Medical student and
organizer of the operations
Real Madrid against Barcelona: There's one thing you can't take away from the black disabled: their eternally cheerful disposition and broad laughter - and never quarrelling with their hard fate!
David with a freshly cast baby with clubfeet: at this age, ligaments and bones are still malleable, so they can be straightened in a few weeks to months with changing casts without surgery.
The others have congenital clubfeet that were not redressed in infancy because this effective therapy is not known to rural doctors in the Congo.
The other are those with congenital malformations such as dislocated femoral heads and clubfeet, and the third are the many young people with polio whose legs are stuck in metal splints and are thrown forward when they walk.
We straighten clubfeet in plaster casts or plastic splints shortly after birth and operate on all other patients as early as possible. That's why we are also thinking about annual orthopaedic interplast teams and a separate 2nd floor for orthopaedics, as there is only one functioning department for such operations in Goma.
We offered both young people a double transtibial amputation with optimal prosthetic fitting: However, they did not have the courage to change their life by standing and walking and decided to use a wheelchair! If wheelchairs were not as expensive in Goma as they are here - Goma would probably be the wheelchair city of Africa: almost all double paralyzed people would have opted and would still opt for a wheelchair.
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Almost every week we receive a similar clip from the Goma area, showing adults who have been sliding around on the floor since birth or since their polio at 3-5 years old, because their parents cannot save money for leg braces and crutches (approx. $500) or a wheelchair ($600) - and the richer environment does not have the word “compassion” in its vocabulary.
How can we turn a blind eye to this unconscionable misery or help these brave people to live at our eye level with a donation of €200 for a wheelchair or prefabricated leg braces and adjustable crutches from China?
Unfortunately, a pallet from China costs just as much for transportation and bribes to customs officers and officials involved - but in the end it is a third of the cost of these devices locally.
I founded an organization on 20.3.2023 with 5 politically committed disabled people (see picture with me in the back in the middle): ADHC
