wfn.org | ELCA Hunger Appeal Supports Artificial Limb Program

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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

March 14, 2003

ELCA HUNGER APPEAL SUPPORTS ARTIFICIAL LIMB PROGRAM
03-050-SP*

     JAMKHED, India (ELCA) --  Leelabai is a widow in her mid 50s. In
1972, an overloaded truck tipped over and hit her while she was working
alongside a road. At the hospital, her leg was amputated.
     Someone made a heavy wooden prosthesis with shoes for Leelabai.
She was able to do her daily chores but couldn't work at a regular job.
Six years ago Leelabai received a new artificial leg from a program of
the Comprehensive Rural Health Project (CRHP).	Since then, she has been
able to work on the farm and perform various chores.
     Based in Jamkhed, a city in west-central India, CRHP is a long-
standing partner of Lutheran World Relief (LWR), the overseas relief and
development ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
(ELCA) and The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.	LWR receives financial
support from the ELCA through donations to the World Hunger Appeal.
     CRHP addresses the primary health care needs of residents of
Jamkhed and the surrounding area.  It is one of many local sustainable-
development projects in India supported by LWR that addresses the long-
term needs of whole communities through agriculture, education, medical
care and other ways. CRHP is centered at a hospital and clinic, but
since its founding, it has been expanded to improve the lives of the
region's residents in innovative ways such as with the artificial limb
program.
     Founded in 1970 by Drs. Mabelle and Rajanikant "Raj" Arole, a
Christian couple born in India who received their medical education in
the United States, the CRHP started with the Aroles' belief that Indians
can be empowered to take control of their personal and community's
health care needs when given basic medical knowledge.
     "People can address 85 percent of their health care needs on their
own," says Raj Arole, who runs the program today with his daughter, Dr.
Shobha Arole, after his wife Mabelle died several years ago. "For the
rest, they can come to us for professional medical care."
     The artificial limb program, one of many offshoots of CRHP's
health care core, is based on a similar principle of simplicity -- that
low-cost, basic materials and simple hand-craft techniques can allow
people who have lost one or both legs to an accident, disease or who
were born that way to walk again or perform many physical activities.
     Raj Arole explains that in the United States, a person in this
situation might get fitted with an artificial limb made of high-tech
materials, costing $2,500-$5,000. But many people living in India's
rural areas cannot afford to pay that much for an artificial limb.
Besides, Arole points out, artificial limbs made of such high-tech
materials would not be suited to most Indians' lifestyles.  According to
Arole, Indians squat a lot while waiting for the bus or harvesting crops
in the field, and many of them often walk on dirt roads and paths.
     The artificial limb program fits five to six people a day with
custom-made legs at its workshops on CRHP's compound. Some people come
from as far away as 125 miles for the legs. The legs are made with low-
cost materials -- aluminum sheeting, shaped like a calf, and precast
rubber feet. A leather strap holds the leg on.
     Clients usually are fitted with a leg the same day they come in,
allowing them to walk away with their lives changed.
     Late one Sunday morning in November, a half-dozen clients were at
the workshop.  One man who works as a ticket collector on a train had
returned for a new pair of legs, since the old ones that he was fitted
with six years ago have worn out.  A few hours after his arrival, the
man returned home with new lower legs.
     "I was a truck driver. I had a crash. Both my legs were cut on the
spot. That was 18 months ago," Apsar Ibrahim Shikhe, a new client
visiting the workshop that day, said. He couldn't work after the crash,
and his family had been supporting him. But after being measured for two
artificial legs, he said, "Now I don't need anybody's support. Now I can
stand. Now I can do something. I can make some money for my family."
     Another man demonstrated how his new leg enables him to ride a
bicycle and climb a tree again.
     Moses Guram, who helped establish the program in 1971, still
directs it today. He and a small crew of workers make the legs on the
spot, using simple tools to shape the aluminum and assemble the legs.
     "I see the poor patient squatting, or sitting or on his back. I
feel very bad," Guram said. "But within one or two hours, he stands.
That gives me joy."
     Most clients are too poor to pay, and the program provides the
limbs for free. Staff of the program regularly travel to remote villages
in the area. With the help of Samaj Bharati, a social institute, CRHP
organizes a six-day-long camp every year in Latur, nearly 100 miles from
Jamkhed. During last year's camp session in Latur, 172 prostheses were
produced -- not enough to fulfill the demand. Many people in need of
artificial limbs were referred to Jamkhed.
     Guram and his workers have been asked to travel to other parts of
India and other countries, such as Sierra Leone and Angola, where war
has caused many people to become amputees. The workers teach their
techniques to local people in many areas so they can set up an
artificial limb workshop of their own.
     On a visit to CRHP in early November, staff of LWR and the ELCA
World Hunger Appeal took part in a ceremony to present artificial limbs
to some of the program's clients. The presentation was to symbolize
CRHP's partnership with the organizations that support it in the U.S.
and the Christian service they are part of with people in need in
Jamkhed.
     "Jesus' healing ministry continues today as caring hands fit new
legs," said Kathryn Wolford, LWR president and a member of the group
that visited CRHP. "You see it in the eyes of each person as he or she
stands and takes that first step forward ... and then another and
another."
-- -- --
     A video news release related to this story can be viewed at
http://www.elca.org/co/news/videos/video.index.html on the ELCA Web
site.

* Stephen H. Padre is associate director for interpretation for the ELCA
World Hunger Program.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html