Dear Friends and Honored Guests!

Today is a special day, a very special day, indeed. On behalf of the board of directors and staff at the Prosthetics Outreach Foundation in Seattle, USA, I would like to extend a warm welcome to all of you, especially to the representatives of the Sierra Leonean Ministry of Health and Sanitation, to our other honored guests and to the members of the local rehabilitation community, including many amputees. Thank you for celebrating with us today the opening of the joint project office of the Prosthetics Outreach Foundation and the Single Leg Amputee Sports Club in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Today we are marking the official beginning of a partnership between the Prosthetics Outreach Foundation, the Single Leg Amputee Sports Club, the Sierra Leonean government and the disabled people of Sierra Leone to help improve the lives of amputees and others suffering from orthopedic disabilities. Yet, for many months now, the Prosthetics Outreach Foundation and the Single Leg Amputee Sports Club have already worked together to start a physical rehabilitation program in northern Sierra Leone in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Sanitation and the Makeni Hospital. The Prosthetics Outreach Foundation is assisting the Ministry with establishing and managing a new rehabilitation center in Makeni. This center will provide prosthetic care for amputees throughout northern Sierra Leone.

We are very excited about this partnership and pleased with the progress that we have been able to make so far. We would like to thank the Executive Committee of the Single Leg Amputee Sports Club, especially their coordinator, Mr. Mambud Samai, for all their hard work, dedication and leadership on this project.

Our partnership with the Single Leg Amputee Sports Club will continue to be very important as we advance this project. Not only will the Single Leg Amputee Sports Club monitor the ongoing implementation of the project, as a membership organization for amputees, it will also be a direct link for the Prosthetics Outreach Foundation and the Ministry of Health and Sanitation to learn about the particular needs and challenges of persons with disabilities in Sierra Leone. Keeping the needs of the disabled foremost in mind as this project is being implemented is very important to all of us.

Thank you for being with us today to mark this important day for the people of Sierra Leone. We are excited and thankful for the opportunity to help Sierra Leone restore essential rehabilitation services for their disabled in the Northern Province. May the joint project office bring new hope and healing to the people of Sierra Leone!