[Joed]

I read about this in a Reader's Digest, and did a little searching online. I think this is a great program and has the potential to significantly improve lives in areas where w/c's are not available.

Cheap Wheelchairs for Underdeveloped Countries

An engineer, his complex bio-medical inventions have helped save many lives, but Schoendorfer’s greatest contribution to mankind may be a simple wheelchair that can be built and delivered for $41.17. The chairs are distributed through local churches free of charge to disabled persons in developing nations.

Constructed around a plastic lawn chair and bicycle tires, the wheelchair is an example of engineering simplicity. Nevertheless, the invention gives mobility and hope to persons who would otherwise be confined to a room all their lives or be forced to crawl along the ground like an injured animal.