Women Pushing Forward

Our History: Recognizing that there have been women with disabilities as long as there have been women, in 1994 Cathy Cade, Patty Ruppelt, and Jan Sing of Whirlwind Wheelchair International (WWI) formed Whirlwind Women (WW) as a project of WWI to focus on increasing women’s participation in building wheelchairs.

As of April 2004, Whirlwind Women changed its name to Women Pushing Forward and became an affiliate of The Tides Center of San Francisco.   Here are selected WW and WPF milestones:

Whirlwind Women

• 1994: WW begun as an all-volunteer project by the three founders and received a great deal of support both within WWI at San Francisco State University and in the greater women's and disability communities.
• 1997: WW organized a groundbreaking training in basic metalwork skills for disabled Ugandan and Kenyan women in Limuru, Kenya; hired Program Director Jenny Kern; and, from the United Nations gained its first funding.
• 1998: WW raised funds for further training to the Ugandan women, who later founded MADE (Mobility Appliances by Disabled Women Entrepreneurs) in Uganda.  WW worked with Kenyan Peninah Mutinda to establish the first disabled-women-run Whirlwind workshop in Nairobi.
• 1999:  WW began working with a group of disabled Mexican women seeking to establish a women-run Whirlwind shop in San Luis Potosí, Mexico.
• 2000: Edith Friedman led WW from January until fall, when Alicia Contreras, on a New Voices Fellowship, took up the duties of Program Director.
• 2001: WW began working with Fundacion Bertha to increased production and distribution capacity of the Whirlwind Wheelchair from 5 to 100 wheelchairs per month, and decreased its cost in Mexico by 50%.
• 2002:  WW began testing a pilot project to train 20 women wheelchair users in rural areas near San Luis Potosí in basic wheelchair maintenance, repair and fitting.
• 2003: WW began working with a group of Mexican women with disabilities seeking to establish the first disabled-women-network. "Mujeres Torbellino" now distributes the Whirlwind Wheelchair in their rural areas of San Luis Potosi.

Women Pushing Forward

• Women Pushing Forward (WPF)2004: Alicia Contreras, a wheelchair-riding woman and a citizen of Mexico, is the executive director of Women Pushing Forward. She is supported by local and international volunteers, and an Advisory Board that includes women and men with and without disabilities from the San Francisco Bay Area.

• We are guided by the philosophy that disabled women know best their needs and abilities.
• We strive to incorporate the international disability rights movement's value "nothing about us without us" into every stage of our work.
• We seek to combine the strength, innovation, and determination of women with disabilities to define for themselves the best solutions to the complex problems of disabled people in the developing world.
• 2005: WPF partnered with Whirlwind Wheelchair International (WWI) and Vida Independiente Mexico and led two successful trainings in Cali, Colombia: “Sexuality and Independent Living” and “Wheelchair Use and Maintenance”
• 2006: WPF partnered with WWI and Through the Looking Glass (TLG) and led the training: “Independent Living, Parenting with Disabilities, Peer counseling, Self-Care and Women’s Reproductive Health in Cali, Colombia.   Also with a partnership with the Center for Independent Living (CIL) and Mobility international USA (MIUSA), WPF succeeded training more than 30 women with disabilities in the San Francisco Bay Area and Eugene Oregon on "Basic Wheelchair Maintenance."
  
• 2007: WPF published our first “Wheelchair Maintenance and Repair Class for Women”.
• 2006-2008: WPF partnered with Policy Research on Women and Disability (PROWD) through the “Sisterhood Project”, led by Corbett O’Toole.
  
• 2008-2009: WPF found a way to help wheelchair users buy titanium wheelchairs  at 1/5 the cost of a new wheelchair in the US.

Thanks to all our donors 1994-2009!