The Prince of Girona Foundation and the GERDD Association (Management Organisation for the Development of Resources for Disabled People) have sent a container with the components necessary to produce a further 250 wheelchairs in Guatemala. This shipment consolidates the cooperation project set up in 2010, which has allowed for the creation of a company-workshop.
In this company-workshop, disabled people produce, maintain and distribute wheelchairs and other quality technical aids. In Guatemala, the Prince of Girona Foundation (FPdGi) and the GERDD Association have the support of TRANSICIONES, the Association of Disabled Persons of Guatemala, which comprises young disabled people and mostly wheelchair users who are trained and experienced in the manufacture of all kinds of technical aids and in their adaptation to the future user.
The wheelchairs are sent disassembled to be mounted and distributed by the workshop. The Guatemalan social services then acquire the wheelchairs produced by TRANSICIONES and distribute them among those disabled people who as yet do not possess this technical aid.
In addition to the agreement with the TRANSICIONES organization in Guatemala, the Prince of Girona Foundation and the GERDD Association also work with the ONPLI Association (National Organisation for the Occupational Integration of Persons with a Disability) in Uruguay, where a company-workshop for the assembly and distribution of wheelchairs and other orthopedic material has been established.
Web platform
Parallel to this project, the Prince of Girona Foundation and GERDD are promoting the creation of a Global R+D Network, which also features the collaboration of the Cooperation Office and the AMADE research group and technology transfer center of the University of Girona. This project is intended to yield a web platform for the distribution and design of technical aids for physically disabled people.
The agreement with the GERDD Association falls within the social and cooperation measures undertaken by the Prince of Girona Foundation to encourage initiatives aimed at preventing inequality.
