Media: Helping Hands (5/08)
Get The Facts:
Through our partnership with Rotary International, each hand will be
delivered within six months to children and adults who would otherwise not
be able to afford a prosthetic hand. There are over 2,000 landmine accidents
every month in the world, and many result in the catastrophic loss of limbs.
Thanks to your generosity, people affected by these tragedies, as well as
disease and birth defects, receive the Helping Hands prosthetics for free so
they can lead more productive lives. After the event, photos will be posted
online for participants to see the faces of those receiving the Helping Hands.
Choose a Helping Hands™ format below based on business application and
duration:
Helping Hands™ - Accessing Potential - lessons for thinking outside
the box Duration: Four Hours
Why? Constraints in our work environment and in our own way of thinking
often suppress any possibility of change or innovation. As leaders and team
members, we must move with urgency beyond these defaults if we’re going
to build strong, powerful, resilient companies and teams. Can you afford not
to look for new ways of compelling your people to reach higher in what they
can become?
Business application: The assembly of the LN-4 Hand is a real example of
accessing potential and thinking outside the box. The process and progression
of the program exposes a series of ‘tipping’ points – applicable lessons that
can impact every aspect of your business.
Helping Hands™ – Collaboration and Team Engagement - lessons for
making teamwork work Duration: Three to four hours
Why? Too often employees lose the context of how important their actions
are to the greater good of the team, their customers and the community. This
leads to petty, superficial difficulties in communicating, silo mentality and
employee disengagement.
Business application: After the assembly of the Hands, participants identify the
major benefits of your company’s products/services, and they discuss the top
three things they can do to improve both collaboration and employee
engagement.
Helping Hands™ – Thematic Integration Duration: Two to Four
Hours
Why? Your meeting’s theme and the values that drive performance must
come to life for your next meeting/conference to be your most memorable
and relevant team experience to date. We’ll work with you to integrate your
key messages with our own for a truly transformational experience.
Business application: When participants get the message in their bones, they
emerge with a new level of commitment, and the impact of your meeting will
stick with them long after the program ends.
More Helping Hands facts:
**After the Helping Hands program:** - Follow up! The Odyssey's Tipping
Points™ process extends the shelf life of the event dramatically by reminding
participants regularly of the lessons that shaped their unique experience.
- We have a fleet of follow-up programs, tools, and resources for postprogram
review and consultation, integrating values and messages to make
them stick.
**Metrics and assessments:**
- Inquire about incorporating the Denison Culture Survey
(http://www.denisonconsulting.com/dc/) to measure specific cultural traits in
your team that impact the bottom line. Additional costs apply.
- History of the LN-4 Prosthetic Hand and the need it serves.
LN-4 Prosthetic Hand Project
A few years ago, Ernie Meadows and his wife suffered the loss of a child.
Meadows, an engineer and inventor, decided he was going to do something
for the rest of the world in honor of his daughter’s life – a selfless, no-moneyto-
gain act that would benefit children across the world in some way.
Learning of the hundreds of thousands of children who had lost hands and
other limbs due to land mines inspired Meadows to invent and design a
prosthetic hand that was fully functional and could be made, fitted and used
for literally pennies on the dollar compared to the other prosthetic hands
available on the market.
Q. How does the hand work? A. Two movable mechanical digits interlock
with three immobile digits. The movable digits hold at incremental points
while closing by a ratchet-type mechanism. Simple pressure from either the
other hand, a table or against your leg is all that’s needed to close the digits.
Putting pressure on the back of the hand flexes the base and pulls tabs away
from the digits’ gears, releasing the grip.
Q. Who is the hand designed for? A. It was invented and designed for
hand amputees ages 3 to 8 whose arms extend at least six inches below the
elbow. Some 500,000 children worldwide could benefit from this type of
device, but accurate numbers are often underreported and difficult to track. In
Vietnam, we learned that teens and some adults can also use the hand. We
may eventually manufacture a larger hand.
Q. Why does it cost nothing to recipients? A. Everyone willingly chips in
– the inventor, the toolmakers, the designers and the manufacturers. This
hand is being manufactured for no profit, so the recipients receive them for
no charge!
Q. Who are initial sponsors? A. The National Institutes of Health (NIH)
provided a grant for design and development. Many individuals, businesses
and even youth groups have also contributed to the start up costs of this
great effort. Rotary International has also played a key role in funding,
partnerships and distribution, with special thanks to District 5160 and District
5110 (Southern Oregon), in addition to the many other clubs who have
participated in this project. Odyssey Teams Inc. has played a vital role in the
assembly and distribution of the LN-4 Hand and Dream Box.
Q. What are your future goals? A. By setting up a 501(c)(3) nonprofit
corporation called – appropriately – “The Ellen Meadows Prosthetic Hand
Foundation,” and working with great organizations like Rotary, we intend to
manufacture, distribute and provide leadership to this effort in order to make
it a worldwide project. We anticipate making and distributing literally tens of
thousands of hands and doing so for at least the next 100 years.
Background and Future Timing
• November 2004 – Rotary Club of Pleasant Hill and St. Andrews
Presbyterian Church Youth Group funds the initial prototype LN-4
Hands to go to Vietnam.
• Feb/March 2005 – Group to Vietnam and pays for its own
transportation and accommodations, puts on the first 7 hands and
makes video of project. Much is learned!
