Photo: Society for Special Persons | Facebook
Zahida Qureshi, paralyzed after a bout of polio as a baby in Punjab, Pakistan, didn't get her first wheelchair until she was entering university. But now 41, she is helping others with disabilities to learn how to make their own, through the Society for Special Persons which she created in 2008. The nonprofit, dedicated to providing people with disabilities with social, economic, and educational opportunities, offers leadership workshops and training courses, helps members of the disabled community find jobs, and even has its own cricket league -- the Wheelchair Super League. Its has provided 6,000 people with free wheelchairs and receives almost 200 requests each week. In the first half of 2022, it built more than 500 chairs - each built to order based on its user's weight, gender, and specific disability, and built by people who themselves have a disability. "We've come a long way already since I was that little girl with a big dream," she says.
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