Travel to Vietnam's Mountain Provinces with POF's Rural Outreach Team

Rugged and beautiful Mai Son Valley in Son La Province

Northwestern Vietnam is a rugged and beautiful region. Remote villages hide among steep mountains and green valleys. Home to many of Vietnam's ethnic minority communities, the northwestern highlands have a wonderfully diverse population, but unfortunately suffer from the highest poverty levels in the country.

Amputees in Son La Wait anxiously as the POF Outreach Team arrives

Recognizing the need for dependable, quality prosthetic care in the region, in 2003 POF organized its first series of outreach trips to Son La Province, where our Outreach Team cast and fitted 66 amputees. Since then, POF has expanded outreach operations to include neighboring mountain provinces of Dien Bien, Lai Chau, Lao Chai, and Yen Bai, serving nearly 300 individuals in the region.

POF technician casts an amputee's residual limb during outreach in Lao Cai Province

Casting Outreach

Providing prosthetic services through POF's Rural Outreach Model requires two trips to each remote location. All outreach trips are coordinated through POF's project partner, Vietnam's Ministry of Labor Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA), who contacts amputees in the area. During the first outreach trip, POF prosthetic technicians meet each amputee, evaluate his/her condition, and take a plaster cast of the amputee's residual limb. Once all of the casting has been completed during a 3-5 day trip, the team returns to Hanoi where they use the casts to fabricate custom-fit prostheses. The fabrication process usually takes about one month, depending on the number of limbs that were cast.

Amputees inspect their new limbs while they wait to be fitted

Fitting Outreach

Once the limbs have been fabricated at the POF Center in Hanoi, the Outreach Team returns to the rural area to deliver and fit the limbs. POF technicians bring tools to make any necessary adjustments to improve the alignment and fit of the new limb. One by one, each amputee receives his/her new limb and consultation from the prosthetic technician. New amputees also receive "gait training", an instruction to help them learn how to walk with their new limbs.

Outreach trips also provide an opportunity for current POF patients to consult with prosthetic technicians about the fit and wear of their current prosthesis. Often times, minor repairs or component replacement will need to be made- a good sign that the patient is leading an active life!