| FJK_RPG FJK stands for Female Jedi Knights. This is an all women Star Wars Role Playing Game. |
| FLAREgamer A website driven by (mostly) women who enjoy videogames. |
| Frag_Dolls A team of girl gamers put together and sponsored by Ubisoft. |
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| GameGal_com An online magazine for gamers, especially women gamers. Plays up gaming news, review, previews and a good measure of girl ummph. |
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| Gamer_Girls_Unite For girl (women) gamers, many game related features: stories, forum, downloads, reviews, girl gamer of the month, creative ideas. |
| Gamer_Mom Good parenting, in game. Reviews, observations and parenting thoughts of a gaming family. |
| Girl_GameZone Directory of game links and game resources for female gamers, news, reviews, and online community. |
| Girlz_Clan An all-female gaming clan that specializes in Half-Life and Counter-Strike online gaming. Custom skins/ models color sprays. |
| GrrlGamer Offering reviews, previews, and hardware suggestions for "grrl" gamers. |
| Gurlgamer Female online gamers. Made by gurls, played by gurls. Looking for female experts on any of the games you play to volunteer and join our team and help with news, updates, and other information. |
| Hazel\'s_Women_in_Games_Page Informal weblog about women's issues in gaming. |
| Hot_Gamer_Girls A collection of hot girls who play video games from various clans. |
| Josie_Nutter__Gothy_Anime_Girl Just a gamer-geek girl fascinated by the age of technology. Personal information, photos, artwork, video games, freelance web design, gothic fashion, Seattle. |
| The_Ladies_of_Hack__RPG_Community_for_Female_Gamers An all-female sub-organization within the Hackmaster RPG Association for the purposes of providing female gamers with support both in game and out. |
| The_Lady_Gamer Offering the latest in gaming news, as well as essays and reviews pertaining to gaming products and women in gaming. |
| LadyDragon_Com Game reviews, cheats, and chat. In French and English. |
| LadyGamers_com Articles, interviews and guides devoted to action and strategy games. |
| Lilitheve Show about games by women, for women. Message board, links, and member files. |
| Live_Action_Role_Playing This group is dedicated to the Women in LARPing. Discuss, give advice, relate stories and share topics that concern women who are GM/ST, writers, players, cast, techs, and game widows. |
| Open_Sorcery_net Smart feminist analysis of games and game theory. |
| Play_Girlz Gaming blog geared to women. News, rumors and opinions. |
| Playscape_Research Develops concepts that connect technology with emotional growth and insight. Playscape Research focuses on developing computer games for women. |
| Programmer_in_Black This site mainly consists of review of adventure games. It is also just one woman's opinion on those games, so you may disagree with an individual review. |
| Psychotic_Men_Slayers Xbox live girl gamer's clan. Playing: Rainbow Six 3, Counter Strike, Splinter Cell: Pandora's Tomorrow, Unreal Championship, and Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Halo2. |
| Tribe__Game_Girls Tribe for female gamers and game designers. |
| United_Female_Gamers_Forum Video game industry interviews, news and reviews from a female gamer's point of view. |
| Video_Game_Girl_Ring WebRing (since 96) for girls who play videogames. The ring includes sites dedicated to console and/or arcade games. |
| Wargaming_Women Vent your frustrations or find a sympathetic ear before you go back out and take on the men at their own game again. |
| WatchUsGame Girl gamer pics, profiles and other fun junk. |
| Woman_of_CTW Members of this Clan come in all flavors. Ages 12 to 50+. Occupations range from student to systems engineers homemakers to auto mechanics worldwide. |
| Women_Gamers No-frills, content-heavy website for women who game, which offers reviews, previews, and advice on breaking into the industry. |
| Women_In_Gaming_Open_Mailing_List This mailing list, open to men and women alike, is dedicated to the discussion of women in role playing games - how to get them to play and issues that they face. |
| Yahoo_Groups___Dagger_Dames For ladies who RPG. Any female who wants to play role-playing games, start an all-female role-playing group or just talk about RPGs are welcome. |
| Abaris_Consulting Management consultation firm based in London, Ontario, Canada. Corporate information, client list, articles, services available. |
| Advance_Education_and_Development_Institute Short courses and workshops in fundraising, community development, community research methods, public/media relations and non-profit management. |
| A_F__Trombino_and_Associates Helps locate funding to underwrite your programs. |
About Toby /
East Africa
/ Contact Us
/ Kenya 2000 / How You Can Help / Mission Statement / Peru / Russia
/
More Action Photos / Training
Center for the Disabled / Speaking Engagement / Statement
of Faith
What are we doing now?
see a
slide show of our recent mission trip to Kenya
"How
I thank God for "Wheels of Love", because truly this is one of the most
creative ways to
minister to non-believers and to open up the hearts and to minister to those
physically
challenged...
