美国国家公共电台 NPR Mexico And U.S. Team Up To Create Low-Cost Wheelchairs

We hear a lot about political tension between the United States and Mexico, including, of course, controversial deportations and that still unfunded, unbuilt proposed border wall. But examples of binational amity 1 still exist. Reporter Monica Ortiz Uribe traveled to Nogales, Sonora to visit a workshop where Mexicans and Americans work together to transform the lives of people with disabilities.

MONICA ORTIZ URIBE, BYLINE 2: At a workshop in Nogales, Sonora, Antonio Garcia is preparing to walk again for the first time in three years. He's limped around on crutches 3 ever since a motorcycle accident that resulted in the amputation 4 of his right leg below the knee. Now a technician is fitting Garcia with a new artificial leg - something he's never been able to afford on his mechanic's salary. The workshop is home to the binational nonprofit ARSOBO, an acronym 5 that stands for Arizona/Sonora border. ARSOBO provides low-cost prosthetics, specialized 6 wheelchairs and hearing aids to low-income Mexicans.

DUKE DUNCAN: It's changing people's lives.

URIBE: Duke Duncan is an American pediatrician who grew impatient with retirement 7 after three days. He co-founded ARSOBO seven years ago.

DUNCAN: It's really an emotional experience to see someone who's been sitting in a chair for 10 years get up. And you see them begin to take a few steps. And they go out to the waiting room. The crowd breaks into cheers and claps.

URIBE: ARSOBO provides disabled people who were once isolated 8, depressed 9 or begging on the streets the possibility of getting a job or going to school. Their signature product is an all-terrain wheelchair that can navigate 10 uneven 11 sidewalks and rough roads.

At ARSOBO's workshop, making these wheelchairs has become something of a fine art for 47-year-old Gabriel Zepeda. He's been in a wheelchair himself since age 18 when a drunk driver smashed into his truck and left him paralyzed from the chest down.

GABRIEL ZEPEDA: (Through interpreter) The concept behind the design is to use locally available materials like steel tubing and mountain bike wheels. That way the chair can easily be repaired in Mexico, including at a neighborhood bike shop.

URIBE: Zepeda was trained by the chairs inventor, an American engineer who won a MacArthur Genius award for his design which has since spread to dozens of developing countries worldwide. Dr. Duncan, ARSOBO's co-founder, says that's just one example of the binational symbiosis 12 that propels the organization.

DUNCAN: From the very beginning, this has been a cross-border project. So it's been crossborder with university, with government and with private enterprise.

URIBE: Some examples - ARSOBO makes its own prosthetics thanks to training and material donations from Hanger 13 Incorporated, a major American prosthetics company. In Mexico, engineering students at a Nogales University are helping 14 design rechargeable solar batteries for hearing aids. And the city of Nogales recently donated land so ARSOBO can build a larger workshop.

PAUL MCKEAN: What we want to do is build confidence between our nations.

URIBE: Paul McKean coordinates 15 humanitarian 16 aid for the U.S. Northern Command, which oversees 17 military operations in North America. His team has donated roughly $75,000 worth of equipment, including a steel bending machine that's helped ARSOBO become more self-sufficient.

MCKEAN: There's a tremendous amount of goodwill 18 on the border. I think we have positive and healthy engagements that aren't really newsmakers.

URIBE: McKean says the U.S. benefits from empowering its southern neighbor. ARSOBO, for example, is addressing a need that goes mostly unmet by Mexico's public health system. The organization not only makes its own gear, it employs people with disabilities to make it. Kiko Trujillo is ARSOBO's co-founder in Mexico.

KIKO TRUJILLO: We don't have Americans coming and doing everything for us. We're working together. That makes a huge difference.

URIBE: Still, ARSOBO's wish list is long. And there's a waiting list for most of its products, including 300 people in need of a hearing aid. As for Antonio Garcia, the amputee we heard from earlier, his patience will soon pay off.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (Speaking Spanish).

URIBE: Wearing his new prosthetic leg, Garcia watches himself take baby steps in a full length mirror. A technician gently guides his movements. Once he can finally ditch his crutches, Garcia knows exactly what he wants to do.

ANTONIO GARCIA: (Speaking Spanish).

URIBE: "I want to walk beside my 5-year-old son," he says, "and hold his hand." For NPR News, I'm Monica Ortiz Uribe in Nogales, Mexico.

SIMON: And that story was produced with support from the International Women's Media Foundation.