Helping Hands

If you were faced with raising a family of six by yourself while coping with the sudden loss of your husband and family business, taking a sip of water out of a cup wouldn't likely be your day's biggest challenge—unless you had no hands.

For the past month, Ugandan citizen Tumuhebwe Jonas has been living in Madison and working with Hanger Prosthetics & Orthotics out of North Haven to get fitted for bilateral, transradial, body-powered prostheses—more easily referred to as hands.

Last night, a farewell party was held for Jonas in Madison as she readied for her trip back to Uganda to reunite with her family and use her hands for the first time in two years.

Back in November 2008, Madison resident Martha Hoffman ventured to Uganda on behalf of her organization Call to Care Uganda. As president, Hoffman has been to Uganda twice and oversees the projects her organization has implemented—most of them children's programs.

While visiting Faith School in Bushenyi, Uganda, to see the library Call to Care Uganda established, Hoffman met with the students, their parents, and the school's headmaster.

Hoffman recalls, "The parents all wanted to greet us… there was one mother who had her arms inside her dress wrap when we were all shaking hands. When I reached for her hand, I found that she did not have one."

This mother of six, Jonas, had recently lost her hands by the machete knife of robbers who held up her husband's shop and killed him, leaving her to die. For the past two years, since losing her hands from the mid forearm down, Jonas, has been unable to feed herself or take proper care of her children who range in ages five to 20.

After leaving Faith School, Hoffman returned to Madison where she had what she refers to as a fateful meeting with Kathy Wargo, a Madison resident and nurse who was trying to start a non profit to help people get healthcare and prosthetic limbs.

For months, Wargo worked to find hands for Jonas and this past December found them here in Connecticut at Hanger Prosthetics & Orthotics.

In late June, Jonas arrived in Connecticut with an escort, Kabigumira Jolly, to stay with a host family in Madison and work with the prosthetic group to use her new hands.

All travel expenses and aftercare costs were made possible through Call to Care Uganda and Hanger Prosthetics donated the prosthetic limbs and therapy.

Over several fittings, the possibility of regaining hands became a reality.

Hoffman recalls of Jonas's first use of her hands, "She put them on and drank water out of a cup and wrote her name with a pen."

Jolly has been translating for Jonas and helping to teach her how to use her hands via instruction from the prosthetists. Hanger Practice Manager Dave Knapp and prosthetist Joe Kersch, have spearheaded Jonas's therapy and have also expressed interest in offering more prosthetic limbs to other people in Uganda through Hoffman's organization.

Knapp has also recently returned from Haiti where he donated time to make six prosthetic legs as well as supports for Haiti earthquake victims.

Since being in Madison, Jonas has experienced many things for the first time in addition to using her new hands. Hoffman says Jonas had never seen a train before and she actually got to ride one to New York. Additionally, Jonas found she enjoys vanilla milkshakes and is amazed at how easy it is to get around by car.

"We live in abundance and one of those comments they've made frequently," says Hoffman, "is how easy life is here."

Talking via Skype with her family in Uganda, Hoffman says Jonas's children asked with disbelief, "So we won't need to feed you?"

In November, Hoffman will return to Uganda to oversee some well water projects Call to Care Uganda is hoping to get started. She will also visit Jonas in her hometown of Bushenyi to see how she has assimilated back into her former life with the use of her new hands. While in Uganda for 2 1/2 weeks, Hoffman will be documenting her visit and sharing what life is like for Jonas and her family with the readers of www.zip06.com.

Please stay tuned for updates about Hoffman's return trip and how you can follow the journey online with her.