Foundation Solicits Support for Children with Limb Loss
Chris Asika As part of efforts to bring the society’s attention to the challenges faced by children living with limb loss and the need to appropriately care for them, a non-for-profit organisation, The Irede Foundation (TIF) recently organised a 2 km walk in Lagos tagged ‘Out on a Limb’.
The walk was to raise awareness for the need to care for children living with disability and the provision of prosthetic limbs for them, as well as to promote inclusion of people living with disability in the society.
The event was in line with the foundation’s aim of encouraging children living with limb loss (whether acquired or congenital) to live a life of fulfillment. The foundation advocates for child amputees and children with limb disorder, working closely with professionals to provide quality prosthesis and orthotic devices that give amputee children mobility.
Speaking during the event, the Chairman, Board of Trustees of the foundation, Mr. Kunle Akinkugbe, said ‘the primary objective is to raise awareness for the need for prosthesis limb for child amputees, essentially this means we want to raise funds and reach out to prosthesis manufacturers and engage with donor agencies that can provide the support, and also reach out to the families that need support in this area because it is not readily available.
“We have focused on child amputees partly because you are in an area where you are taking decisions for someone else, if it is an adult, they can decide on their own what they want, if they have options given by the doctors.”
According to him there is a lot beyond the decision, “once you’ve taken the decision to amputate, then you have to provide the prosthesis so that the child will have a normal upbringing as possible. And children being children will grow and the prosthesis needs to be changed.”
In its three years of existence, he said the foundation has donated 16 limbs, which means it has 16 children who have received limbs, while some have received replacement which makes it more than the 16 cases altogether. “Some of the cases have been congenital, some have been from birth.”
Akinkugbe added that the cost of a prosthetic limb is N1million, though there are some prosthesis that one could get for a fraction of that cost, “but you find that maybe a wooden stump and not very comfortable, but the one the foundation gives out is a very sophisticated limb that one can do everything with.”
On the rationale behind the foundation, the Founder, Mrs. Crystal Chigbu, said her daughter was born without a bone in her right leg and the doctors advised them to amputate the child and it was the experience they went through having to take that decision that made them decide to help children with similar issues because they looked around for help and it wasn’t easy to find support or who to turn to that had gone through the experience before.
“We started three years ago and our biggest initiative is what we tagged ‘Out on a Limb’, the awareness walk we have every year and this is the third year just to be able to put out the voice of amputees out there. It is also important for us because it is a way for us to show the works that they have done, especially when you see that ability in someone that probably does not have one leg and you see the person walking just like another person with both legs. They have abilities; they have all it takes to succeed in life.
“Looking at the crowd here, I am excited because it means that we have started getting the voice out there about disability and inclusion, it is not just about disability, it is the fact that we are driving inclusion; ensuring that people that are living with disability are included with other people that they can live their lives to the fullest.”