Thank you Nicola for raising a fantastic £580 climbing Kilimanjaro in aid of Motivation, well done

– Co-founder / Executive Officer, Motivation

LWM Charitable Trust is pleased to be supporting Motivation.

Motivation is an international development charity supporting people with mobility disabilities. Their high-quality, low-cost wheelchairs are designed specifically for use in developing countries.

Teamed with their innovative training programmes, their wheelchairs transform lives, giving disabled people independence, confidence and hope for the future.

They break their work down into four key programme areas: Survival, Mobility, Empowerment and Inclusion.

In 1989, Royal College of Art students David Constantine and Simon Gue were tasked with designing a wheelchair suitable for use in developing countries.

Robust enough to cope with potholes and uneven ground and made from affordable, locally available materials, David and Simon’s design was very well received – and won them the Frye Memorial Prize.
The pair teamed up with their friend Richard Frost and used their prize money to travel to Bangladesh, where they built their wheelchair for a disability organisation in Dhaka. It went down so well that the organisation asked the team to help them start producing the wheelchairs on a larger scale. Recognising that people with disabilities were the poorest of the poor and that an appropriate wheelchair was the fastest route out of poverty, the team needed little convincing.
In 1991, David, Simon and Richard established Motivation, raised funds in the UK and returned to Dhaka to start their first wheelchair workshop. From there, they set up wheelchair workshops in Poland, Indonesia and Russia.

Twenty one years on, Motivation is internationally recognised as a leader in designing, producing and distributing high-quality, low-cost wheelchairs for developing countries. So far, their products and training programmes have reached over 130,000 people in 83 countries around the world.

It’s all about design: their wheelchairs have been designed specifically for use in developing countries.

  • Their wheelchairs are robust – they are designed to cope with potholes and rough, rocky ground found in poor countries and rural communities.
  • Their wheelchairs are made from affordable, locally available materials, so they are easy to repair.
  • Their wheelchairs are adaptable and fitted to meet each individual’s needs, so people are seated comfortably and safely. To put it simply: their wheelchairs fit them properly.
  • Their wheelchairs come with pressure-relieving cushions – these prevent potentially fatal pressure sores.
  • Their wheelchairs have been approved and recommended by the World Health Organisation.

Keeping in touch

W: http://www.motivation.org.uk/

F: https://www.facebook.com/wearemotivation?v=wall

T: https://twitter.com/wearemotivation

To donate: http://www.motivation.org.uk/donate/