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Since wheelchairs and tricycles do not require any surgical interventions or customized equipment, this is a common question.
Unlike most contemporary paralysis cases in the developed world (which are now usually the result of spinal cord injury rather than disease) polio victims do not usually need to be in wheelchairs. Wheelchairs would not be a particularly useful solution in most parts of Africa anyway, even if the disabled had access to them and a way to maintain them, since few buildings have wheelchair ramps and since the streets are so often of sand or mud.
With its greater power and stability, a specially-adapted, hand-driven "tricycle" (such as that Mampasi, at left, uses) can be a very practical aid for a disabled person in his/her long-distance displacements, as well as when it is necessary to carry things, even in difficult street conditions.
Even tricycles, however, have some significant drawbacks :
Disabled persons who are seated in tricycles do not receive much more respect from the general population than those who are still simply on the ground. Those, however, who have given up tricycles in favor of getting around on braces and crutches report a huge improvement in the degree to which they are accepted by the rest of society.
Tricycles are too big to go into most public establishments, so users must still get off them and crawl inside on the floor. This typically causes considerable staring by other people. The disabled individual may even be denied entry based on the perception that s/he might be a beggar. Most tricycle users don't even try to go into stores or restaurants, causing this embarrassing spectacle and risking rejection.
Unlike those disabled persons who make the effort to stand and walk with braces and crutches (who, typically, do their best to "blend in"), those preferring tricycles often, at least in DR Congo, belong to a sub-culture in the society in which disabled persons view themselves as a special class of people who should "stick together" (so as to be better able to demand special benefits) and who maintain a certain distance and separation from the non-disabled population. They often socialize only with other disabled persons and live together in shared housing.
Unfortunately, one can often find the rusting remains of a long-broken-down tricycle that was the gift of some benefactor or philanthropic institution at some point in the homes of disabled persons who are currently reduced to crawling around on the ground. The tricycle turned out to be beyond the person's means to repair and maintain over the long term. Another problem is that when a tricycle breaks down on the road far from its user's residence, the person will have difficulty getting home, since tricycles do not fit into most vehicles.
Largely for these reasons, MAMPASI (pictured above), like many other tricycle users, has asked StandProud to be put on the waiting list to receive an operation and braces that will enable him to stand and get around in a more dignified manner using his own legs.