Darmanto, Promoting Independence for Disabled People

Darmanto supports people with disabilities independence by modifying three-wheeled motorcycles (trikes), which can be paid off in installments over an unlimited period of time.

KOMPAS/REGINA RUKMORINI

Darmanto

Drawing on his own experience, Darmanto, 47, encourages fellow residents with disabilities to live independently. He supports their independence by modifying three-wheeled motorcycles (trikes) for the disabled, which can be paid off in installments over an unlimited period of time. In addition, Darmanto also provides capital assistance to those who start their own businesses.

Darmanto has lower limb disabilities. At home, he uses a wheelchair to aid his daily activities. For traveling outside his home, he uses a three-wheeled motorcycle, also called a trike, or a car that has been modified so he can drive on his own.

On Saturday (1/4/2023) at his welding workshop, Darmanto used his wheelchair to monitor his employees while also giving them direction. In the 5-meter-by-12-meter room was a stack of walking sticks for people with lower limb disabilities. In another corner was an assortment of tools that Darmanto used to modify motorcycles. In the middle of the room, an employee was busy welding legs for the tables customers had ordered.

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Darmanto modifies motorcycles by adding a sidecar on the left. He sells his products for Rp 3.5 million per trike, below the average market price of Rp 5 million per unit for the same product.

“A buyer of a three-wheeled motorcycle was complaining about his difficulty with starting a fish breeding business, so I readily gave him Rp 175,000 in cash. I suggested that he use the money as starting capital to purchase young fish,” Darmanto said at his home in Wringinputih village of Borobudur district, Magelang regency, Central Java.

Most of his customers do not pay for their trike outright, and are only able to finish paying for it years later. If some customers need a large amount of capital to start a business, he suggests alternative funding sources, such as the social affairs office. Darmanto has even stopped some disabled customers from settling their motorcycle payments so they can use the money as additional capital.

Apart from lending money, he always offers his feedback and suggestions openly about alternative businesses they could try. Darmanto’s ideas are all based on his personal knowledge and experience, as he has been engaged in various businesses.

KOMPAS/REGINA RUKMORINI

Darmanto supervised his workers who were welding consumer orders, Saturday (1/4/2023).

Darmanto has been producing modified trikes for the disabled since 2009. So far, he has sold hundreds of motorcycles for use by disabled people in Solo, Jakarta and Yogyakarta, and in major cities as far away as Sumatra and Kalimantan.

Nevertheless, this is no reason for him to stop doing good deeds. From the beginning, he has never intended his motorcycle modification business to be a means of making a profit.

“Producing these three-wheeled motorcycles was in fact undertaken only as a way of realizing my concern [and] conscience to assist fellow disabled people,” he said.

To meet his family’s daily needs, Darmanto earns an income from his welding business. He has three employees. In addition, the family is also supported by his wife Siti Jualiyah, 47, who runs a roadside eatery in the village that sells a variety of dishes.

No idling

Until he was 2 years old, Darmanto was a normal toddler, able to walk using both legs. However, Darmanto then developed a sudden fever and was unable to walk. His parents panicked and took him to various places for treatments, including massage therapy.

One of the doctors who visited made a diagnosis that Darmanto would never recover. “The doctor asked us all to accept my condition. I was diagnosed with polio,” he recalled.

Darmanto said that his father continued to try find other alternative treatments to cure him. But since there was no improvement, Darmanto had to crawl to do any activities and alter his movements. He was not enrolled in any school, either, and was simply left at home.

I was diagnosed with polio.

One day, at a family feast, Darmanto’s grandfather gathered all his children and grandchildren to him. It was then that his grandfather communicated to the entire family that they should all protect and look after Darmanto. Darmanto, who was 7 years old at the time, immediately burst into tears.

“When I heard what my grandfather said, I realized that I would be a burden and a problem for my entire family,” he said.

Since then, he has been determined to be independent and not be a bother to others.

KOMPAS/REGINA RUKMORINI

Darmanto

Painting

In 1992, when he was a teenager, he participated in a rehabilitation and skills training program at the Christian Foundation for Public Health (Yakkum) in Yogyakarta. There, he studied three-dimensional painting. Darmanto learned to walk in special shoes and using a walking stick to join the activities.

The following year, he strived to become independent by creating 3D paintings that he sold on consignment through several hotels in Bali. He also attempted to make up for the gaps in his education by taking the Package A, B and C equivalency courses.

After getting married and having a child, he and his family moved to Cilacap regency for two years. There, he continued to make and sell paintings to a number of customers.

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His business faced some difficulties, including from the impacts of the 2002 Bali bombings. He also had partnerships, such as producing paintings from images taken by a professional photographer. But he suffered a loss, as all his paintings were blown away by strong winds.

Yet he did not give up. With his savings, he bought a plot of land in his native village in Magelang regency. While he still painted occasionally, he tried out different trades, opening a clock service shop at Sraten Market in Mertoyudan district as well as selling vegetables and seedlings door to door.

In 2006, he started learning how to weld and finally opened a workshop, recruiting local residents as employees. Only in 2009 did he learn to build three-wheeled motorcycles and started selling them to people with disabilities who needed the vehicles.

Darmanto has also opened his workshop so people can learn welding. Last year, the Wringinputih village administration organized a welding training program for residents with disabilities at Darmanto’s workshop. He welcomes everyone who wants to learn this skill with open arms.

Darmanto

Born:Magelang, 9 Aug. 1975

Wife:Siti Jualiyah

Children:Four

This article was translated by Aris Prawira.