Wheels of Fortune

By Elizabeth Schwinn

On a trip to Morocco with his wife, Laurie, in 1977, Donald W. Schoendorfer was appalled to see a crippled woman dragging herself across the road with her one good arm because she had no other way to get around.

The woman’s image haunted him, and in 1999, the mechanical engineer spent many months working out a design for an inexpensive, rugged wheelchair suitable for developing countries.

The unusual-looking but practical result is a contraption made from a $3 plastic lawn chair, steel tubing, and mountain-bike tires. Mr. Schoendorfer distributes the chairs through the Santa Ana, Calif., charity he founded, the Free Wheelchair Mission.

Because the chairs are made with readily available components, they are easy to fix. “The first ones we put out are still in use,” Mr. Schoendorfer says. By contrast, hospital wheelchairs don’t hold up well in countries that lack paved roads or sidewalks and where local mechanics lack the parts or tools to repair the chairs.

And while many hospital chairs cost $150 or more each, the lawn wheelchair costs just $41.17. That includes shipping costs, as well as the repair tools and tire pump the charity distributes with every 20 chairs it sends.

Mr. Schoendorfer has declined to patent any part of his chair and encourages others to copy his design. More than 100 million people who need wheelchairs don’t have them, he says. “We truly want to give a wheelchair to everyone in need of one. That is a huge task, and we encourage anyone to help in any way.”

To date, the Free Wheelchair Mission has given away 65,000 wheelchairs in 43 countries, working on its own and in partnership with other charities. In Iraq, the U.S. military has distributed 2,750 chairs. The charity, which raised $1.6-million last year, is seeking $4-million this year from individuals and foundations — enough to give out 100,000 chairs.

Mr. Schoendorfer’s goal is to deliver 20 million chairs by 2010.