A young advocate in Africa receives a new-to-him wheelchair from UATP

This month in West Africa, a young man is trying out his motorized wheelchair for the first time. He joins with the Utah Assistive Technology Program in thanking the people who made it possible.

“My new wheelchair has changed my life,” said Jacques Zongo, who lives in Burkina Faso. “I am not always asking for help from friends to go somewhere. It’s like I got new feet. … I am not psychologically feeling my disability, hurting me all the time.” It was painful and discouraging when he wanted to go somewhere and could not get there on his own, he said. “Today I don’t think that will be the same. This wheelchair will help me to overcome my disability.”

In an earlier interview, Zongo said it was very hard to get a motorized wheelchair where he lives because nobody made them locally. He reached out to the UATP in Salt Lake City (formerly CReATE) via Facebook, after talking to Isamael Traore, another wheelchair user from Burkina Faso. Traore was one of a delegation of people from many countries who met UATP’s Salt Lake City Coordinator, Tom Boman, during a site visit with the Utah Council for Citizen Diplomacy in 2015. At the time, Boman tuned up Traore’s wheelchair and sent some extra wheels back with him.

Zongo asked if UATP could help him get a motorized wheelchair. The Salt Lake facility did have a chair that would fit his needs, but getting it to Burkina Faso was a greater hurdle.

Read the whole story on the Center for Persons with Disabilities blog.