NEWS …promoting self-help, not sympathy PO Box 94 Keri Keri, New Zealand www.mend.org.nz mend@xtra.co.nz Phone: 027 3298368 09 4078395 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

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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

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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 hand- powered 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 shasabolton@gmail.com 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

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LIMB-FITTING CAMP in Nepal Four amputees were measured by Roshan Thapa in our assessment camp on 4

th 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

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....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) ______________________________________________________________________