LEGS

Well, strangely enough, right after I made an attempt to start blogging again, I actually have a request to make of my few loyal readers.

As you know, I'm on the LEGS team (www.letu.edu/legs). I know I may be slightly biased, but it really is a fantastic project. The need for prosthesis in the developing world is huge, and to date no one has worked to meet that need with properly engineered devices. The devices that are commonly available are widely accepted, but you have to realize that they're accepted out of great need. Just because someone doesn't have any other options doesn't give you an excuse to do a sub-standard job when giving them a "solution".

LEGS is working to develop a prosthesis which meets the same standards required in the first world (ISO standards, etc) while keeping the device extremely affordable and culturally appropriate.

It's hard to summarize the entire project in just a few paragraphs, but trust me - it's a great project and we are working hard on it.

Which brings me to my reason for posting. I would like to ask those of you who are willing to please remember LEGS in prayer. First, we are up against a wall called "no money" and simply cannot continue without further funding. We are waiting to hear back on some grants, and the Lyons Club international expressed possible interest in funding us, but are moving extremely slowly (and of course, funding always comes with strings attached....)

Second - we just found out in the last couple days of testing that one major design we were depending on to implement overseas this summer failed... Miserably. We had put our faith in some work done by another university on a foot design, and apparently that was not the wisest choice. It lasts about 5000 cycles of fatigue testing, as opposed to 2,000,000. We understand that this stuff happens with R&D work, but it's frustrating just the same, and we desperately need a solution or there's no reason to travel this summer.

Finally, we have been working closely with a clinic in Kenya for some time now, but the politics of the situation have gotten rough and are not improving. Without giving a ton of details, we are now faced with making the decision of pulling out of Kenya within the next few months. Doing this means that all 17 patients currently happily walking on our limb would have to give their prosthesis back because of the R&D agreement we have with both the clinic and the school.

I hope this isn't terribly confusing, but the essence of this post is - "Please pray". I firmly believe that God can (and has) used the LEGS initiative to change lives. Hopefully all of this is simply a temporary setback that needs to be overcome before further progress!

Thank everyone (i.e. Sarah ;)). In the meantime, I'm going back to work on this stupid foot.