Newsletter for 2007
Dear Readers,
We are currently engaged on a campaign to raise £100,000 for present and future commitments on which this Newsletter is largely based. One of the most exciting is the development of our Ponseti Clubfoot programme. Ponseti - named after a Catalan orthopaedic surgeon called Ignacio Ponseti - is a revolutionary technique which treats clubfoot by physiotherapy rather than by surgery. One of our consultants, a specialist in the technique, introduced it via SGAA to Afghanistan, where it has proved an outstanding success. More of that below.
First a word about the general situation. Fortunately, the past year has been largely trouble-free for SGAA, despite the continuing Taliban insurgency, several suicide bombs in Kabul and persistent poverty and deprivation. We treated a record number of patients in 2006/7, many of them children suffering from polio, which is still prevalent in Afghanistan.
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Two recent cases have reminded us forcibly - not that we need any reminding - of how providing an artificial leg or wheelchair can transform a victim's life. Abdul Hadi [right] lost both legs clearing mines for the mujahideen about 15 years ago. We made him two prostheses in our clinic, then in Peshawar, and after the war he went back to work as a builder in Kandahar, the capital of the south. Over the years he repaired and patched them himself until he could repair them no more. He then asked his boss for time off to take the bus 400 miles to our clinic in Jalalabad, where some of the same technicians who had made his original prostheses made him a new pair. He proudly told Fiona, our Consultant, he would be soon be back at his old job of carrying hods of bricks up ladders.
Faridoon [left], who lost both legs serving in the Afghan Army, now works in SGAA's component workshop in Jalalabad. He says his life has been transformed by the tricycle SGAA made for him. When I saw him in Jalalabad last year, he was scooting across the floor on his private skateboard, apparently able to compete on level terms with his more able-bodied colleagues. And he was in good spirits.
The rigours of existence have made most Afghans exceptionally strong and motivated. Give them a prosthesis or an appliance like a wheelchair and they are prepared to do a full day's work. Their determination to overcome their disability and to rise above an often cruel fate never fails to impress everyone who meets them. Every time I come away from seeing or hearing about patients like Malik, Abdul Hadi or Faridoon I feel humbled and inspired to do more to help. We are all touched by the tremendous contribution our Afghan staff make to helping the disabled who enter our doors.
MERGER WITH SWEDISH COMMITTEE FOR AFGHANISTAN
The most significant development of the past year administratively is our merger with the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan [SCA], an old-established and well regarded charity funded largely by the Swedish Government. Despite growing pains, this has been a success by any standards. Under the terms of the merger, SGAA will, in 2007 and 2008, endeavour to raise £100,000 a year while leaving administrative control to SCA. Apart from keeping alive the ethos of Sandy Gall's Afghanistan Appeal [an ethos based on first-class treatment provided free of charge to all disabled patients] it will be used to finance the following activities:
1. Expansion of SGAA's PONSETI programme for treating clubfoot: many Afghan children are, unfortunately, born with this condition. This technique, pioneered by SGAA in Afghanistan over the past 18 months, largely avoids the need for surgery. Instead, the feet are manipulated gradually into the correct position by a trained physiotherapist - provided the child is young enough the bone will be sufficiently malleable and no pain is felt. The foot is then placed in a plaster cast for a week. When the plaster is removed, the foot is realigned and the plaster reapplied, the process being repeated for six weeks. Several Afghan physios have been trained in the past two years by Consultant Philip Henman, a paediatric orthopaedic surgeon from Newcastle, and now each clinic has at least one resident SGAA-trained Afghan physiotherapist sufficiently skilled to practise the PONSETI technique. So successful has the treatment proved that children have been arriving at our clinics from all over the country.
Budget : £20,000 per annum (staff, training, materials and equipment)
2. Inauguration [in March, 2008] of a three-year physio training course which will provide the most advanced training for physios yet devised in Afghanistan. Much of the training will be done by Wais Akram, a skilled expatriate Afghan physio and former SGAA employee, whose Australian wife is a former senior SGAA physiotherapist.
Budget: £30,000 including £25,000 p. a. (salary of one expatriate trainer)
3. Financing of the biannual SGAA Consultants' visits to SCA/SGAA clinics and workshops in Afghanistan, including Jalalabad (SGAA flagship orthopaedic centre), Taloqan, Mazar-i-Sharif and Ghazni, and various smaller clinics in the Eastern Provinces, (Nangrahar, Laghman and Kunar). SGAA Consultants include two paediatric orthopaedic surgeons; John Fixsen, formerly of Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children (GOSH), and Philip Henman, a specialist in the Ponseti technique, in Newcastle; a senior Physiotherapist, Jeanne Hartley, formerly Head of Physiotherapy at GOSH; and a senior Orthotist, John Lamb, Head of Orthotics at Perth Royal Infirmary. Another very senior orthopaedic surgeon, Peter Stiles, no longer travels to Afghanistan but attends Committee meetings. We also have occasional visits by Jenny Cree, a senior Prosthetist from Glasgow.
Since the merger, our Consultants have visited all SCA/SGAA clinics, as well as making regular visits to our own centre in Jalalabad, and to the Kabul Orthopaedic Organisation [KOO]. The Consultants have made and continue to make an essential contribution to the quality of service of all these clinics which cannot be rated too highly. The Swedish Committee is anxious to retain their services for as long as possible.
Budget: £15,000 per annum to include air fares, hotels, vehicle costsOTHER PROJECTS
We are also engaged on several other minor projects such as Cricket for the Disabled in the Jalalabad area, administered by a seriously disabled mujihadeen veteran.Approximate budgets: £15,000 per annum including £6,000 for the cricket and £5,000 for the Kabul Orthopaedic Organisation.
Finally, may I express our heartfelt thanks to all donors - on behalf of our Afghan staff, our Committee, Fiona, our Kabul consultant, Eleanor and myself and - most importantly - our many thousands of patients who have benefited so much from your past generosity.
Sandy Gall, Chairman SGAA
PS We had no Charity Walk this year nor will there be a Calendar for 2008. But we will have a big fundraising evening at the Royal Geographical Society in London on Thursday, October 25th. Do come and bring a friend. See this website for Ticket and other details.