Considering further ways to aid the limbless

DEAR Editor,
You were considerate enough to publish a letter of mine this week in which I referred to the plight of the many people in the Solomon Islands awaiting the fitting of prosthetic limbs following surgery that had been occasioned following amputations accelerated my succumbing to diabetic disease and foot injuries.  The former NRH patients awaiting the fitting of prosthetic limbs, mainly legs, currently number more than 400 and the waiting list is increasing.
Advice I have received back from the NRH authorities, following my letter, has reported the Rehabilitation Workshop has been closed due to it being unsafe as a result of termite infestation and damage.  What work that is being undertaken, valiantly, by the rehabilitation staff is being done in temporary but inadequate facilities.
The making, shaping, custom fitting and repair of prosthetic limbs so successfully done in past years at the NRH is no longer possible, given what I have mentioned.
At the request of the NRH, I have outlined to Take My Hands Charity Trust (TMH) in New Zealand the need for extra mobility aids such as walking frames, crutches and wheel chairs to be sent, but more containers of such essentials will be held up until TMH receives a second payment for freight as a requirement of the MOU signed between the MOHMS and TMH.
Notwithstanding there will be delay in getting extra containers to the NRH, there might be the possibility of TMH exploring with professionals in New Zealand an idea of seeing to the needs of those wanting prosthetic limbs custom made and fitted.
I am not able to say more on such a possibility at this time but await further advice from the NRH and from TMH to be able to develop ideas and likely initiatives further and, hopefully, very soon.
TMH is a friend indeed and I have confidence in the charity doing everything possible to come to the aid of the NRH and its needs, including the awaiting limbless.
Yours sincerely
Frank Short

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