Namaste! Salaam aleikum! Kia ora! Hi!

NEWS
PO Box 94 Keri Keri, New Zealand
Phone: 027 3298368 09 4078395
…promoting self-help, not sympathy
www.mend.org.nz
[email protected]
August 7, 2012
Namaste! Salaam aleikum! Kia ora! Hi!
Empathy, compassion and sympathy are sort-of similar words …suggesting reasons for
helping others, besides ourselves, our own families and friends!
That anyone wants to help people who they will probably never meet, but who we meet &
treat ….makes that support very special ! Acting locally thinking globally!
“ Strangers … are only friends we haven’t met !”
When we have assessment camps in remote parts of Nepal, Ghana or Kashmir we find so
many young and old people struggling to move around, who are neither rich enough in wealth or
health, nor opportunity, to change their situation.
.
Santos had burns to both feet from a kitchen fire so we kept him at Hope Centre for a month to make
sure no infection set in and to wait until all his pins were removed.
By encouraging self-help, rather than sympathy we focus on all the positive aspects of
disabled persons so we can help them change their circumstances, their mobility and
independence.
The abilities of people then become more important than their disabilities! People
challenging a disability now refer to themselves as differently-abled!
I am sure we are all poignantly aware that we too can suddenly join those needing help,
following a simple slip off a ladder, a car accident, or merely tripping on a step!!
--------------------------------HEARING AIDS ALWAYS WANTED!
Thanks to the many Hearing Associations of NZ and supporters in NZ and
Australia sending in hearing aids we are fitting 250 recycled hearing aids in
Nepal and Kashmir this year!
Thanks to Jade Fredericson, an audiologist in Darwin, for arranging 2 bone
conduction audiometers we now use in Kashmir and Nepal that allow us more
accurate hearing loss testing.
So please ask around and collect all hearing aids that are lying idle…and let
us get kids hearing better!
STORIES of HOPE
“A new, exciting life with sound”
Can you imagine life without sound, our main communication tool? We need to hear
sound to learn and understand language. But sister Anuradha (aged 22 ) and brother Pankaj
(aged 14 ) lost their hearing ability at birth leading to loss of any chance to learn speech.
At the local government school they attended they couldn’t progress to higher grades as
they were unable to understand the classes and courses. They felt isolated at school and by
the community who considered them as deaf, dumb and unintelligent. Finally their parents
too accepted that they will never get their hearing back and admitted them to a special school
where they learned Nepali sign language.
Pankaj loves watching movies and wanted to dance but he hadn’t experienced dancing
to music. He likes playing foot ball but he has never been part of a team since his skills have
been underestimated by the local boys.
Anuradha wanted to make many friends and speak with them to tell them her feelings
but has had few friends since they have always considered her as slow and not bright, which
are misconceptions of those who are hearing-impaired by those who are lacking patience..
For these reasons Pankaj and Anuradha never left their home much, where Pankaj
watched movies and football without sound turned on while Anuradha stayed close to her mother.
Now they are both skilled at sign language and both have a dream to be a teacher in
near future and they are very happy with their friends in the special school for hearing-impaired in
Pokhara, 8 hours by mountain road from Hope Centre.
Anuradha having audio test as her mum watches
Pankaj having first hearing aid fitted
Fortunately they visited to Hope Disability Centre where an audio test was done.
Immediately we found that they could hear with the help of quality hearing aids! Apart from lip
reading this was the first time in 22 years Anuradha could hear her mother and for Pankaj, 14
years. Still they could not understand any spoken words as they only learnt language through
sign. Not even the word “mama” did they know how to say! For them hearing every single word
is very new. They now need intensive speech therapy to acquire tone, volume and pitch of the
words they speak.
Anuradha and Pankaj now hearing with recycled aids from NZ
_______________________________________________________________________
Hope Centre in Nepal now has its second floor thanks to the Petersens of Bundeena, a
small town nestled in the Royal National Park south of Sydney ( and the place MEND’s
Director ran wild and free as a kid!)
The Bundeena community, including the Wraps with Love knitting team, have also
raised the funds to equip the top floor as a deaf school and hostel for patients from
remote areas who need intensive care and physiotherapy.
Anne Green too is kindly sponsoring a very poor family to send the kids to school and
have better living conditions.
Visit www.hopecentrenepal.org
Maize hides Hope!
The sign says “Thanks Peggy and Errol Greening!
Solar water heater now installed and bathroom and kitchen now completed!
The builder in new kitchen
Humi’s family sponsored by Anne Green for clothes,school etc
_____________________________________________________________________________
August 2, 2012
Dear Friends,
My name is Shasa Bolton. I am a 24 year old male who has grown up in Kerikeri, New
Zealand.
