Ghana 2009 by Lucy Wood

After arriving late last night, today was spent mainly sorting through all the wheelchairs and mobility aids.  They were already colour-coded into sizes.  However, we needed to divide them up into the different distribution days.  Three of the therapists spent some time looking through all the application forms already received (at least 150 of them!).  From this, we were able (in theory!) to gauge approximately which size wheelchairs we were likely to need more of each day, and roughly how many crutches/walking frames we should take to each distribution.  It wasn’t that easy in practice though, particularly as many of the application forms provided little information other than “walking disability”!  While we were doing the sorting, the other team members worked hard fixing any wheelchairs that had been damaged during shipping, and re-attaching parts that had gone astray such as footrests etc.

Once we had checked all the wheelchairs and decided which we were taking to each distribution, these were labelled up and arranged in storage in the correct order.  In total, there were just under 200 wheelchairs, 100 pairs of crutches and several walking frames.  It felt a particularly long and exhausting day, with all of us taking a while to adjust to the heat and humidity.  However, it was very satisfying when all the equipment was finally sorted ready for the distributions ahead.