A Wheelchair for Petronilia 2003
Distributed by Fanlight Productions, 32 Court St., 21st Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201; 800-876-1710
Produced by Bob Gliner
Directed by Bob Gliner
VHS, color, 27 min.
Jr. High - Adult
Disability Studies, Social Work, South American Studies
Date Entered: 08/31/2004
Reviewed by Maureen Puffer-Rothenberg, Valdosta State University, Valdosta, GAA Wheelchair for Petronilia describes the Transitions Foundation of Guatemala, an organization founded in 2001 to provide wheelchairs appropriate for use in Guatamala’s third-world environment. Transitions is a part of the Whirlwind Wheelchair Network based in San Francisco, which trains disabled people in developing countries to build and repair lightweight, sturdy wheelchairs that can be maneuvered over unpaved roads and easily repaired in rural settings. Transitions also provides rehabilitation services and counseling and has a great impact on the financial and social climate of its own employees, most of whom are disabled wheelchair users.
The film shows Transitions employees at work, with their families and moving through neighborhoods in their specially designed wheelchairs. Several employees tell how they became disabled, what the experience of working for Transitions has meant to them and how their lives have been changed through learning new skills and providing services to other disabled people. In Spanish with overdubbed English translations, they describe the physical struggle for accessibility and the emotional and social struggle for acceptance among people who have not been educated about disability.
The title is somewhat misleading; Petronilia, a young girl from a small Guatemalan village for whom Transitions provided a wheelchair, is not the focus of the program, although her story serves as an example of the impact the independence and mobility a wheelchair can provide has on one’s quality of life and the attitudes of others.
Although the video may have been produced as a fund-raising tool-- Transitions must sometimes interrupt its services for lack financial support and the need for continued funding is emphasized-- it would be useful for raising awareness of the problem of disability education and resources for the disabled in developing countries. Guatemala provides just one example of a widespread situation. The video also shows what a project like Transitions can mean to the people it serves.
This program will probably be most useful in college libraries and is recommended for students studying multicultural aspects of disability, or efforts to serve the disabled in third-world countries.