Prosthetic Hands
Bill Dunn, a member of the Yarmouth Rotary Club and an immediate past Assistant District Governor, will share with us the good work being done in the development and outfitting of prosthetic hands. He will share the successes district Rotarians have had, primarily in the Dominican Republic.
Bill has been a member of the Yarmouth Club for 23 years, was treasurer for a number of years, President twice, Assistant Governor for three years and the District’s Rotaplast Ambassador for about 5 years. He spoke to the club a number of years ago on behalf of Rotaplast.
Bill has made 10 International Rotary trips: 5 Rotaplast (2 Venezuela, 2 Peru and 1 Philippines), 1 Safe Passage to Guatemala, 1 to Cuba installing water filer systems and 3 prosthetics (2 Dominican Republic and 1 Kosovo).
The District Prosthetics Team met at the end of July and, as suggested in the June district newsletter (https://rotary7780.org/
The District Prosthetics Team last visited the Dominican Republic (DR) in January 2020, just before the pandemic shut everything down. Based on that trip’s experience and the non-travel time during the pandemic, the Team has been evolving the design for prosthetic hands to address issues with the previous, manually-operated design. At the same time, the agency the team works with in the DR, Centro de Protesis, has started construction on what will be the first prosthetics clinic in that country.
The team now has a new battery-powered, modular design for its prosthetic hand ready for use. Six copies of an interim version of the new design were sent to the DR last year for testing. In addition to hands, the team is now purchasing adjustable sockets for leg prosthetics.
If you are interested in learning more about the upcoming trip or how to donate, please contact Bill Dunn of the Yarmouth Club (wdunn@sunsetpoint.biz or 207-847-9345) or Asheesh Lanba of the Portland Club (asheesh.lanba@maine.edu or 207-780-5582)Download the website sponsorship guide