U N I T E D S T A T E S :

CHURCH RECYCLING CENTER HELPS UNIQUE LANDMINE VICTIM PROJECT

A PIONEERING PROJECT helping give the victims of landmines a new life will be able to expand its work thanks to the support of a Massachusetts church.

Old First Church in Springfield has opened a recycling center to collect and ship discarded prostheses that can be used by Operation Sea Legs, a mobile unit that provides free limbs for adults and children crippled by exploding mines.

Volunteers at the church sort and assess the donated false limbs before sending them to Operation Sea Legs' home base at Mercy Ships' international offices in Lindale, Texas. From there they are sent on to the unit's field location - currently Nicaragua.

So far prosthetic components valued at $33,000 have been processed. By recycling prostheses no longer needed - either because the wearers have outgrown them, or died - organizers of the collection center aim to save money and enable Mercy Ships workers to help even more people.

Many who have been maimed by landmines in the developing world are forced to beg for a living because without a proper prosthesis they are not mobile enough to work. Operation Sea Legs fits artificial limbs for just $250 - a fraction of the usual cost in the US.

"What doesn't seem much in this country can make a real difference in other parts of the world," said Pastor Rich Fournier. "A knee socket alone can cost $800, so saving that kind of money means that it can be spent elsewhere."

Operation Sea Legs staff take the donated limbs and adapt them for new wearers, fashioning new sockets in their mobile center. The converted 40-foot container - believed to be the only one of its kind in the world - houses a clinic, design studio and fitting room with state-of-the-art laser and computer equipment.

Since the unit arrived in Nicaragua last year, Mercy Ships workers have fitted more than 150 adults and children with new limbs, and the new recycling center will make it possible to help others, said Operation Sea Legs director David Sevier. "We're delighted with this partnership that will enable us to do more," he said.

The pastor and members of Old First Church have visited Nicaragua to see Operation Sea Legs in action. "It's a wonderful thing to see how lives can be changed so much for a little on our part," said Fournier. "It was good to see how people can be redeemed from a life of begging and made a part of the community again.

"We see this as a very concrete way to address some of the human suffering in the world, and it's also a way to educate people about the cost of war and violence, too." Despite the possibility of a global ban on landmines in the near future, with thousands already crippled and millions of landmines still to be removed, Operation Sea Legs' ministry is expected to last well into the next century.

Able to be moved by sea, road and rail, the mobile unit is expected to spend much of 1998 in Nicaragua before being sent to a new location. Mozambique, Angola and North Korea were among the countries being considered, said Sevier.

"There are some 100 million landmines worldwide, and the prognosis for clearing them is not very good. It takes a lot of time, simply because they are so dangerous. Unfortunately in many of the developing countries it is being done one leg at a time."

Discarded endoskeletal prostheses can be sent to Operation Sea Legs' recycling center at: Old First Church, Court Square, Springfield, MA 01103.

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