Jacualine - Connecting Africa and Europe

This summer we got an email containing an enquiry of a woman from Botswana who is in need of a leg prothesis. Of course, our first concern was not about providing an artificial leg – that is our daily business – but how this could be accomplished logistically. However, after some intensive email communication it became quickly clear that we would be able to provide the requested artificial limb.

To solve all logistic problems the 40-year-old Jacualine agreed to come to Greifswald at the beginning of autumn. Naturally, to leave her almost 14-year-old daughter behind was difficult for her but she did it to achieve the great goal of stepping in front of her daughter with two legs some day.

In 2015 Jacualine had been involved in a serious car accident which marked the beginning of her long ordeal. As a final consequence it had become necessary to amputate her thigh in March 2018.

However, she had never lost the courage to face life and that was also her most noticable feature when we met her for the first time in October. She was highly motivated and we cut to the chase quickly. Only a few days later she was able to stand on two legs and we decided that before fitting her with her final prothesis she should use the test sample for several weeks to get used to it.

The production and final fitting process was accomplished a few weeks later when she returnt to Germany for a second time.

Special thanks must be credited to Alexander Schlag. While being on holiday at the Baltic Sea he had noticed our advertising on a coach sparking the idea of making contact with those people who had provided the prothesis for the young lady shown. It was not long before contact was made so that Jacualine would finally get the much desired artificial limb. Through all the different stages he was her travelling companion accompanying her around the globe, establishing contacts and facilitating communication by doing the translating. Thank you so much.

Also we have to thank our partner and physiotherapist Mr Schneider from Wolgast. He was instrumental giving us an intensive introduction concerning the functioning of the prothesis.

Overall, there were many people who supported us in our work to help Jacualine to have a great future on two legs. Thank you.