Bengaluru: In Parappana Agrahara Central Jail, a dozen inmates, most of them serving life sentences, have found their own way to change lives. They busy themselves every day by refurbishing second-hand wheelchairs that are then distributed to people with disabilities and government hospitals.
The wheelchairs are shipped into the country by Joni and Friends, an NGO based in the US, which has been running the prison project in jails across the world. The first-of-its-kind initiative in the country, the process is facilitated by ProVISION Asia, a locally-run NGO that works with physically challenged people.
“We learned of the model through Joni and Friends, so we wrote to them, asking them to supply us with wheelchairs, which we would have refurbished at the Central Jail here,” said Keturah Gray, who works with ProVISION Asia. “We receive about 200 top-of-the-line wheelchairs, all of them second hand, about twice a year.” Although they would love to do this more, each shipment costs about $7,000.
Acclimatising themselves with the prison itself took well over a year, said Gray. “We had to prove who we were and what we did. It’s a lot of paperwork as well, but we managed it.” A member of Joni and Friends, Dana, was sent down to Bengaluru to train the team. “There’s only so much you can do to refurbish a wheelchair, so the volunteers didn’t have to acquire a whole new skill set. Still, they needed some basic training,” she said.
ProVISION Asia visits the prison each month with all the supplies the team might need. “Our volunteers make sure they spend a whole day there, to see that things are going well and ensure that the team members are getting along,” said Gray. The team is paid a monthly stipend.