Thank you for all the wheelchairs you've provided for us
to share God's love"
Josh McDowell
Author and International Speaker
(photo and quotation used with permission by Josh
McDowell)
Above,
the founder observes distribution in Kenya Feb. 2006.
What
do you think about this statement? "Wheelchairs
that are made to operate on smooth surfaces (streets, sidewalks, shopping malls,
homes) within the United States are able to operate equally well on the
rugged terrain (or uncertain terrain) in developing nations".
True, or False? Click here
to see the first wheelchair that we took to Kenya. This high-quality
American-style wheelchair broke within the first 6 months of use!
Please look at this picture and judge for yourself. Are American-style
chairs adequate for developing nations if this particular chair broke after
only a few months of use?
At Wheels of Love, we are convinced that
many wheelchair designs which are able to function adequately inside the United States
are NOT suitable for general distribution to people living inside developing
nations; not unless the rules of proper wheelchair usage are modified and
properly explained to the people who are to receive such chairs. In other
words, we could continue to send American wheelchairs to developing nations,
but we should at the same time WARN that the chair may break if used outside
the home.
Engineers who specialize in the design of
wheelchairs are learning that many wheelchairs from the US are
failing to adequately meet the needs of people in developing nations.
To be fair, we have observed that even certain specially designed chairs made
for rugged terrain usage fail as well, but in different ways due to certain
weaknesses in design implementation. But there must be a way to produce
a safe and effective chair that will withstand the stresses and strains of
real world useage.
One common point of failure with such American wheelchairs
occurs at the tiny wheels and casters located in the front of typical
chairs. The spokes of these wheels are most often made of plastic which
snaps when the wheel hits a pot-hole, curb, step, etc., at just the right
angle and speed; after a certain number of impacts the wheel is destined to
break at one of the spokes, or even along the outer edge of the wheel.
After being permanently damaged by a suitable blow to the wheel structure,
not only can a spoke break but also the rubber lining along the outside edge
of the wheel can come loose. The rim of the wheel can also warp.
This is only ONE point point of failure. There
are other areas on a chair which can cause problems and there are other reasons
why an American-style wheelchair is inferior for use in a developing
nation, in our opinion.
[photo: This is what can happen to a person who is given an
improperly fitted wheelchair, or a wheelchair of an inferior design].
[Photo obtained from http://www.motivation.org.uk
Please visit this website to learn more about the technical problems
associated with wheelchair fitting, selection, and distribution.]
There are other serious problems, even
potentially life threatening, which can arise
when incorrect wheelchair fitting occurs, or if an inappropriate style of
wheelchair is given to someone whose disability is complex and requires very
special measurements, etc.
The chairs that WOL believes are safe
and effective in developing nations are manufactured outside the USA and are
designed to be extra durable on rugged terrain.
During our mission trip to Kenya in early 2006, Wheels of Love's founder, Toby,
used a
brand new (fresh out of the box) American-style manual wheelchair which broke on
the third week of operating on the streets of Nairobi, Kenya.
As we sought ways to get the chair repaired in the heavily populated modern
city of Nairobi, we discovered that Kenya
apparently does not have aluminum welding technology. This information
was provided by a mechanical engineer who was doing charitable work in Nairobi. The fact
that there is no aluminum welding technology in the country is not meant to
be a derogatory statement about the people of Kenya, they just have other welding technology at their
disposal.
Since many American-style manual
wheelchairs are made of aluminum, lack
of aluminum welding technology translates to scores of useless manual
wheelchairs that may be sitting and rusting away in junk piles. Or possibly worse yet, broken-down chairs may very
well still be in use by people who have no other options.
At the time of this writing,
a wheelchair donated from the United
States to a person living in a
developing nation is expected to break in a significant way, within the first
6 months of use!
As more data becomes available, it
would seem that there may be quite literally thousands of crippled American
wheelchairs dotted along the earth's landscape; wheelchairs that have
been donated by well meaning organizations.
To further compound the situation, there
are also some wheelchair designs that look good (or even "cute") to
the uneducated eye, which may be causing disappointment, heartache, and
serious medical problems.
At
this time, we believe that our chairs of choice are safe and effective but we do need
to evaluate these chairs early in the game, so that adjustments can be made
if necessary. It would be best if we do this prior to hundreds, or thousands of chairs being handed out in
the future.
One of our goals is to identify
wheelchair shortcomings, if they exist, and move toward improving the
quality of wheelchair donations.
Let us not be content with the idea of
playing the numbers game in order to have high statistics - large numbers of
donated wheelchairs - for the sake of raising funds for one's particular
organization. Rather, let all of us who are called to meet the needs of
the physically challenged move toward higher quality, not just
higher quantity.
Let
us do all things as if unto the Lord Himself.
If you or your church is interested in
participating in one of our next mission trip to Kenya, please send an email or
call us at the phone number below.
Wheels of Love ● 4319 Medical Dr. #131-308
San Antonio ● Texas 78229 ● 210-843-9078
email at: w h e e l s o f l o v e @m s n . c o m
