Paraplegic engineer helps wounded Ukrainians build wheelchairs

“The energy that you put into self-destruction, you put into creation instead, and that brings joy,” he tells Aleteia. He has set up a wheelchair manufacturing workshop in a rehabilitation center in Lviv, Ukraine, and he doesn’t intend to stop there.

Livron has a rather extraordinary ability to see things on a grand scale, along with the audacity to accomplish his wildest ideas. And he certainly has no shortage of projects. He already gave Pope Francis a custom-made wooden wheelchair during the pontiff's visit to Marseille, France, in September 2023. Then, he completed the 6.2-mile Marathon Pour Tous in Paris in 2024. Now, he’s focused on his “great project.” He wants to provide marginalized people, particularly in developing countries, with inexpensive, easy-to-build wooden wheelchairs.

Livron has used a wheelchair since his accident. An engineer by training, he had to abandon his dream of becoming a forestry engineer. Instead, he made wheelchair manufacturing his specialty. He launched his company Apollo Wooden Wheelchairs in March 2022.

“From the beginning, the design of my wheelchairs has had a humanitarian aim, which is why I asked for Pope Francis’ sponsorship! Making simple but effective wooden wheelchairs is the DNA of my project,” he tells Aleteia.

“The tools to manufacture a wooden wheelchair are very simple to use and inexpensive, compared to those necessary to manufacture a traditional metal wheelchair,” he says. Consequently, he believes his wheelchairs can become an ideal solution for people with few resources.

It is a conviction he quickly put to the test.

To make his wheelchairs, Livron uses birch plywood panels sourced from Ukraine. He likes to engage with current events, even when they’re difficult to deal with. He was particularly concerned about the war in Ukraine. Knowing that wounded veterans needed good wheelchairs, he decided to take action.

“I went where I believe it is most relevant to start distributing my wheelchairs: to Ukraine,” he says.

In August 2025, Livron traveled to Lviv, a major city in western Ukraine. There, he established a partnership with the Unbroken National Rehabilitation Center, the largest facility of its kind in the country. “There are significant needs, and I was welcomed with open arms,” he recalls.

By October of the same year, he had set up a workshop inside the hospital. There, he guided six Ukrainian men in building their own wooden wheelchairs. Livron returned to France a month later, but the workshop remained active because some of the men hadn't completely finished their chairs.

In April 2026, he participated in the Paris Marathon alongside seven Ukrainians in their wheelchairs.

The experience of working with the Ukrainians was incredibly rich and bore immediate fruit.

“Among the six Ukrainians, two have been disabled for a long time. Four were wounded in the war, with deep and recent physical and psychological wounds,” Livron explains. Working with your hands and concentrating on a task occupies the time, but more importantly, it occupies the mind.

“We use a scroll saw, which is easy to handle and cuts slowly. You spend hours cutting the pieces, and during this time, you don't think about your dark thoughts,” he says. “They don't disappear forever, of course, but they leave room for a little square of blue sky.” It’s an experience the entrepreneur lived firsthand after his accident.

“At the age of 21, I was in a rehabilitation center. You’re bored to death there! My mother brought me what I needed to draw and sculpt, and that did me a great deal of good,” he shares. “You feel something of joy and pride. You feel that you can be happy in spite of everything, and you tell yourself then that life is worth living. In Ukraine, I quite simply tried to reproduce what had helped me to get through this trial.”

The effort paid off. Livron saw the men transform, open up, and blossom—even the most distant and toughest among them.

“One of the men scared me at the beginning! He has lost both his legs to a mine, has tattoos, scars... When he came to the workshop, he had his earphones in his ears and listened to violent music,” Livron remembers. “But he was the most meticulous, and I understood that he was used to working with his hands.”

“Little by little, he opened up. Removing one earphone and then the other, he began to take an interest in me, and even started making jokes,” Livron says.

“By the end, he was joyful. He helped me tidy the workshop and load the car!” Livron adds. “For me, this is proof of what this kind of workshop can bring: the energy that you put into self-destruction, you put into creation instead, and that brings joy.”

The Lviv workshop was funded by 262 contributors via the Ulule crowdfunding platform, raising a total of 11,376 euros (roughly $12,500). It was also made possible by the generous patronage of the German company Festool. Since a simple email from Livron in 2022 asking for a discount, the company has regularly offered him the equipment he needs, and highlights his work on its website.

When Livron explained to Festool's marketing director that he was preparing to set up a workshop in Ukraine, the director asked what tools would be necessary. One October morning, just days before Livron's departure, huge Festool packages were delivered to the door of his apartment.

“Festool's generosity allowed the workshop to be equipped with materials of much better quality than what I would have bought otherwise, and to transfer the money saved to other expenses,” he says gratefully.

The adventure is far from over. The experience won over a businessman from Kyiv who founded a small rehabilitation center for the wounded. Livron is planning a new Apollo Wooden Wheelchairs workshop there, supported by the Leroy Merlin solidarity foundation in Ukraine.