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

xavier-von-erlach-ooR1jY2yFr4-unsplash

Theory of Cause, anyone?

In June, SWIDN were delighted to host a discussion event with a few of our organisational and academic members at the Development Studies Association Conference at the University of Bath, hosted by the Centre for Development Studies. The topic was whether it’s possible to decolonise development and move practice into something reparative. If reparative development…

Focus on Family Care

Focus on Family Care

In July we had the opportunity to partner with Hub Cymru Africa and Hope and Homes for Children to deliver an open-access, online event focused on care for marginalised children. Designed to connect and support UK charities and donors working with at-risk children internationally, this event was an opportunity to share best-practice resources and explore…

pedro-sanz-5viuCBIXywA-unsplash

Building Charity Resilience in 2025

The first quarter of 2025 has brought fresh challenges to the international development sector. With sudden, dramatic cuts to USAID and the unexpected announcement of UK Aid reductions by 2027, many organisations are turning inward, focused on survival. SWIDN are committed to supporting our members and wider international development community, and so are delivering a…