Local organisation designs spoon for amputees

An umbrella organisation for the disabled in Sierra Leone is appealing for funds for the production of a spoon it has designed to enable people who lost both hands in the civil war to feed themselves.

The spoon can be attached to the stumps of amputees, enabling them to eat and drink unaided, Foday Kalako, executive director of the Organisation for the Homeless, Disabled and Rural Development (OHDRAD), told IRIN.

“We believe that this will increase the independence of the double amputee,” Kalako, who is now in England, said. “We are looking for funding so that the spoons can be distributed free of cost.”

Kalako said OHDRAD had already produced three prototypes of the spoons and was working on another device which would enable double amputees to write.

He added that OHDRAD had submitted a proposal to the National Commission for Reconstruction, Resettlement and Rehabilitation (NCRRR), the state body responsible for coordinating relief activities in Sierra Leone.

Some 16 disabled associations on the Freetown peninsula are affiliated to OHDRAD, according to Kalako. The organisation trains amputees and other disabled persons as carpenters, blacksmiths, tailors and in other crafts, and gives loans to some amputees. “We do not want to see the disabled begging on the street,” Kalako said.

It also distributes “food for training” supplied by WFP to people in skills centres, while medical care for the amputees is provided by MSF-Belgium, Kalako said.