I have just completed my 3 weeks in India with Samuha. The program continues to make amazing progress. The spinal cord injury unit was particularly impressive. All the clients spend some considerable time standing, with their braces on. Many of them manage to walk all around the campus area using either a walker or crutches.
The early intervention centres are both kept busy with children under six and their families.
I was particularly thrilled to see a young girl with spina bifida, who I met six years ago. At that time she had had a below-knee amputation due to a deep pressure sore on her heel. Samuha made her a prosthesis and built a set of parallel bars for her outside her home to practice walking. This time I saw her walking happily with her artificial leg and no crutches as she independently walks to school.
I also met another young lady who I first met in 1996 when she was crippled with polio. Samuha made braces for her and provided crutches for her at that time. She is now a pre-school teacher in her village and when I saw her she looked very elegant dressed in her sari and she could even walk half a kilometre without her crutches.
It is always sad to say goodbye but hopefully I’ll get back there again before too long.
