This non-profit organization called Eleanore's Project partners with an NGO in Peru called Yancana Huasy to provide wheelchairs and seating and mobility training. Eleanore's Project raises funds and sources equipment to ship to Peru for a wheelchair clinic held alongside Yancana Huasy therapists. The partnership also provides training to build local capacity in seating and mobility, and involves occupational therapy students who assist at the clinic. The goal is to empower families and promote independence through proper wheelchair fittings while fostering sustainable services.

1. Collaborates with other established non-profit organizations in provision of
adaptive equipment to assist with functional positioning and mobility, and
education regarding successful use of the same;
Promotes strategies and activities to foster communication in deaf or other
wise non-speaking children, particularly those with multiple disabilities;
Participates in programs dealing with issues of adjustment, grief, and loss
faced by families experiencing the birth, life and/or death of children with
disabilities;
Engages in other capacity building activities with groups and communities
working toward long term change that will improve the lives of children with
disabilities and their families.
Project activities occur in resource-limited areas of the world.
The Partnership
Eleanore’s project (EP) is a non-profit organization in Montana, USA, founded by an
occupational therapist and her family.
Since 2007 EP has partnered with Yancana Huasy, an NGO in Lima Peru working with people
with disabilities. Yancana Huasy (YH) has occupational and physical therapists on staff.
YH therapists take solicitations for wheelchairs, measure the children, make recommendations
and send the information to EP. EP works with organizations that build and refurbish wheel-
chairs to find equipment for the specific solicitations from Peru.
EP raises the funds to ship the wheelchairs to Peru. An EP team of occupational therapists,
rehab engineers and other volunteers arrive in Peru to work alongside YH staff in a week long
wheelchair clinic. EP team members are experts in wheelchair seating/mobility.
EP provides training opportunities to build capacity in wheelchair seating and mobility for Peru-
vian occupational therapists and other professionals.
St. Catherine University OT students participate in the wheelchair clinic at YH, being mentored
by EP therapists. This contributes to their formation as future OTs working with people from di-
verse backgrounds as well as those with complex seating needs. Students complete academic
preparation for this experience prior to the trip.
YH families attend a workshop on wheelchair maintenance and care. They agree to care for
the chairs and return them when their children outgrow them so that other families can benefit
from the equipment.
YH provides ongoing support for children and families through their wheelchair program.
Organizing Principles
Partnership
Collaboration is the most effective means of service pro-
vision.
Strong partnerships are built between Eleanore’s
Project, Yancana Huasy, and St. Catherine University.
Decisions are made together, power and resources are
shared—an ongoing process!
Each entity has much to give as well as much to gain
within the partnership.
Building Capacity
Children in properly fitted wheelchairs have improved
ability to breathe, scan the environment, gain head and
trunk control, use their arms and hands in functional
ways and eat. Some go to school for the first time.
Families are more easily able to care for the child and
include him or her in daily activities (going to the mar-
ket, visiting a neighbor, etc).
Students, community members, and families are edu-
cated about the principles and benefits of properly fitting
wheelchairs.
Sustainability
Families have access to wheelchair resources (growth
adjustments, repairs, education, updated materials)
Local therapists are educated and able to oversee
wheelchair provision.
Local resources are used whenever possible.
Students in related fields are trained and mentored by
seating experts.
Peruvian therapists advocate for improved wheelchair
services in their country.
Justice
Mutual goals and interests are identified.
Families and their children obtain what they need to
perform their daily occupations as a unit.
People are educated about accurate seating principles
and their importance.
Some wheelchairs can be worse than no wheelchair at
all: poor seating contributes to health complications,
and lack of follow-up can result in broken chairs that are
not functional.
Challenges
Process:
Developing relationship with customs con-
signee to clear equipment duty free.
Logistics/Materials—anticipating the needs
of our team and the clients we will see
Resources and people—attracting people
with expertise to volunteer their time
University – working with non-academic
schedule, not a typical international student
experience
Within the work:
―Big picture‖ considerations for child and
family beyond the wheelchair – therapy,
school, feeding, communication.
Help families integrate the responsibility of
a wheelchair into their lives.
Accessibility – physical and attitudinal
barriers.
Paradigm shift – from wheelchair provision
by charities toward wheelchairs provided in
collaboration with professionals. Working
from a justice rather than charity perspec-
tive.
Proceso en Yancana Huasy
El proceso de evaluación de la entrega de silla
de ruedas se realiza de manera conjunta con
el equipo de Eleanore´s Project y los profesio-
nales especializados del Área de Rehabilita-
ción Funcional de Yancana Huasy.
Este proceso se lleva a cabo a través de las
siguientes etapas:
Capacitación a profesionales y padres de
familia: Cuyo objetivo es capacitar sobre
la importancia y el uso adecuado de la silla
de ruedas.
Entrega de silla de ruedas: Mejora la cali-
dad de vida de las personas con discapaci-
dad y sus familias y contribuye al proceso
de inclusión social plena.
Seguimiento y monitoreo de las sillas de
ruedas: Se realiza tres veces al año con el
fin de reforzar el compromiso de la familia
en el uso y mantenimiento adecuado de
las sillas de ruedas.
Educational Opportunities
within an inter-cultural
learning context
Students learn.
To work on an inter-disciplinary team
alongside their Peruvian /USA counter-
parts.
The essential principles of wheelchair
seating with very complex children.
About their own culture in the face of
difference
Inter-cultural communication.
Occupational therapists learn.
How to work with people who live very
differently from themselves; there are
new considerations and ways of doing.
How to be creative and solve problems
in situations without resources and
technology available to them in their
home settings.
To collaborate with partners across sig-
nificant cultural differences.
Community members learn.
Volunteers learn how to use resources
within the cultural context
Administrators at the university level
recognize that the type of learning that
happens in Peru, cannot be taught in a
classroom.
Our family members learn from our
experiences and stories about people
who manage with much less than
ourselves.
Partnering for Participation, Justice, and Education
Tamara Kittelson-Aldred, MS, OTR/L, ATP Eleanore’s Project, Missoula, MT
Javier Vargas Romani, OT, Yancana Huasy, Lima Peru
Kate Barrett, OTD, OTR/L St. Catherine University, St. Paul, MN
St. Catherine University is committed to the development of effective,
ethical leaders. Through study, practice and life experience, individuals
have opportunities to enrich the knowledge, refine the skills and clarify
the attitudes essential for responsible action.
The Henrietta Schmoll School of Health at St. Kate’s educates diverse
learners and engages clinical and community partners to influence
health, health systems and health policy.
Visión
Ser una institución líder en Rehabilitación Integral con un modelo de trabajo ex-
cepcional y replicable, gestora de su propia
autonomía; promotora, facilitadora y articuladora de buenas
relaciones institucionales; con profesionales capaces, eficaces y comprometidos
socialmente; que facilite y promueva la inclusión social para mejorar la calidad
de vida de las personas con
discapacidad y sus familias.
Misión
Somos una institución que promueve el cumplimiento de los derechos de las
personas en condición de discapacidad a través de la Rehabilitación Integral,
desarrollando estrategias de atención, prevención de deficiencias y discapacida-
des, inclusión educativa, laboral y social con el compromiso de las familias, or-
ganizaciones de personas en condiciones de discapacidad, iglesia católica y
otras instituciones religiosas, organizaciones estatales y no gubernamentales y
comunidad en general, para lograr una sociedad justa y en igualdad de oportuni-
dades.
Proper postural support in
wheelchairs allows children to
experience improvement in:
head and trunk control, ability to
breathe, eating, use of hands,
functional mobility, social
interaction and expressive
communication.