Artificial Limb Donors Give Hope to Amputees on CNN Africa

The story of Crystal Chigbu, Nigerian prosthetics donor, and Gbolahan Sasona a Limb restorer, will be the first to hit the new CNN African Voices Change Makers programme which debuts this Friday.

For Crystal Chigbu, caring for a child whose congenitally malformed limb had to be amputated was a life-transforming passion.

The mother of two rose from the trauma of the misfortune to become the Founder and Chief Executive of Irede Foundation, a body which has gained wide acclaim as succour-giver to other children whose limbs had been severed due to one health issue or another.

This week on CNN’s magazine programme, African Voices Change Makers, Crystal recounts the tale of initial shock, the devastation and the challenges that greeted the reality of having to raise a daughter who was born with congenital limb deformity and the process and struggles she and her husband went through while trying to make a decision on whether to amputate or not.

According to the 2002 University of Lagos graduate of Biochemistry, “seeing other children and families go through the same process without a clear view on how to adapt to the challenges of living with limb loss gave vent to the creation of Irede Foundation which has, since inception, restored hope to children living with loss of limbs.”

“We understand that children can help educate their friends in school; that way we can educate a whole nation – and we can reduce societal stigmatization.