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.

    This group of women are among those receiving artificial limbs through the Jaipur Foot/Prosthesis Program in Angola.

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.

    A technician (left) instructs an Angolan trainee (center) on how to shape the calf of an artificial leg while another technician works on a similar prosthesis.

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.

July 17, 1998