wfn.org | United Methodists provide artificial limbs in Angola

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

July 17, 1998	Contact: Linda Bloom*(212) 870-3803*New York       {422}

NOTE: Photographs are available with this story.

By United Methodist News Service

Using simple technology, United Methodists are sponsoring clinics that
provide artificial limbs for landmine victims in Angola.

The first clinic for the Jaipur Foot/Prosthesis Program, named for the
Indian city in which it was developed, occurred in June and early July
in Melange. With Indian technicians training Angolan workers in the
process, nearly 140 artificial legs were fitted on both men and women.

Sarla Lall, an executive with the United Methodist Board of Global
Ministries, said the clinic was so successful that it drew the attention
of the International Committee on Red Cross, which also provides
artificial limbs in Angola. 

"The equipment and materials needed are so few and basic that this is a
mobile thing," Lall explained. "Wherever you have electricity and water
available, you can do a prosthesis workshop." 

Through agreements with the board, the United Methodist Church in Angola
and that country's vice minister of health and minister of ministry to
women, a group of five technicians from India arrived in Melange on June
13 to start the work. Raj Arole, a consultant for the Board of Global
Ministries' community-based health care ministries, led the team.

Raw materials needed for production, such as aluminum and rubber, were
shipped from India, along with electric drills, saws and grinders. Items
such as glue, rubber solution, paint, acetylene gas and wooden pegs were
purchased from the local market in Luanda, Angola's capital.

The prosthesis-manufacturing center was set up in the garage of Rosetta
Brown, a United Methodist missionary, because it had an electrical
generator and the necessary storage space. Patients were measured and
fitted with the new limbs at Central United Methodist Church, which also
had promoted the clinic to the public.

"They used the altar railings for their first steps," Lall added.

Most of the amputees were in their early 20s to late 30s and had lost
limbs because of landmines planted during the country's civil war. At
least 70,000 Angolans are known landmine victims.

The first to arrive at the clinic were men who had received prostheses
from the army that were "in tatters," according to Lall. The women came
later, ranging in age from 13 to 62.

The technicians and five Angolans selected for training made 200
prostheses while in Melange, but only the 138 persons who needed
below-the-knee limbs could be fitted. A truck carrying joints and other
materials for the above-knee prostheses was lost for 11 days and found
only the day before the Indian team was scheduled to leave, Lall said.

The unfinished work is to be completed when the team returns to Angola
in late September for clinics in Melange and Huambo. The exact date of
the return depends upon whether peace holds in the tension-filled
nation, Lall noted.

While free to patients, the program's cost per limb is $110, including
the shipment of materials. Donations can be made to Advance No.
105630-3, Angola Landmine Prosthesis Program, and left in church
collection plates or mailed to the Health and Relief Unit, United
Methodist Board of Global Ministries, 475 Riverside Drive, Suite 330,
New York, NY 10115. 

# # #

United Methodist News Service
(615)742-5470
Releases and photos also available at
http://www.umc.org/umns/