After a suffering an injury

eco-friendlyportablelo

wheelchair-bound BY

A MATTER

 I

T WAS nine nightmarish months of

her life. A shattered pelvis, a fractured

arm and being confined to a wheel-

chair – all of that Portia Mavhungu

could handle. But what almost broke

her was her complete loss of inde-

pendence. She couldn’t even go to the

loo on her own.

“My mother and my grandmother had

to lift me off the wheelchair and put me

onto the toilet seat,” she tells us.

The indignity of it all sent her spiralling

into deep depression and she counted

her lucky stars when her body finally

healed and she was able to walk again.

But if nine months felt like an eternity

to her, what about people who are per-

manently wheelchair-bound, she asked

herself. Inspired by her own traumatic

experience, Portia (31) invented The

Para-Tube, an award-winning seat that

fits onto any wheelchair, allowing people

to relieve themselves without needing to

be lifted off their chair.

The eco-friendly seat comes with bio-

degradable disposable bags and has a

centre part that can be pulled out and

flipped up. Once it’s flipped up, users can

retrieve the bag from the flipped centre

part, clip it onto the opening created

from pulling out the centre, then relieve

themselves.

“When you’re done you clip out the

bag,close it and draw the middle part of

theseat back. Once you take the bag out

andseal it, it traps in the smell,” the

Pretoria resident

It’s discreetan

thing she’s mostp

able the chairis.“

a La-Z-Boy [reclin

 S

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spend two month

was released ittoo

she could geth

walking again.

During thistim

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there was oneth

her going durin

time – an idea

sparked in herbr

On paper one

she’dsketcheda d

foraninvention

yPortiadevisedaningenious,

oo seatforpeoplewhoare

LESEGOMAJA PICTURE:LUBABALOLESOLLE

explains.

nd easytouse,butthe

roudofis howcomfort-

It’sasif you’resittingon

nerchair],”shesays.

shesherinventionhad

vailabletoherafterher

evastatingaccident. In

ortiawas

oescape

whenshefell

inginDurban.

theaccidentaretoo

r torehash,shesays.

re sobadshehadto

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ok sevenmonthsbefore

er lifebackandstart

me shehadtotakeanti-

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of independence. But

hingthatkept

gthisdark

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eday

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nshe

endtothedailyhumiliationthatmillions

ofwheelchair-boundpeopleareforced

toendure.

DreamingupThePara-Tubewasone

thing, butgettingit offthepage andinto

developmentwassomethingelseentire-

ly. Portiawasn’t abletofindanylocalin-

terestinproducingthechairsoshe

turned to an American company.

LEFTandRIGHT:Portia

Mavhunguwithherinvention.

ABOVE:Shewonthesocial

impact prize at the Global

Cleantech Innovation Pro-

gramme Awards last year.

believedcouldpputan

LELEFTFTandRIGHT: Portia

SUPPLIED

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