My name is Ehsan Rasheed
I use a wheelchair, and I live in Turbat, in Balochistan. I started a small workshop next to my house to repair and build equipment for people with disabilities. It's the kind of equipment I depend on myself every day.
Where it began
A brace for a calf
I grew up around machines and animals, and I was always taking things apart to see how they worked. One of our cows once gave birth to a calf whose back legs didn't work properly, and I wanted to help it stand.
I took an old child's tricycle apart and used the wheels and frame to build the calf a simple brace. It was rough, but it held, and the calf could get around. There was a problem in front of me and a few spare parts, and I could see how to fix it. That stuck with me.
That was in 2000, and there's no photograph of it. Nobody here had a camera phone or the internet then.
2007
The years in one room
In 2007 a road accident injured my spinal cord, and I've used a wheelchair since then. For a long time afterwards I spent most of my days in one room.
I count 2009 as the year the work really started. That's when I stopped waiting and began making things again. I collected parts off old motorbikes and machines, and taught myself by getting things wrong and trying again. Mostly I was working out how to make my own wheelchair better, and daily life a little easier.
A small business
The sandals, and the shutdown
For a while I ran a small business of my own. I made traditional Balochi sandals for women and children and sold them online. It gave me an income and a reason to keep working with my hands.
In 2016 the internet was shut down where I live, and the shutdown lasted four years. Selling online was no longer possible, and the business didn't survive. Losing it was hard. It also taught me that I wanted work that didn't depend on one thing staying open.
Studying Fine Arts
Up to the third floor, and back down
I wanted to study Fine Arts, and only two universities in Balochistan teach it. One is the University of Balochistan, which is government-run. The other is semi-governmental and cost more than I could manage. Even the University of Balochistan was out of reach at first, because the Fine Arts department was on the third floor and I couldn't get up there in a wheelchair.
In 2021 the department moved to a ground-floor campus, and that was finally what let me study there. Friends helped me with the cost, and I moved almost 900 kilometres from my hometown. When their help ran short, my father sold a piece of property so I could stay.
I finished my degree in 2025, with sculpture as my major and painting as my minor. My thesis was about what it is like to live with a disability somewhere like Balochistan: the physical barriers, the social ones, and how little rehabilitation and assistive equipment anyone here can get hold of. I worked in plaster, foam and chipboard, and in one piece a pair of tyres. For me these are not only sculpture. They are a call for more accessibility, dignity and inclusion.
The work
Learning to repair and build
Alongside the art, I kept learning about the equipment I use. I read whatever I could find online about wheelchair systems and joystick controls, and then I put it to use.
I've repaired manual and powered wheelchairs and standing aids for people near me. I've made and adjusted hip and knee braces so they fit the person wearing them. And since 2011 I've built three hand controls that let a disabled driver operate a car, each one better than the last. I didn't get any of this from a factory or a manual. I worked it out myself, with spare parts and a lot of patience.
Now
The workshop, and what I want to build next
Recently I set aside a space attached to my home and turned it into a small workshop. It's where I want to keep doing this work and do more of it.
In the near term that means fixing and adapting more wheelchairs, braces and standing aids for people around Turbat. Over time I want to build equipment here too, so people don't have to depend on things they can't afford or even find.
I first heard about the e-NABLE communityonline: volunteers who make assistive devices and put the designs out for anyone to use. I'd like this workshop to do that kind of work, here in Turbat.
That's the story so far
If you want to know what I'm hoping to build next, or you'd like to help, I'd be glad to hear from you.