Country: Netherlands

Organization: Foundation De Benen Nemen

Idea: Fellow amputees in the Netherlands, who are very well cared for in our national health system, want to help give children amputees in third world countries the same chances to grow up as selfsupporting members of society.In these countries most people lack sufficient income to be able to get prothesis.

How do you do it: We contact organisations in third world countries by means of the World Wide Web. We also visit third world countries to find organisations who care for amputees. By means of these organisations we search for children who need prothesis. We also support education for the child if so asked for. If in the neighbourhoud education of prothetic skills are required we then support the education of protheticiens. We also provide necessary equipment if needed.

Innovation: This program helps amputeed children come forward out of isolation in the home and become able members of their society. We hope to start the same process of acceptation of disabled people as we have seen growing in the Netherlands over the past 40 years.

Impact: The activities of our foundation have stimulated organisations and individuals to participate in raising funds for our organisation. The local Rotary for example has raised funds for equipment needed to form synthetic material for prothesis. We are also funded by individuals who donate to our cause.

Ethical Action: We have provided 9 children of the Nyabondo Centre in Kenya with prothesis.In 2005 we have provided new prothesis for three amputeed children in Togo. All of these children are now able to continue their education on a more advanced level.We are actively searching for new children in Benin, Kenya, Tanzania, India, Angola and Togo.

Replication: The project is as yet not being replicated. We invite people who are interested our model of working to contact us or visit our website: www.debenenemen.nl Our website supports 6 languages, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Dutch.

Sustainability: We are in operation for 6 years now. We started as a one woman action with writing a book on the prolemsolving of living with amputeed leg(s). The revenues of this book also support the work of our organisation. The national organisation that guards the fundraising activities of organisations in the Netherlands has submitted their official approval to our foundation. This gives us a solid base for fundraisingactivities.

Position in the Ethics Mosaic of Solutions:

Factor: Otherness

Principle: Enabling self-permission to change oneself or one'