Bringing more power to the wheelchair

They say things happen for a reason, but how does one comprehend ‘reason,’ when 11 days after a five-year-old boy loses his mother, a bomb blast at his home in Afghanistan leaves him paralysed from the waist down? His father who takes him to the hospital never returns. And a few years later, the hospital — now his only home — suddenly closes down, leaving him alone with a cleaner and a couple of guards. That, in short, was how Mohammad Sayed — entrepreneur, writer, motivational speaker, film-maker, and inventor—spent the first 12 years of his life.

We all love stories with a happy ending. Sayed’s story, though, was rewritten with a happy fresh start when Maria Pia-Sanchez, an American nurse working in Afghanistan, came looking for him; she had heard about Sayed from a doctor who treated him. In 2009, she took him home to Massachusetts, US, and gave him a new life.

After graduating from high school last year, Moh (as he likes to be called) launched Rim Power–Redefining Normal, his non-profit organisation, which “has many developmental goals, the first being the creation of ‘Wheelchair Man’, an Afghan-American superhero comic book character, whose mission is to bring hope and confidence to paralysed children”. Wheelchair Man can make criminals see the consequences of their crimes before they’re committed, and has the power to not use violence.

An encounter in India several years ago led Moh to create the superhero; an old woman, in New Delhi hugged him, and with tears in her eyes said, ‘I wish my grandson could be like you’. She explained that her grandson was hidden by his parents out of shame and was considered an outcast, because he was paralysed and required a wheelchair. 

“I realised that I had only seen one person in a wheelchair during my trip and yet knew that there were many more people like me, hidden,” says Moh, who likes everything Indian and grew up watching Bollywood movies. His life and superhero character have been inspired by Mahatma Gandhi.

With the tag line ‘Hope is on the way,’ Wheelchair Man is not just a superhero, he stands for hope, peace and motivation. His greater goal “is to raise awareness about the abilities of wheelchair users and redefine disability by redefining normal,” says Moh, who intends to create four series of comic books, each with a wheelchair superhero. Each series will profile the abilities, achievements and courage of four individual wheelchair users from India, South Africa and other developing countries.

Apart from Wheelchair Man, Rim Power is also involved in another two-fold goal, which is “to design and manufacture adaptive devices to reduce impediments and barriers for wheelchair users, and to make these tools available and affordable worldwide”. And so, Moh’s wheelchair now has several attachments, including a cup-holder, a tripod to hold his camera, and a canopy to keep the sun and rain out. 

He is also working on a foldable portable ramp, as well as on a frame that will turn a manual wheelchair into a floating one for water activities. Moh’s inventions have also taken him to the White House Science Fair in 2015, where he met former President Obama. “I believe in what I do, work hard, hope for the best, and never give up. I know that people with disabilities are treated differently, especially in developing countries. I want the world to not judge us by our physical appearance, but by our characters,” he says.