Rima, who has been in a children´s home in the capital, was elated to receive a prosthetic limb from the National Disabled Fund Physical Rehabilitation Centre, along with financial support for the operation needed to attach the artificial limb to her deformed leg. [break]“Look! I can walk on my own. I feel like running and jumping now,” an overjoyed Rima said.
Disable and forced to walk with just one leg, Rima was abandoned by her family. She has been living at the Srijansheel Child Service Family at Kandaghari for four years. After news about Rima´s plight appeared in our sister publication, Nagarik daily, the National Disabled Fund extended its support to fulfill her dream of being able to ambulate on her own and became a dancer.
“After we read the news we were touched by her dream of dancing,” said Prachanda Man Bajracharya, manager of the National Disabled Fund. “She had arrived here limping and we are happy to send her home on her own feet,” Bajracharya added.
Puri before and after
After the publication of Rima´s story, many school children donated money they saved from their lunch expenses and Nepalis living abroad also sent money for her treatment. “I had never thought that I would be able to walk on my own one day,” said an astonished Rima.
She said she could not even tell whether the prosthetic leg was artificial or natural. “I feel it is like my own limb. I have no problem walking with it,” she added. She was practicing with the artificial leg after an operation conducted two weeks ago in Banepa. On Tuesday, the Fund sent her home after attaching the prosthetic leg.
“We could send her away an able child. We were really satisfied to see her smiling face while leaving this office,”said physiotherapist Sunita Amatya at the National Disabled Fund Physical Rehabilitation Centre at Brikutimandap. According to the Center, Rima has to change the prosthetic leg every year until she reaches 20.
Rima, a third grader at Gandhi Aadarsha Higher Secondary School who used to limp to school with the help of her friends, was overjoyed that she could now walk anywhere she liked. “I used to remain alone during tiffin break at school. Now, I can also walk outside and play with my friends,” she added.
Uma Devi Basnet, who has been running the children´s shelter, hopes that Rima would do better in her studies now as her main worry, her leg, is already taken care of.
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