The Reality Children Face
Understanding the Challenge
Across Zambia, Blu Spring works alongside children with disabilities, families, and local communities to create practical opportunities for lasting change. As a non-profit organisation, we are committed to empowering children through mobility, education, healthcare support, and community-based initiatives that strengthen the people around them. Through a range of thoughtful programs, we help children not only overcome barriers, but move toward brighter, more independent futures.
Transforming lives through the gift of mobility
Blu Spring Wheelchair Program
Providing the life-changing gift of mobility to children with disabilities in under-resourced communities across Zambia.
A Wheelchair Is Not Just Equipment, It’s a Childhood Restored
The Blu Spring wheelchair program is about giving children with disabilities in Zambia access to mobility, dignity, and the independence to learn, play, and be included in society.
For over 400.000 children in Zambia, disability does not only limit their physical movement, but it also limits participation in normal everyday life. Without access to appropriate mobility support, children are unable to go play with friends and attend school, and frequently spend their days on the ground, completely dependent on their care-givers. We created our Wheelchair Program to solve this deeply human challenge in a practical and life-changing way.
Child-sized wheelchairs are extremely difficult to find locally, especially ones which are suited for the rough rural terrain and provide sufficient postural support which plays a crucial role in a child’s physical development. Blu Spring partners with Wheelchairs for Kids to bring specially built, adjustable chairs to the children who need them most.
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For many children in Zambia, disability does not only limit movement; it limits participation in everyday life. Without access to appropriate mobility support, children are often confined to the ground or carried long distances by caregivers, preventing them from attending school, playing with friends, or engaging with their communities. Blu Spring created the wheelchair program to respond to this deeply human challenge with a practical and life-changing solution.
The founder of Blu Spring, Marco Kerkhof, experienced this first hand at Kassisi children’s home in 2014 and was driven.
Through a long-standing partnership with Wheelchairs for Kids (WFK), a volunteer-based organisation in Australia, Blu Spring helps bring child-sized, robust and adjustable wheelchairs to Zambia. These wheelchairs are carefully designed to withstand rough terrain and grow with the child, ensuring comfort, stability, and long-term use. Each chair is not simply delivered; children are individually assessed and the wheelchairs are fitted and adjusted by trained professionals who consider the child’s posture, environment, and daily needs. Blu Spring also works according to the principles of Community Based Rehabilitation, whereby the care-givers and the direct community are given the knowledge and tools to feel empowered and help bring vital aspects of healthcare to their doorstep.
Receiving a wheelchair often marks a turning point. Children can sit upright for the first time, move independently, attend school, go to church, and interact socially. Caregivers experience relief from the physical strain of carrying their child, while families regain hope and possibility. Importantly, giving children mobility and the support they need also helps reduce stigma, allowing children and their care-taker to be seen not for the child's disability, but for their potential in the community.
Donor support makes every step of this process possible; from shipping containers of wheelchairs to Zambia, to local assembly, fittings, and follow-up care. Each contribution directly enables a child to move freely, engage with the world, and reclaim a childhood filled with dignity, confidence, and opportunity.
For more about how Blu Spring came to be and the origin story follow the link to:
Support That Continues Beyond Delivery
Follow-up Visits
True impact means staying connected and providing ongoing support.
Because Children Grow, and Support Must Grow With Them
A program dedicated to staying connected and providing ongoing support to the children with our wheelchairs, ensuring children continue to benefit from their wheelchairs as they grow.
Children grow, physical requirements change, and wheelchairs need adjustment and repair. Follow-up visits are essential to assess, repair, and improve wheelchair use over time. Blu Spring prioritises long-term high-quality care for the children and for the sustainability of the project.
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Providing a wheelchair is only the beginning of a child’s mobility journey. As children grow and use their wheelchairs daily on rough terrain, adjustments, repairs, and reassessments become essential. Blu Spring created the Follow-up program to ensure every wheelchair continues to serve its purpose safely and effectively.
During follow-up visits, trained teams travel to communities, often remote and difficult to access, to evaluate how each wheelchair is functioning. They check posture, fit, and wear, making adjustments or repairs on the spot whenever possible. These visits also give families the opportunity to ask questions, receive guidance, and share challenges they may be facing.
Importantly, follow-ups allow Blu Spring to gather valuable insight into how wheelchairs are impacting children’s daily lives. The team conducts a questionnaire at each follow-up, allowing us to gather data regarding the end-user experience as well as the physical and social effects of the wheelchair for both the child and their family. This feedback informs improvements in design, fitting practices, and overall program effectiveness. It also ensures accountability and transparency, donors can trust that their support leads to long-term outcomes, not short-term fixes.
