Close Up and Mend

LIMBS for NEPALIS
...Tin Can Tinkerer...

MEND’s story about projects in Nepal was screened on national
TV in NZ on January 22, 2008.

If you click on this address below it will open up at TVNZ page…
Then click on the title “Limbs for Nepalis” And you can then see a 5 minute story about MEND.

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/484445/1553846

It takes a few minutes to download depending on your internet speed…

 

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Dear Supporters,

I just wanted to let you know that next Tuesday ( January 22) CloseUp at 7 pm on TV1/TVNZ is finally screening MEND’s story about our Nepal project that was a finalist in the BBC World Challenge 2007
( www.theworldchallenge.co.uk)

Our story on CloseUp will follow their coverage of the state funeral for Sir Ed Hillary.

TVNZ thought that MEND’s project, supporting neglected disabled Nepalis, would be a fitting reminder of the way Hillary’s work over 40 years with the Sherpa people has inspired other small, “hands-on”, NZ organisations to follow his lead.

Our programme will show the making of low-cost plastic artificial limbs from molds made from recycled aluminium drink cans. And also tools that fit prosthetic arms for amputees to carry out basic, “hands-on”, daily tasks.

I attach a photo sent today from Kashmir showing our project’s Hope Disability Centre under snow, as winter sets in there with temperatures down as low as –20 C degrees, and some photos of some kids we have been helping.

The second centre we started in Kashmir in 2008 near the Pakistan border (in a town badly damaged by the 2005 earthquake) has been rehabilitating 65 very neglected disabled kids and youth .

So that our Nepal project can consolidate, expand and be more effective in 2008 MEND is now fundraising to build a new centre that will house a physiotherapy unit, an office for assessment, kitchen, skills’ training unit and hostel for disabled persons who live in that remote region and need intensive long-term rehabilitation following corrective surgery. The land is being donated by the local council which reduces building cost to about $20,000 which is low by NZ standards but due to low labour charges there.

Thankyou to all those people who sent us good used hearing aids!
We can certainly recycle many more to needy deaf kids and youth in Nepal and Kashmir if you can find any more not wanted!

If you would like more information please contact me

Rob Buchanan MEND Director
Mobile: 0273298368
Email: mend@xtra.co.nz
Address: PO Box 94 Keri Keri New Zealand
Bank Acc: 01 0043240 50 ANZ Keri Keri (SWIFT CODE ANZBNZ22)

Hope Disability Center in Kashmir

 

Nepalese boy with feet burnt in kitchen fire.
Corrective surgery has since released his toes.

 

This Nepalese girl is blind and will have cataract lens inserted soon.