Wheelchair Program
We work with our partners in Peru to ensure that every child who needs a wheelchair gets one that fits! So far, we’ve helped thousands of children and their families find freedom and better health with minimal cost mobility devices.
Our 2025 trip to Peru will be March 10th through the 21st.
What We Do
The main work of Eleanore’s Project is our wheelchair seating and mobility program. Since our inception in 2004, we have provided more than 3,000 custom-fit wheelchairs for kids and young adults.
When kids have the right kind of wheeled mobility, they can attend school, more easily join their families for meals at the table, and experience better health. Many kids who have received wheelchairs through Eleanore’s Project return when they have outgrown their wheelchair – truly the best kind of return visitors!
Why We Do It
The World Health Organization estimates that over 70 million people need a wheelchair worldwide, yet only 5-15% have access to one. But in the less-resourced countries of the Global South like Peru, acquiring high-quality, customizable wheelchairs is almost impossible: equipment is scarce and extremely costly.
That’s where Eleanore’s Project steps in. Since 2004, we’ve brought wheelchairs and other adaptive equipment from the United States to Peru. Because simply providing equipment isn’t enough, we collaborated with Peruvian partners to create an innovative, sustainable wheelchair seating program for people who would otherwise be confined to their homes.
How We Do It
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Our partner organization in Peru is called Yancana Huasy. (YAN-cah-nah WAH-see, “Yan” rhymes with “don.” It means “house of work” in the indigenous Quechua language.) Yancana Huasy is located in the densely-populated San Juan de Lurigancho District of Lima, an area with high poverty and crime rates.
The staff of Yancana Huasy provide wraparound rehabilitation therapy, medical and educational services for children and adults with disabilities and their families in the surrounding area. The wheelchair service that we support serves about 200 people each year.
We have invested heavily in training, mentoring, and sponsoring learning opportunities for the occupational and physical therapists at Yancana Huasy. Our goal is for Yancana Huasy to run their wheelchair program year-round with Eleanore’s Project providing support when needed.
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Each year, Eleanore’s Project sends a shipment of wheelchairs, seating supplies, repair parts, and other equipment to Peru. Most wheelchairs are tagged with the name of a recipient in Peru, and any remaining space in the shipping container is filled with extra wheelchairs and supplies to keep Yancana Huasy’s inventory full.
More than half of the wheelchairs we ship are donated, refurbished equipment that is no longer needed by the original users in the United States. These wheelchairs cost thousands of dollars originally but cannot be reused in the US due to regulations – but they are still safe and usable. Programs like Eleanore’s Project provide an outlet for these valuable resources that would otherwise be discarded.
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So how exactly does Eleanore’s Project work? Our cycle starts each October…
Late October: Yancana Huasy staff send wheelchair requests with details about each kid who needs a chair.
November: Eleanore’s Project volunteer therapists review requests and make educated guesses about what type and size of wheelchair will be most appropriate for each kid.
December: Volunteers meet up at Hope Haven International, our wheelchair refurbishing partner in South Dakota, to select wheelchairs. Other donated materials are sent to Hope Haven as well so that everything goes in one large container.
January: Our shipping container is loaded and ready for transport. It will travel to a port via truck and be placed on a cargo ship for its voyage to Lima.
February is a big month!
The shipping container arrives in the port city of Callao, near Lima. Our partners in Peru facilitate getting everything through customs. The container is transported from Callao to Yancana Huasy’s neighborhood, Canto Grande. Yancana Huasy staff and family members of wheelchair recipients unload the shipment and bring everything into Yancana Huasy storage.
All wheelchair-recipient families participate in training sessions provided by Yancana Huasy staff. They learn about how to care for wheelchairs and about 24-hour postural care.
March is when it all comes together.
A team of highly skilled Eleanore’s Project volunteers travel to Lima for a two-week wheelchair fitting clinic. Over the course of the clinic weeks, about half of the wheelchair recipients will receive their wheelchair. The remainder of planned wheelchairs will be fit by Yancana Huasy staff over the next few months.
Before the wheelchair fitting clinics, Eleanore’s Project volunteers lead continuing education sessions for the Yancana Huasy therapists. This is a chance for all staff members to grow their knowledge, and they spend the next two weeks getting to apply their learning with mentoring from Eleanore’s Project.
April–October: Yancana Huasy continues to fit wheelchairs, provide repairs where necessary, and follow up with families who received new wheelchairs. They also begin processing new wheelchair requests for next year’s shipment.