For families who would otherwise struggle to travel long distances for support, these visits are a lifeline. They reduce risk of injury, prevent abandonment of ill-fitting chairs, and extend the life of each wheelchair significantly. Children remain mobile, comfortable, and confident as they grow. In addition, it allows trained health-care professionals to provide vital education to care-givers and their communities, bringing a form of healthcare to the doorstep of the children in need.
Donor funding covers transport, staff training, tools, and spare parts, making it possible to reach children wherever they live. With continued support, Blu Spring turns a single act of giving into years of reliable mobility and care.
Supporting Girls and Women to Stay in School, Work, and Thrive
Menstrual Cups
This program focuses on improving menstrual health access and breaking the stigma that prevents girls and women from fully participating in daily life.
Confidence, Health, and Opportunity. Every Day of the Month
When menstrual health is supported, girls can stay in school and women can continue to work with dignity.
In many communities in Zambia, limited access to safe products and persistent stigma can significantly disrupt education and income. Currently, many women are forced to rely on unsafe materials, such as cloths filled with dried animal waste or discarded plastic found on the ground. While reusable pads are often suggested, they present a hidden danger in these regions: because they cannot be washed and dried in public due to social taboos, they often remain damp. This trapped moisture becomes ground for infections that can lead to illness and chronic discomfort, long-term impacts on hygiene and reproductive health, but also cause complications during pregnancy and risks to future fertility.
By providing menstrual cups, Blu Spring offers a safe and sustainable solution. Unlike pads, cups are discreet, require minimal water for cleaning, and can last for years, reducing long-term costs and allowing women to move through their day with total confidence.
Peer-to-peer
We believe that lasting change must come from within the community, which is why our strategy is built on a foundation of women supporting women. By working directly with local ambassadors who transfer vital health information to their peers in a culturally relevant context, we ensure that the introduction of menstrual cups is both understood and embraced. We are currently focusing our efforts on mothers in rural villages, empowering the older generation first so they can bridge the gap and pass this essential knowledge down to their daughters, creating a sustainable cycle of health, awareness, and opportunity for future generations.
Sustainable Solutions Built Locally
Appropriate Paper Technology
Supporting children who need posture and strength support before they are large enough for a wheelchair.
Simple Materials, Powerful Impact
This program focuses on producing sustainable special chairs and standing frames which help children of all sizes and abilities to sit, stand, and build strength using simple, locally available recycled materials.
Children commonly only grow large enough to fit in a wheelchair when they are 4-5 years old, but sitting already becomes important for physical and cognitive development when a child is 1-2 years old. Using recycled paper and local materials, this program creates sitting chairs and standing frames according to a child’s need to support early physical development. Imported parts are expensive and difficult to replace in rural Zambia, these assistive devices are made in Zambia to support the local economy and employment, as well as ensuring sustainability.
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Most children are only big enough to use a wheelchair at about 4–5 years old. However, many younger children require support to sit upright, interact with their environment, develop muscle strength, or safely practise standing long before being large enough to fit in a wheelchair. Appropriate Paper Technology was created to meet these needs in a way that is accessible, affordable, and locally sustainable.
This innovative approach uses recycled paper combined with simple binding techniques to create strong, lightweight sitting chairs and standing frames. These tools help children maintain proper posture, reduce pressure points, and engage their muscles; essential steps in physical development and comfort. Additionally, early intervention is key to prevent children from developing severe, irreversible skeletal deformities. Because the materials are inexpensive and locally available, the technology can be produced within Zambia, reducing dependency on costly imports.
Blu Spring works closely with local partners, including Beit Cure Zambia, to train local craftspeople and caregivers in producing and using these supportive devices. The process builds local capacity while ensuring each device is adapted to the child’s size and needs. For the children, this means earlier treatment, better daily comfort, and improved chances of long-term mobility.
Beyond physical benefits, these colourful and child-friendly supports restore dignity and provide children exposure to vital aspects of childhood. Children can sit upright during meals, interact with the world around them, play, learn, and engage more fully with family and community life. To top it off, parents gain confidence and independence knowing their child is supported safely and comfortably.
Donations directly fund materials, training, and workshop development, enabling more children to receive early support that can shape their future mobility. With donor help, small, thoughtful innovations become stepping stones toward independence, inclusion, and hope.