500 Miles impacting communities with artificial limbs

But I would walk 500 miles, and I would walk 500 more… goes the popular Scottish song done by The Proclaimers in 1988. This is the song which a Scottish charity founded in 2008, 500 Miles Prosthetic and Orthotic Centre, took its name from.

Not that 500 miles is the distance a client has to walk before receiving help. Neither is it the distance they would walk after benefitting from the organisation. Rather, the organisation only helps people who have mobility problems to get moving.

In developing countries, 0.5 percent of the population need artificial limbs and rehabilitation, but less than 13 percent of them will be able to get the service.

Sam Walker, manager of 500 Miles Mzuzu, says the organisation, which opened in November 2012 and has since assisted 600 people, wants to change these figures by sustainably manufacturing and delivering prosthetic and orthotic devices in Malawi.

Prostheses are devices which replace missing body parts while orthoses are devices which support body parts that do not function properly.

Walker says often, awareness of services, access, availability and costs, limit the delivery of such needed appliances.

“Malawi is showing that through good local and national collaboration between government, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and the private sector, it is possible to change these statistics for the better and help people with mobility challenges to move again, because together we can keep the promises to continue to help our disabled friends keep them moving towards their dreams,” Walker says.

500 Miles Mzuzu is located within Mzuzu Central Hospital and it is changing lives of amputees such as a Likoma-based fisher, 27-year-old Roy Mwajulo.

Mwajulo says life is not the same after he had both limbs amputated due to an infection. He says he had his first procedure in 2012 at Nkhata Bay District Hospital and on July 27 last year, he had his right limb amputated at Mzuzu Central Hospital.

Before 500 Miles came in, Mwajulo says he had lost his independence after the second surgery.

“I never expected that I would end up without legs. Now my business is gone, I cannot fish anymore. I even need help when nature calls,” narrates Mwajulo.

He further adds that he now has only a few friends compared to when he had both legs.

Mwajulo is now undergoing training at Mzuzu Central Hospital in how to use artificial limbs while waiting for prostheses.

“When I receive my artificial limbs in a few months, I will be moving again,” explains Mwajulo, visibly happy.

However, he says he cannot go back to fishing, and wishes he had an engine boat and fishing nets to help him continue with his trade.

For a mother of four Milica Mwale from Kabwafu Village, Traditional Authority Mpherembe in Mzimba, 500 Miles is a Godsend. Mwale is now able to perform her household chores after her 33-month-old son received orthotic devices to support his weak limbs from the organisation.

Mwale’s son was born with cerebral palsy and thus could not crawl when she first visited the centre in August 2013.

“Now my son crawls, and I am hopeful that with the supporting devices on his legs, he will soon start walking and my life will go back to normal,” says a happy Mwale.

Dr. Douglas Lungu, a surgeon at the hospital who works together with the centre, says limb amputation is a traumatic procedure and therefore, amputees need rehabilitation thereafter.

Lungu says although the hospital knows the importance of rehabilitation, it prioritises other severe diseases like malaria due to funding constraints.

“Once you have your limb cut off, you are healed and unlikely to die. But what remains is rehabilitation,” Lungu said.

He, therefore, commended 500 Miles for its involvement in rehabilitation.

The organisation is currently working in Malawi, Zambia and Zanzibar.