Sierra Leone - 2002

Ed Pennington Ridge, a prosthetic designer first contacted Heather to ask her to fund his de-mining invention. Thousands of individuals and companies(businesses) were proposing similar ideas and much money was being wasted on unsuccessful designs. Heather managed to convince Ed to focus on low cost limb designs for amputees.

Heather then heard about a programme in Sierra Leone run buy World Hope International WHI, allowing amputee’s to be fitted with artificial limbs.

Due to the past economic nature of the country, available funds and resources for amputees were very limited, resulting in many people having a reduced quality of life.

Heather then realized that something needed to be done. She knew of the ideal person and introduced Ed to WHI in Sierra Leone. Ed uses local materials, like bathroom sealant, flip-flops and pick waste pipe and turns them into working sockets & limbs.

After a meeting in London, Heather & Ed decided to establish a clinic in Sierra Leone to offer amputees a chance to try out Ed’s designs. On Ed’s initial fact-finding trip, he discovered WHI were fitting an American limb system at the time, with each limb costing about $500. With Ed’s imagination & creativity he re-designed the system & the cost dropped down to $15 per limb. This was just by using the country’s own basic resources and components.
Heather funded Ed for the first year, ensuring all the necessary tools, materials & vehicles were available for him so that he had a fully operational workshop. From here Ed could now get out into the community & see what items he could find in markets, shops, dustbins or discarded by the side of the road that could help him construct his limbs and sockets.

Ed started to use such items as, flip flops for shock absorbers on the heel of an artificial foot, old car tyres as ankle joints, but it was only after 18months of searching he found high-density polyethylene sherry barrel. This was a break through. It proved to be an excellent material to produce sockets with and not only that; the British were importing sherry into Sierra Leone in 55gallon barrels so the stock was plenty.

Heather & Ed’s ultimate objective was to establish Sierra Leone with a range of limbs that they can then self sufficiently produce at an affordable, realistic cost. This will eliminate the need for outside influences or funding.

There is currently work in progress with the Sierra Leone government to build a National Limb Fitting Center.