Home News

News

We asked one of our brilliant members, Legs4Africa, to tell SWIDN and our members more about their work. Here’s what they said;

11 May 2023

Legs4Africa – working to get people back on their feet

Footballers

Legs4Africa is a Bristol based charity and since its inception in 2014 we have grown in every way but our core focus has remained the same – to help as many people with limb difference in sub-Saharan Africa to have access to an affordable prosthetic leg. From an initial one leg sourced for a friend in the Gambia we aim to have reused over 14,000 legs by the end of 2022.

Locating and collecting all those legs is a mammoth task and involves the goodwill of hundreds of people across the world such as individuals here in the UK as well as Canada, America, Australia and Europe whose legs are taking up valuable space under the bed or in a wardrobe. We’ve also set up partnerships with clinics and hospitals where the ‘left behind’ legs accumulate til space is needed and the legs are packed off to our tiny warehouse in Bristol where they are broken down into their recyclable parts before being sent to carefully selected mobility centres in Africa. 

We’ve built strong relationships with the hospitals and clinics we service and work closely with them –  investing in training future prosthetists (particularly women) as well as supporting the formation of self governing community groups and amputee football teams.

To enable someone to go back to school, to work again, support their family and just to be able to dance again is at the heart of what Legs4Africa strives to achieve. 

So, in a nutshell, that’s what Legs4Africa does. See what else we do on our website: www.legs4africa.org or get in touch, we’d love to hear from you: hello@legs4africa.org 

Blog kindly contributed by Legs4Africa

Originally posted on November 10th 2022

More News

Screenshot 2024-11-27 14.05.01

Career Journeys Blog #4 – Abbi Gutierrez

In the latest of our career journey’s blog series, aimed at introducing our members to each other and inspiring early career professionals, read SWIDN member Abbi’s story here… Transitioning from a keen A-level geography student interested in global issues to navigating a career in international development has been a journey marked by uncertainty and perseverance.…

Photo - Ben Forrest

Career Journeys Blog #3 – Ben Forrest

A huge thank you to Ben for the latest addition to our career journeys blog series! read about his fascinating experiences here- What first interested you about working in the international development/global solidarity sector? My interest in working in the international development sector developed in a roundabout way – to coopt a term from the…

Screenshot 2024-08-21 18.20.46

SWIDN Conference 2024 Recordings: Locally-led Development

SWIDN were delighted to host our fourth annual conference in 2024, returning for another year of online, open access and free discussions, training, networking and peer learning opportunities. This year’s focus was on locally-led development and we explored what this is, whether it’s possible within the current ‘development’ system, how far local goals can be…