The Limb-fitter from Nigeria: Hello, Steemit!

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Africa: the next frontier!

A continent of an infinite variety of cultures, habits... and needs. Several African countries are embracing the new technologies, connecting to people from all over the world, trying to introduce revolutionary changes to help solve different problems through innovative approaches.

Nigeria, my country of origin, is one of the countries that must join the trends of this development in prosthetics and orthotics (a discipline I practice), as an allied medical facet of its healthcare system, and plans for people living with disabilities (PWDs).
When I was an undergraduate my dream was, and still is, to start an organization that would help persons with disabilities, especially kids which I am very passionate about, and youths with disabilities. I am always interested in they leading a functional life, and their overall growth.

After many researches and inquiries in my profession as a prosthetist, I discovered collapsed bridges that have hindered the development of this area of healthcare delivery in Nigeria and Africa at large, thus, identifying the needs to fuel this anticipated developments in improving quality of lives in persons with disabilities, reduce crime rate, improve societal and personal economy and provide Jobs.

Here are the identified needs:

Lagos is my city of residence and home for about 8 million people, out of which an estimated 3,000 are amputees in need of upper or lower limb prosthesis; and about 2 million people with other orthopedic deformities in need of orthoses or mobility aids. Presently, there are no more than four (4) centres to cater for PWDs, and the average cost for providing prosthesis and care for an amputees is higher than $1,000. To give that some scale, that is about twenty times the national minimum wage per month. This brief statistic is for Lagos state only, and we have 36 other states in Nigeria with even more dire stats.

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Nigerians are regarded as great minds and one of the most industrious groups of people, but among these great minds and industrious people are amputees who are mentally sound but have challenges in giving reality to the beauty in their minds.

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What they need are professionals and functioning facilities to provide functional prosthetic or orthotic devices they can relatively afford to procure, and continuous care to keep them in shape. What the professionals need is an open community that is willing to reach out to them by education and exposure to functional designs that can be produced with ease.
This could be achieved using media like Steemit, building a network of like-minds, for the purpose of reaching our goals of improving the quality of lives of amputees and other persons with musculo-skeletal deformities and disabilities. This collaboration (anticipated!) is what attracted me when I got an invitation from my brother, @misterakpan, to join this community.

My name is Etieno Udeme (The Limb Fitter) and I will blog about my experiences, victories (which is usually that smile on a rehabilitated patient who just regained mobility), and life as a practicing professional.

I invite you to my blog. Follow me to explore my world and my patients'.

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@eetyyudeme,
Nigeria