During September - November 2012 I will be travelling 2000km through India on a handpowered tricycle in order to raise funds for their production for disabled youth in impoverished
parts of India. I have been given the opportunity to travel to India and help with the production
and design of low cost hand powered tricycles and wheelchairs for those needing some help to
them challenge their disability.
Mobility helps create independence that leads to opportunities such as getting to school or
work! This is my main aim! I will be helping through organisations such THFI, “The Tropical
Health Foundation of India” in Kunnamkulam Kerala, and NZ-based MEND, “Mobility Equipment
for the Needs of the Disabled” ( see www.mend.org.nz)
My plan is to spend up to one month in the southern state of Kerala where I will be working
with a local engineer learning to make the tricycles and investigating improved designs. I will
then take one the tricycles and use it as transport to carry out a charity journey through India and
inspire donations.
I plan to travel at least 2000km by means of the tricycle and spend approximately 3 months
volunteering and carrying out the entire trip.
To make this project successful , fundraising support will be needed. I have set up web site
http://india-by-handtrike.blogspot.com/ where people can learn about the project, follow the
progress of the journey and also collect donations. Or donations can be made to MEND who will
forward those funds to the recipients of the project to order a tricycle.
If you wanted to sponsor 1, 2 or 50 of these tricycles, your donation will ensure
manufacturing of more well after I have finished my trip.
We can make a lightweight, youth and child size tricycles for about $120 each and at the
same time, train disabled youth to construct them.
My intended route is mapped out below and includes the following towns.
If you are interested in joining me on this project, and allowing me to make a small presentation
as I pass though your town on my journey that would be wonderful.!
Please send your contact details and location to [email protected]
and I can give details of my intended time of arrival.
Many thanks. Shasa
___________________________________________________________
STORIES OF HOPE
August 2012
…and the dangers of village treatments
Up to 80% of the world’s population suffer from lower back ache (LBA). The major cause is
mechanical such as poor body posture, unhealthy physical activities, stressful jobs and improper
ergonomics, such as soft beds and carrying heavy loads.
Lower backache patients range from the very young to old people.Being a physiotherapist I
have noticed in my work experience that patients only visit our clinic when their problems,
including LBA, are at their worst.
Especially in Nepal, most LBA cases want fast relief for which they are given high dose
medications which only treat the symptoms, and not the causes, for a short period of time. As
soon as they get some relief they think that are cured while in fact their deviated body structure is
still not fixed. As a result gradually LBA gets worse resulting in the final option of treatment,
spinal surgery.
Puspa with lower limb muscle-wasting
…and muscle-building
Puspa (aged 19) was suffering from mild LBA for 3 years due simply to poor postural habit, and
then neglected to have a medical checkup.
One of her neighbors suggested she have some back manipulation whereby a child
should walk along her back spine. Puspa thought that it could be the best treatment and asked
her 10 years old brother to stand on her back. He weighed about 18 kg and all his weight was
focused on the most sensitive part of her body, the spine.
After the brother walked along Puspa’s thoracic to lumbar spine, one clicking sound changed
her whole life! Her disc joint had been shifted from L4 to L5 leading to compression of her
paraspinal nerves resulting in paraplegia. She became bed ridden for a year and then heard
about Hope Centre so decided to visit us.
With physiotherapy she can walk with the help of a walking stick though she never will regain
normal lower limb movement. The muscles of her lower limbs have wasted generally leading to
weakness of her legs. Her prognosis is good and we hope she will be normal soon for which we
are planning an exercise protocol.
Therefore, I am requesting all the readers not to neglect lower back ache. If you have mild
back pain than consult the nearby physiotherapist or any concerned health personnel. They will
assess you and find out the root of your backache.
Pradip Rai
Physiotherapist , Hope Disability Centre , Gulmi Nepal
____________________________________________________________________________
...uplifting Kashmiris with disabilities and disadvantage
.
Visit www.hdckashmir.org
_________________________________________________________________
LIMB-FITTING CAMP in Nepal
Four amputees were measured by Roshan Thapa in our assessment camp on
th
4 August 2012 in Nepalgunj. The limbs are being donated by MEND’s
supporters in Australia, APC Prosthetics and ALC Limb Centre, both in Sydney.
The camp was organised by Mr Dilli Raj Regmi at Banke Ranjha Airport, near the
Nepal / Indian border.
Roshan measuring amputees
.
....and read more about MEND stories in action on
www.mend.org.nz
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Thanks to all HELPERS, GULMI SAMAJ UK,ABILIS (Finland) & ALTSO (USA)!
from
Kathy Light (Secretary), Sarah Nicolson (Treasurer)
Jim Hekker (Webmaster), Rob Buchanan (Director)
______________________________________________________________________