Commuting to OSTİM

(Justin) My commute to Kifas is a large part of most of my week, worth writing about.

Kifas is located in the İvedik Organize Sanayi Bölgeleri of OSTİM, which is considered to be one of the largest industrial parks in the Middle East (the name is an acronym: Middle East Industry and Trade Center). There are 5,000 firms in the area, most of which are factories producing every small to medium-sized piece of equipment that you can think of. Everything from nuts and bolts to tractor parts to building materials to wheelchairs. You don't wear a suit and tie to OSTİM unless you work for the government or are trying to land a contract. This is a place you roll up your sleeves. 


If it's not peak rush hour, it takes a little over an hour for me to get across town to Kifas including a metro (subway) ride and two buses. When you emerge from the metro at OSTİM, you are in a sea of hundreds of rough-looking men. If you approach by car or bus you can see hitchhikers trying to find rides in. You also start to hear languages other than Turkish, namely Arabic and Farsi. This is because many low-skilled immigrants work here, most of whom are probably doing so illegally. The cheap cellphone I'm using here doesn't leave me a good way to get pictures and I don't want to be the guy in the crowd of commuters taking pictures. The OSTİM Facebook page has some great pictures of workers.

OSTİM is quite different from the rest of Ankara. The layout was centrally planned, the buildings all look identical, and it reminds me of the former USSR. There is nothing fancy here. It is about 90% men and always noisy, dusty, grimy, busy, and somewhat dangerous. The jobs people are doing are hazardous, without all the Western safety precautions taken. Last February, a factory across from Kifas that housed canisters of various flammable gases exploded, killing over a dozen people and destroying several shops. This is what I can look out the window and see every day, it still looks like this. 

This is a picture of Kifas after the explosion, the top floor was completely destroyed. No workers were at Kifas at the time, but the clean-up and emotional blow linger to this day. The "Has Emek" means "Pure Labor," which is the area of OSTİM the factory is located in.

Most of the businesses either contract with local restaurants to cater food to their buildings or to serve their workers lunch. The business next door to Kifas has hired a woman to cook their meals in-house. Every business has tea breaks, that's a welcome part of the day as well. On Fridays, there is usually a fairly large procession to the local mosque for Friday prayers. That's also something you don't see as much of in the rest of Ankara.

I need to put some pictures up of the daily work at Kifas, those will come soon. On a busy day, there is welding, metal-bending, grinding, upholstering, assembling, packing, and more. It's quite a bit different than any factory I've worked in and a world away from the sterile classroom environment I've worked in the last few years. I enjoy the commute.

Plight of the Disabled in Turkey

(Justin) I haven't been posting as much as I should about my work with Kifas. But one thing I do every day is check Twitter for tweets in Turkish about the disabled or wheelchairs. Every day there is a story that is RT'd to raise consciousness about the plight of the disabled. This weekend there were two stories of particular interest:

There was an examination (ÖMSS) for disabled people in order to get jobs as public servants. Over 60,000 people took the exam, but only about 3,000 will be chosen. However, the real scandal was that many of the government buildings where the test was given had multiple stories with no elevators or wheelchair ramps. The news showed people struggling up stairs, or being carried, or worse. The exam apparently allowed about one minute per question but several of the disabled couldn't write that fast.  The name of the exam is also offensive to some as the non-politically-correct word for "disabled" (özürlü) is in the title of the exam. It was nice to see the outrage about this on Twitter, at least.

In another story, what one reporter called a "tragic comedy," a walking bridge was built over a road in Trabzon in which one side has an easy-access ramp for wheelchairs and strollers while the other side of the bridge only has a set of steep stairs. The news showed people in wheelchairs being pushed across and carried down the stairs and parents struggling wıth theır strollers. One wonders how the engineers did not think about this.

Daily you read tweets of people in the subways who can't get up because the elevator is broken, etc. It's difficult here. One source of encouragement is the growing number of advocacy groups harnessing social media to unite around causes and network together. The government and a large number of local charities also show increasing concern.  But there is much work to be done.

A Proper Fit

(Justin) This week I visited Friends of Kardelen, a care ministry to Turkish families, particularly those with disabilities or other special needs. The director is Norita Erickson, wife of Kifas' owner Ken Erickson. Some children were there with some severe challenges-- spina bifida, cerebral palsy, scoliosis, etc. They were in wheelchairs that were not helping their bodies develop properly.  Another organization had donated some money to buy chairs for needy kids and I was there with Ken and an American physical therapist to examine the children, get their sizes, and see if a Kifas chair could work better for them. 

(This is a stock photo, not taken at the event described in this post.)

The Xplore Mobility chairs that Kifas is working on producing here are designed specifically for these types of kids. They position the child so that their body functions better, so that they can move and relax, and are adjustable as they grow larger. 

It was heartbreaking to see kids who had certain aggravated handicaps due to ignorance or lack of proper treatment. Groups like Friends of Kardelen work to educate parents about therapy and early intervention.  It was encouraging to see that Kifas' products can help the children and encourage their parents. We hope to do more events like this in the future. 

Check out Norita Erickson's blog here for more on her 30 years of work in Turkey.  Are you a physical therapist who might like to for a short-term trip to help work with these types of children?  If so, please contact us.

Evolution of an Idea

(Justin) Back in early 2010, I was watching PBS NewsHour when a story came on about a man named Ralph Hotchkiss at San Francisco State University who was designing sturdy, low-cost wheelchairs for the developing world. I noted the story because Hotchkiss' non-profit, Whirlwind International, was helping people in those countries build those chairs with local materials. I sent the story to a friend of mine who shared an interest in international development.  Here is the video:


Here's a PBS Frontline story focusing on a Vietnamese distributor of the chair:


I did not know that two years later I would be working for Kifas, a licensed distributor of Whirlwind products, and that the friend I sent the story to would be one of our biggest cheerleaders. Kifas has received large orders for the RoughRider over the last couple years. It manufactures most of the component parts in-house.

Kifas is now diversifying away from Whirlwind for a few reasons, among them that the RoughRider is not adequate for children who need more dynamic support and cannot propel themselves. This is why Kifas is eager to promote its new partnership with XPlore Mobility of Bozeman, MT.  Kifas will soon be manufacturing these sporty new chairs:

There is a lot of sound orthopedic engineering in the Dyno chair above. But you can see that the chair looks almost like a stroller that you'd see a jogger pushing her kids in. This has great appeal in societies where there is a stigma attached to being handicapped.

Have an interest in pediatric orthopedics? Do you have an interest in industrial engineering and manufacturing processes? If so, contact us for more information.

New job

(Justin) I've committed to work with a company here, Kifas Ortopedik (here is their Facebook page).  They make affordable, high-quality wheelchairs for use in third world countries where handicap access is a rarity. Kifas was founded in 1993 by Ken Erickson and has developed a reputation for quality and integrity. 

I'll be posting more information about Kifas as I work.  I will be overseeing the launch of a new product line, developed in Bozeman, Montana, for children with cerebral palsy, spina bifida, or other disabilities. The success of Kifas hinges on its ability to successfully manufacture and sell this new chair this year. 

Kifas is re-booting itself after some recent struggles. In the coming months you'll see a new webpage, a new marketing strategy, and a high quality wheelchair at a lower price than the competition. Behind the scenes there will be a newly cleaned and organized manufacturing facility with 12-15 Turkish employees.

This is a major transition in our lives that will require a lot of faith. Bare with us as we make those changes. 

If you have any web design expertise, an interest in international marketing, know a student looking for a summer or semester internship, have connections to the physically handicapped community in the U.S. or abroad, or would be interested in learning about how you can invest in Kifas, please let us know.