Please note: As the Gift of Limbs project has been completed and the amputees have all been either adopted or placed with permanent guardians, this is no longer an active project for FoSL. The needs of the people in Sierra Leone are enormous, and the Gift of Limbs Project was a small step in the right direction. Should you wish to have more information, please contact Friends of Sierra Leone at info@fosalone.org.
THE GIFT OF LIMBS PROJECT
September 27, 2000
One afternoon last October, Mr. Matthew Mirones of Staten Island, NY was reading his Sunday newspaper when he happened upon an article describing the deliberate and brutal maiming of children in Sierra Leone by diamond-crazy rebels. Mr. Mirones, the president of a prosthetics manufacturing company, had never before heard of this small country on the coast of West Africa. After learning of the horror, however, he decided that he had to act. Not knowing where to go, he contacted his Congressman, Rep. Vito Fossella, and together they identified organizations that were willing to help.
As a result of their vision, in September, 2000 eight maimed Sierra Leonean war survivors will arrive in New York City for orthopedic surgery and prosthetic fitting. Thanks to the initiative of Mr. Mirones, and to an extraordinary partnership of volunteers and agencies, these survivors will receive the help they desperately need.
Background
Geographically, Sierra Leone is about the size of South Carolina. Despite a rich history of ethnic harmony, the country endured several decades of post-colonial dictators, who allowed its infrastructure to deteriorate. In 1990, the population was estimated at four million people, about 80 percent of whom worked as subsistence farmers. The country is rich in diamonds, gold, bauxite and other minerals. Nonetheless, this year's United Nations' Annual Human Development Report declared Sierra Leone the worst place in the world to be born.
For ten years, Sierra Leone has been home to a tremendously brutal war, with origins not in religion, tribalism, political philosophy or any kind of higher principal, but in the greedy control of diamonds. It is a war about evil that has prospered within a worldwide environment of negligence and indifference.
Sierra Leonean rebels (supported by Liberian friends seeking revenge for their neighbor's role in its earlier war) have plundered the natural wealth of this small country. Exchanging diamonds for guns, they target civilians on a scale that is almost unimaginable. Neither churches nor schools nor hospitals are safe. On the contrary, rebels have intentionally attacked these and other social institutions.
It is estimated that 75,000 unarmed civilians have been killed. Like the Holocaust, many have been murdered in mass executions, forced to stand in line until the killers were ready for them. Now, two-thirds of the country's citizens have been displaced, living in refugee camps or in Freetown, the country's capital. The presence of UN troops has calmed the situation. However, few people farm anymore, and much of the countryside remains in rebel hands. Food and medical care are still pressing needs.
The conflict in Sierra Leone has introduced to the world a new form of terror - the systematic amputation of the limbs of thousands of children and their families. In an effort to subdue and intimidate the countryside, rebel forces chose the most defenseless citizens and hack off arms, legs, and other body parts using machetes and farm tools. This atrocity has become the 'signature' of the most brutal war of the 21st Century. Prosthetic devices are now one of Sierra Leone's most urgent needs.
Unfortunately, the victimization of children is not limited to amputation. Ten years ago, the rebels began abducting very young children and addicting them to crack cocaine. It continues to this day. Now teenagers, they have become the rank-and-file soldiers of the rebel movement. In turn, they have severed limbs of newborn babies, raped and enslaved girls as young as eight, and terrorized even more young boys into becoming soldiers.
The Gift of Limbs
In Freetown, hundreds of victims who fled the violence in the countryside now live together at the Amputee Camp of the capital's Murray Town section. The eight individuals, including six children, coming to the United States to receive the Gift of Limbs were selected from this group. Two primary criteria were used: The severity of their disabilities, and the necessity of surgery to accommodate prosthetic devices.
Accompanied by three chaperones, they arrived at Dulles International Airport on September 21, 2000. Part of the funds of their international travel has been provided from monies collected by the students of St. James and John School in Baltimore, Maryland. They are now in Staten Island as the guests of Rotary Clubs of Staten Island and Brooklyn. Staten Island University Hospital is providing the surgical and hospital care, free of charge. ARIMED (the prosthetic service company directed by Mr. Mirones) will fit them with prosthetics and train them in their care and use. The Friends of Sierra Leone (FoSL) - a non-governmental organization comprised of Sierra Leoneans in the United States, returned Peace Corps volunteers, and other Americans concerned about Sierra Leone - is coordinating the overall effort. FoSL will document this program carefully, in hopes that partnerships in other cities throughout the United States can be formed. Thousands more children need help.
On September 26, 2000, the U.S. House of Representatives Africa Subcommittee held a briefing/hearing with the group. Over twenty Members of Congress and one U.S. Senator attended and engaged the members of the group in an extensive question and answer period. The presence of eight maimed victims highlighted the importance of U.S. involvement in leading efforts to bring peace and justice to Sierra Leone. While in Washington, they were hosted by members of the area's Sierra Leone community.