OUR IMPACT

Providing artificial limbs to persons with disability (PWD) creates a more than lasting impression upon the recipients. For a beneficiary, receiving his prosthetic legs not only makes the person complete. What was once incomplete is now whole. Moreover, having full faculties propels one's confidence to live one's life to the fullest. What he once thought he cannot achieve, he can now dream and strive to reach. More importantly, our beneficiaries feel they have become an integral part of society. Their prosthetics have allowed them to be productive members of the labor force.

For Arnel Ropero, our first WALK beneficiary, the project greatly impacted his view of life. After WALK, he gained confidence, his face lit up showing true happiness. After 10 years, Arnel reached out to us and expressed his willingness to help by training to be a prosthetic technician – a full circle from being a beneficiary to an enabler.

WALK likewise believes that assisting PWDs is not confined to providing artificial limbs. WALK supports a more efficient manner of delivering services to PWDs. Thus in 2010, through a Rotary International Matching Grant, WALK was instrumental in donating an infrared oven to the Jaipur Foot Manufacturing Center of the Tzu Chi Foundation Philippines. This resulted in reducing production time of Jaipur legs from 3 hours to 30 minutes.

WALK faced various challenges since its inception: from the lack of materials to fabricate prosthetic legs, to encountering government-imposed mobility restrictions during the pandemic. Our response to these challenges have always been to meet the challenge head on. In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, WALK received Rotary International Global Grant proceeds, funding materials for prosthetics. The government imposed lockdowns however, have made it impossible for the beneficiaries to travel and visit the health facilities to get their prosthesis. Additionally, the global grant required WALK to complete the project within one year lest the reversion of funds to the Grantor.

We at WALK did not lose hope. In lieu of pursuing an impossible task to delivering services during the pandemic, we sought permission from Grantor to allow us amend the project in view of the global pandemic and mobility restrictions. We proposed to fabricate and customize a Mobile Prosthetic Van that had complete equipment and facilities to evaluate and assess beneficiaries, manufacture and customize prosthetic legs, and to go around various communities to deliver the prosthetics. After securing approval, WALK completed the project within the one year deadline. The mobile prosthetic van has since been delivered to Zamboanga City, Mindanao to our partner-in-service Tzu Chi Foundation Philippines. To date, more than 200 have been provided prosthetic legs in Mindanao.

WALK believes that with determination and people linkages, we will overcome obstacles and can maximize our positive impact on PWDs and to our communities.