Overview
REMAP is a national charity consisting of around 70 groups spread throughout England and Wales.
It consists of, mostly, retired engineers, craftsmen and keen DIYers who design and build, or adapt, equipment for disabled people when there is nothing otherwise available that meets their particular requirements.
This service is free of charge to the client.
Locally, the Derby, Burton and District Panel covers Derbyshire and East Staffordshire. It presently has just under twenty members and is one of the most active in the country, dealing with around 140 requests each year. However, it really needs additional volunteers, especially in the north of Derbyshire.
Remap has no premises; its volunteers produce the aids in their own time and in their own workshops (which can be anything from a bench in a garden shed to a full ‘model engineering’ set-up). They need to have their own transport and be free during the working day to meet with health care professionals and visit clients.
The aids produced can range from the very simple to the quite sophisticated. Our volunteers take on the tasks they have the skills to carry out.
This valuable work gives enormous satisfaction to those involved, in that they are using skills developed over a working career to improve the quality of life for people who are far worse off than themselves.
Volunteers receive payment for all materials used, and a generous mileage allowance.
If you have a mechanical, electrical or electronic background, craftsmanship skills or simply an aptitude for making things, you could be just the person Remap needs.
For more information:
- contact the Panel Chairman, Peter Brien, on 01773 821768,
- visit the local website, www.derbyremap.info, which has many examples of our work in the quarterly newsletters,
- visit the national website, www.remap.org.uk.