CanUgan Information

In addition to our annual visits to Uganda to meet directly with KADUPEDI representatives and persons with disabilities who have received support, KADUPEDI provides us with quarterly progress and expenditure reports with corresponding receipts and documentation. In Canada, CanUgan initiated a partnership with Carleton University's School of Industrial Design in 2012 to create hand pedaled tricycles intended for use by persons with disabilities (PWDs) travelling long distances on rough rural western Uganda terrain. This design, which featured stronger frames that could hold a variety of income generating attachments for the users, involved close consultation with local end users to ensure that the new design was functional in the environment and could be produced locally. One income generating attachment that has been developed is a mini-solar panel which can be used to charge cellphones belonging to customers without easy access to power. In 2018, CanUgan once again collaborated with Carleton University's School of Industrial Design create a new "two in one" (tricycle/ wheelchair) prototype, enabling PWDs (especially students) to have a mobility device that would function as a tricycle for road travel and as a wheelchair for in-school or building use. This prototype is evolving thanks in part to a Swedish organization Promobilia, which provided funding to both advance the design work as well as increase the capacity of local manufacturers to build them. A close collaboration with Katelemwa Cheshire Home for Rehabilitation Services in Kampala, has developed to advance this work. A goal is to perfect the design, so that it can be open sourced on the web for free. CanUgan's coordination of Carleton design students connecting with Ugandan metal fabricators and PWDs, is an example of our ability to form creative partnerships to improve the lives of the disabled. F.A.Q.