in time to distribute for a field test. I am forwarding to you, Craig’s final email report which I received overnight. Notice the pictures of the new molded resin carts.

Editor: The “Step2” molded resin carts being field-tested in Kenya are proposed to augment the current wood frame cart design. We anticipate increasing production significantly with some Affiliates producing these molded carts in addition to the current designs.