Help Ugandans receive prosthetic upper limbs

The World Action Fund (WAF) is seeking to raise money for individuals with limb differences in Uganda. WAF has received surveys from 11 hospitals, 2 refugee camps and 4 regions in Uganda, and identified at least 373 patients and an additional 500 to be identified with below-shoulder, below-elbow and below-wrist amputations that have severely impacted their ability to find work, and often have caused them to be alienated from their communities

THE NEED

Individual causes of missing limbs include:- Violence (landmines, domestic, gun violence)- Road traffic incidents- Industrial accidents- Congenital defects- Cancer- Snake bitesIn Northern Uganda, amputation was used as a terror and training tool for ‘child soldiers’ targeted by Joseph Kony’s Lord's Resistance Army, which caused damage for 26 years, mutilated thousands and killed over 100,000 people. Most surviving victims in the region, concentrated in the Gulu district, have gone without prosthetics for their whole lives. The Ministry of Health has partnered with WAF to open a survey camp in the region, providing an opportunity for locals to receive measurements and prosthetics; with your help, they’ll be able to send a full survey team to Gulu in 2025.

THE HOW

While volunteers in the United States and Canada design, print and build custom prosthetics for each patient and ship to Uganda at their own cost, custom prosthetics require comprehensive measurements of individual patients, making up the bulk of the process cost as follows: In order to identify those in need, WAF spends $1,250 on radio announcements to survey and mobilize patients by region. After WAF travels to each region (patients are often unable to find transport to a central location, so WAF provides travel aid - $6,400), they must hire a technical team of drivers, orthopedic engineers and field mobilizers to survey individual patients. The total cost for the survey operations is $23,170. Additional logistical costs include the cost of hiring a vehicle for 30 days ($2,700), and fuel costs for transport between 16 meeting locations ($1,321). WAF Uganda plans to visit and survey individuals in all four regions, beginning with Northern Uganda (4 sub regions, 37 districts). They have visited the following districts: Northern Uganda, West Nile subregion (Arua, Koboko, Maracha, Terego, Yumbe)And they will visit the following areas: Gulu, Soroti, Bukedea, Jinja, Iganga, Mbale, Mbarara, Rukungiri, Kabale, Kisoro, Fort Portal, Kyegegwa Refugee Camp, Adjumani, Nebbi, Pakwach, Central Uganda (135 districts)

Personal Story:

Restoring Hope: Lost Arms & The Journey of the Orthopedic Technologists

In the heart of northern Uganda, where the Lord’s Resistance Army had once left a trail of devastation, the past still haunted the land. Villages bore the scars of war burned homes, empty schoolyards, abandoned homesteads and people with missing limbs, reminders of the unspeakable horrors they had endured. Fear still lingered in the whispers of elders, visitors and the downcast tearful eyes of survivors. But amid this darkness, a team of orthopedic technologists from World Action Fund had arrived, moving across the country, carrying not weapons, but hope to assess the needs to replace the arms.

They traveled across the rugged terrain, braving scorching days and freezing nights, their mission clear to restore dignity through high-tech prosthetics for those who had lost their arms. In one village, a man named Okello sat in the shade of a mango tree, watching as the team set up their mobile clinic of tolls to assess. He was once a young boy when the rebels came on interview him, he started crying upon recall the past history, the team paused in silence.

They had taken his father, his brothers, and left him with a shattered body and a missing arm he was instructed to kill his own father going to school, he refused so showed him, how to kill, his father was killed infront of him, and his hand cut. Now in his twenties, he had accepted a life of struggle, unable to farm or provide for his family. Dr. Patience, one of the orthopedic technologists, knelt beside him. “Okello,” she said gently, “we want to give you something back.” She held up a sleek, high-tech prosthetic arm sample and new improved one coming ahead. “This is not just an arm it’s your strength, your independence, your future. ”Skeptical but desperate, Okello allowed them to measure. The first time he was measured tears were falling freely, his breath caught. The second time, he reached for a cup of water and he smiled and laughed after counseling The moment the bottle of mineral water touched his lips, his eyes filled with tears. The crowd around him erupted in cheers.But the most powerful moment came later.

A young girl, Akello, who had lost her arm to a landmine and had never been to school, stepped forward shyly. Inspired by Okello, she let the team asses her. When she was shown what we fitted before on phone video the entire village came and watched and she wept.That night, under the cold sky, the team rested exhausted yet fulfilled. They had seen the ghosts of war in Okello’s eyes, but they had also seen something else—hope.As they prepared to leave for the next village, Okello raised his new arm high in the air, a silent promise that the horror of the past would not define their future. And in the villages once haunted by war, the orthopedic technologists became known as the healers