Mel West promotes a vehicle that gives dignity and mobility to disabled people
| Columbia, Mo.
In Vietnam, Le Thi Thanh contracted polio at the age of 2, lost the use of her legs, and spent the next 20 years having to crawl to get around.
In Uzbekistan, Hobibullo Zohidov managed to get around on a crude board with wheels for nearly 22 years after losing his legs in a land mine explosion when he was a conscript in the Soviet Army in Afghanistan.
Elgar Salguero was 17 and a breadwinner for his family in Mexico when he lost both legs in a traffic accident.听
Even in a developed country such as the United States, life for mobility impaired people constitutes a daily challenge. For those in the developing world, losing the use of one鈥檚 limbs 鈥� especially both legs 鈥� can be a much greater challenge. Around the globe millions of people are literally living in the dirt without a reliable and dignified way to transport themselves.听
Receiving the 鈥済ift of mobility鈥� in the form of a PET (Personal Energy Transportation) 鈥� the sturdy three-wheeled, hand-pedaled wheelchair conceived of by a group of volunteers under the direction of the Rev. Mel West 鈥� has radically changed the lives of Ms. Thanh, Mr. Zohidov, Mr. Salguero, and tens of thousands of others around the world.
Mr. West has had a hand in founding or serving several notable faith-based nongovernmental organizations in a long career as a pastor and antipoverty activist, including several years on the international boards of Heifer International and Habitat for Humanity.
Soon after West鈥檚 stint on the Habitat board ended in 1994, Larry Hills, a Methodist missionary in what was then Zaire, told West about the polio and land mine survivors he was trying to serve. He issued a challenge. 鈥淲e need hand-cranked, sturdily built, three-wheeled wheelchairs with hauling capacity that will stand up to the rough trails and roads of Zaire,鈥� West remembers him saying.
West took this challenge to a friend and co-worker, Earl Miner, an engineer whose heart was in designing simple products to improve the lives of those in the developing world. Within a few months, Mr. Miner had produced four prototypes, which were sent to Mr. Hills to test by taking them to the worst places he could find and seeing if they worked. 鈥淗e did, and they did,鈥� says West. The success of these first four machines led to the founding of the PET Project in Columbia, Mo.
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From its humble origins in West鈥檚 garage, the PET assembly facility and warehouse has grown to occupy a 9,000-square-foot building in a neighborhood of auto garages, lumber yards, and concrete plants on the north side of the city. PET shares the building with two sister projects also founded by West. The Container Project collects, sorts, and boxes donated clothing, shoes, bedding, and medical supplies to fill shipping containers that are distributed around the world by The Rainbow Network and other NGOs. A second project rehabilitates donated sewing machines for shipment overseas.听
There are now three versions of the PET vehicle: the original handcycle for adults, a child-size handcycle, and a pull-behind PET for transporting people unable to operate a hand crank.
PET is staffed entirely by volunteers save for Gary Moreau, who has been the half-time project director since West 鈥渞etired鈥� four years ago. (West still comes in a few days a week as director emeritus.) The secret to PET鈥檚 success, West says, are all those volunteers, whose favorite kind of 鈥減ayday鈥� comes when he shuts down assembly work for a moment to read aloud the latest story about a PET recipient.听
Roger Hofmeister has been involved with PET since retiring as a family physician and teacher more than 15 years ago. Through his work with the Indian Health Service and the Peace Corps, Dr. Hofmeister understands why being part of PET is such a powerful experience.听
鈥淚n the world of relief work,鈥� he says, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know of any other project that has such an immediate and profound impact on the recipients.鈥�
The Columbia facility is the largest of 23 PET assembly workshops around the US. Additionally, certain components are produced by volunteers in shops, garages, and barns around the country and shipped to the assembly points. Several local and national corporations provide materials or transportation assistance, all of which help keep the cost of a PET below $300, a cost covered entirely by donations.听听
Collectively, the PET workshops have produced more than 50,000 PETs, which have transformed the lives of people in more than 100 countries.
鈥淚 have such admiration for these people who have faced difficulties that would knock me flat,鈥� West says. 鈥淢any have been literally crawling in the dirt as beggars, and then they get a PET and are truly mobile for the first time. They can look people in the eye.鈥澨�
Recognizing the basic dignity and resourcefulness in every person has been central to West鈥檚 worldview since he was a child growing up on a small farm near Golden City, Mo., during the Great Depression.听
He credits his parents with modeling a life in which service to others could bring more gratification than any material acquisition. As a Methodist minister he devoted his career to taking seriously the Wesleyan admonition to live 鈥渂y doing good, by being in every kind merciful..., doing good of every possible sort, and, as far as possible, to all men.鈥�
As a pastor of his own churches, a director of the Office of Creative Ministries for the Methodist Church in Missouri, and a lay organizer, West has helped midwife an astonishing number of faith-based ministries, projects, and NGOs over the past 60 years.
Keith Jaspers, founder and executive director of The Rainbow Network, has known West for more than 30 years and counts him among the biggest influences on his own development work in Nicaragua.听
鈥淢el has two qualities that set him apart,鈥� Mr. Jaspers says. 鈥淧erception and perseverance. He understands people鈥檚 needs and never gives up on trying to meet them.鈥�
Hofmeister is unequivocal in his esteem for West鈥檚 long career.
鈥淚 never met Mother Teresa, but I think I met the next best thing,鈥� he says. 鈥淢el has a unique vantage point of looking at the world and seeing the need, but also immediately thinking of a way that he can help with that need.鈥澨�
Hofmeister is now leading an effort to ensure that PETs meet the needs of recipients for as long as possible. It is difficult to assess the performance of PETs in some of the remote corners of the world where they are distributed. Hofmeister wants to collect as much data as possible about the durability of PETs and the challenges of repairing them.
Keeping as many existing PETs as possible functioning is crucial, because the need for PETs and devices like them is enormous. The World Health Organization estimates that more than 21 million people in the developing world don鈥檛 have the use of one or both of their legs. Those who have received the gift of mobility through a PET are living testaments to the liberation a PET offers.
West has scores of stories about PET recipients, whom he always credits as the real heroes of the PET story. One of his favorites is about Ernesto, a middle-aged man in Cob谩n, Guatemala, who had spent much of his life crawling the streets as a beggar after contracting polio at age 7.听
Upon receiving a PET a few years ago, Ernesto was not content with mobility alone. He transformed the cargo space of his PET into a mini-mart on wheels, and now supports himself through this entrepreneurial effort.
His story is the best kind of 鈥減ayday鈥� West could ever hope for.
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