Paper Furniture Social Enterprise

CEREBRAL PALSY AFRICA (CPA)

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Paper Furniture Social Enterprise A UK based project in association with CPA	Paper Furniture Social Enterprise
	A UK based project in association with CPA



		A new workshop is being set up in Hampshire. As far as we know this will be the first APT workshop in the UK and it will benefit Cerebral Palsy Africa’s work! In the countries where CPA has been running training, more therapists are learning the skills to help children with cerebral palsy (CP) and consequently more families are coming forward for help for their children with CP. Made-to-measure, locally adaptable chairs and standing frames are really necessary so that between therapy sessions the children can have the chance to sit and use their hands, or stand and develop everyday skills themselves. Therefore CPA is actively supporting the setting up of local workshops in Africa for making Assistive Technological Devices. CPA works to provide initial training in APT techniques and then follow-up courses with practical help in adapting equipment to the needs of individual children, patterns and batch production support. Now a new social enterprise is being set up in the UK making furniture from recycled paper and card. Appropriate Paper-based Technology (APT) techniques are being used and Volunteers are coming forward to learn and contribute in setting up a mini 'factory' to pilot larger scale production of customized paper furniture. The aim is to have a social enterprise with saleable products for the UK market. As well as benefiting UK Volunteers with an outlet for their practical talents and creativity, the lessons learnt in APT production will be useful for people in developing countries who are establishing sustainable production units manufacturing assistive equipment aids. A small number of people including Jean Westmacott (who is employed by CPA) have been helping with training but APT is a relatively new technique so more experienced trainers are needed. It takes a lot of time to develop the skills needed for adapting the designs for children with differing needs and to practise the production techniques, all of which are needed. All needed in training so that people in Africa can continue to make the items locally without high material costs. Also it has become more and more apparent in these countries that small groups and even large organizations helping disabled children are always in need of funds. So many also want to make other items for sale using cardboard so they can alleviate the daily costs in a sustainable manner. The biggest difficulty is that they do not have the capacity to spend the large amounts of time needed for researching saleable designs or on speeding up the production. Therefore the Paper Furniture Social Enterprise wants to help by trying out new designs here in the UK. A small group of local volunteers have now taken the initiative to get this going. The great news is that this group is growing. Friends and creative people have started offering their services ranging from expertise in social enterprises to enthusiasm. The aim is to record the pilot process, learning by doing, so we can pass on good learning points and create a model for sustainable income generation for disability projects across the developing world. .