• April 2005 – Presentation to Oregon District Conference 5110 of
Vietnam trip. Past RI President Frank Devlin voices his support and
GSE Team Leader from Nairobi offers to partner next trial in Kenya
for up to 50 hands!
• April-May 2005 – Feedback from Vietnam is very positive on the
longer term value/use.
• Individuals, corporations and Rotary clubs support the production of
50 hands which incorporate new improvements based on key findings
from Vietnam.
• May 2005 – U.S. team formed (4 Rotary Clubs, 8 people – 6
Oregonians, 2 Californians) commits to go to Kenya (November 2005)
for next test – raises goal to 100 hands!
• June 2005 – Application submitted for Individual (Travel) Grant to
TRF.
• July-August 2005 – Group meeting of U.S team, other Rotarians, hand
inventor, tool-maker, designer and manufacturer. New parts are
finalized and “metal cutting” begins.
• August 23, 2005 – Approval given to build molds.
• September/October – Tooling produced, hands manufactured, supplies
ordered.
• October – Hands assembled, cuffing mechanism manufactured.
• October 15, 2005 – Team meets in Oregon for planning and training
on hand use and overall strategy in Nairobi.
• November 4-18 – Team travels to Nairobi for next test in conjunction
with Jaipur Foot Project – prosthetic leg center and District 9200.
• November 7, 2005 – Arm band strap redesigned on-site at Jaipur – a
true miracle!
• 74 Hands put on in 3 African nations – Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania
– all with great success!
• November-December 2005 – Follow-up reports received from Africa.
• January-February 2006 – Decision and structure of forming 501(c)(3)
nonprofit corporation.
• May & August 2006 – Return trips to Africa for face-to-face follow up
and as guest speakers at the District 9200 Conference.
• December 2006 – Full-scale launch of “The Ellen Meadows Prosthetic
Hand Foundation!”
• March 2007 – A return trip to Vietnam with 5 Rotarians yields national
coverage and 3 locations with staffs that are now trained to continue
the project. An additional 36 hands were also put on during this
successful trip.
The Need
• United Nations estimates that there are currently 100 million ‘active’
landmines in 60 countries and 250 million stockpiled and ready to
deploy.
•2,000 people landmine accidents every month
§ One person is injured every 20 minutes.
§ Around 800 of these will die.
§ 1,200 will be maimed.
• 300,000-400,000 known landmine-related amputees, of whom 20% are
children. There are up to 500,000 total, and 25,000-50,000 without
hands. And 95% of these are civilians.
• 5,000-10,000 are added to this number each year.
• 75% of mine-blast survivors have at least one amputation.
The Cost
• In 'developing' countries, it costs at least $3,000 USD to give someone
an artificial limb.
• In Cambodia, 61% of mine victims went into debt to pay for their
medical treatment.
• In Afghanistan, the number is 84%.
Additional Information: Statistics by Country/Region
• Afghanistan – 9-10 million landmines (3 people per day are
killed/injured, 100,000 total injured/dead)
• Angola has 9 million landmines.
• Chechnya (3,445 casualties as of September 2004)
• Iran (4,000 fatalities, 6,000 injured)
• Iraq – 5-10 million landmines (5.4 million people live within 1 kilometer
of heavily concentrated landmine/UXO affected areas)
• Jordan – 305,000 landmines
• Cambodia – 4-7 million landmines (35,000 landmine amputees)
• Angola – estimated 70,000 amputees many of whom are children
• Mozambique – 1-2 million landmines
• Western Sahara – 1-2 million landmines
• Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia, and Somalia – each with 1 million
landmines
• Vietnam – 3.5 million landmines
The story of: One little boy
A 4-year-old Vietnamese boy was carried into the room by a caretaker. The
boy had only one limb…I repeat, only one limb…a right leg! His right arm
was gone just below the elbow and his left arm just above the wrist. His left
leg also missing but fitted with a prosthetic. The boy screamed and yelled
upon entering the room at the sight of all the prosthetic hands lined up on the
table. His caretaker took him outside to calm him down. Ten or fifteen
minutes later, the care taker brought him back into the room, and again he
started right up with the crying and screaming. In a moment of desperation, I
decided to give him one of the prosthetic hands, and in the same moment I
questioned my decision as I wondered whether that was such a great idea – I
mean, how could a child “play” with such a device by having available to
him only the stubby ends of two arms that aren’t even the same lengths?
I was told once that if the only tools in your toolbox are a hammer and a
screwdriver, then you tend to think of your solutions in terms of using only
that hammer and that screwdriver. Well, he did just that. He instantly calmed
down and was able to hold the prosthetic hands between the ends of his two
arms. He began experimenting with it and in a few short moments, realized
how the device worked. With a little help from his caretaker, he also figured
out how to tighten the digits (fingers) and release them.
He stayed in the room clutching the prosthetic hand and watched while we
put hands on several other people. Nearly an hour passed until it was his turn
and by that time, he was so ready to have his hand put on that when he and
his caretaker sat down, he literally reached out his left arm as if to say, “Quit
fooling around and put this thing on me!” We did just that, and literally
within one minute, he had managed to put a marking pin in the hand and for
the first time in his life, draw on a piece of paper.
The room was flooded with emotion. How many opportunities do we have in
life to be able to impact another person to this extent?
A couple of weeks later I received an e-mail from Vietnam indicating that the
boy not only loves and uses his hand, but he doesn’t want to take it off at
night when he goes to bed.
Rest well, little child. Hopefully you can have the same opportunity that we
have had – to experience the gift that you have given us.