HANDICAPPED PEOPLE IN a poor fishing community are glad to be left high and dry after a helping hand from Christian relief workers.
Crew from a visiting missionary ship have been helping build access ramps to shanty homes atop stilts in Puerto Cabezas, an Atlantic coastal town which suffers frequent flooding.
Until now disabled residents have had to rely on family or friends to carry them up the steep steps to their homes, some of which stand as high as eight feet from the ground. Inconvenience has been added to by injury, with some being hurt in falls.
During a current six-week stay, workers from the Caribbean Mercy - part of the international Mercy Ships fleet - are showing local residents how to construct proper access ramps that will allow people to reach their homes by wheelchair.
After completing a dozen ramps by the time the ship leaves, at the end of the month, the volunteers will also have trained local people how to continue the project, and leave behind further supplies.
Polio, diabetes and injuries from the country's 1980s civil war are main reasons for the disabilities in the largely Miskito Indian community.
"They are pretty much the forgotten people, which is typical for the handicapped around the world," said Robert Kornegay, vice-President of Mercy Ships' relief and development group, which organized the program.
"We are pleased to be able to help in such a practical way, which also shows something of the heart of God to them, that they are not forgotten by him."
As well as constructing the ramps, Caribbean Mercy crew have also delivered 60 wheelchairs, supplied by Joni And Friends, the ministry of quadriplegic writer and speaker Joni Eareckson.
The 2,265-ton Caribbean Mercy became the fourth member of the Mercy Ships in 1994, since when she has taken free medical and health care to Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua.
Founded in 1978 as the maritime division of Youth With A Mission, Mercy Ships annually gives away around US $3 million in free aid.
Last updated: 1996, June 08 /pf