Wade Hardstad, a prosthetic technician, creates below-the-knee prosthesis with a carbon fiber socket, July 31 at the VA Jewell Clinic in Aurora. A group of men and women from Africa who specialize in caring for disabled Africans toured the clinic as part of a two-week U.S. visit to learn about medical technologies and medicine that benefits disabled people. (Marla R. Keown/Aurora Sentinel)

AURORA | African specialists who care for physically disabled people there toured an Aurora-based Veterans Affairs clinic July 31.

The group, whose members were from Sudan, Ethiopia, Niger, Senegal and the Democratic Republic of Congo, toured the VA’s Jewell Clinic as part of a two-week U.S. visit to learn about medical technologies and medicine. The Jewell Clinic’s wheelchair obstacle course, orthotic and prosthetic lab and visual impairment services program interested the group.

Wade Hardstad, a prosthetic technician, creates below-the-knee prosthesis with a carbon fiber socket, July 31 at the VA Jewell Clinic in Aurora. A group of men and women from Africa who specialize in caring for disabled Africans toured the clinic as part of a two-week U.S. visit to learn about medical technologies and medicine that benefits disabled people. (Marla R. Keown/Aurora Sentinel)
Disabled veterans are able to get a variety of prosthetics from the VA Jewell Clinic. A group of men and women from Africa who specialize in caring for disabled Africans toured the clinic as part of a two-week U.S. visit to learn about medical technologies and medicine that benefits disabled people. (Marla R. Keown/Aurora Sentinel)

Lefoko Kesamang, who is originally from Botswana but lives and works in Ethiopia, said governments in African countries rarely support people with disabilities. Many disabled people never get the quality care they need, he said.

“There might be services in one or two countries in Africa, like South Africa, but the rest of the continent, we don’t have the resources to put up services like this,” said Kesamang, a social welfare officer in the African Union Commission’s Social Affairs Department. “It hasn’t been a priority in many states.”

The group, of which some members were disabled, was impressed with the technology offered at the Jewell Clinic. They said they were impressed with benefits afforded to U.S. veterans.

“People risk their lives in war and they deserve the help. This (care) helps them get on with their lives,” said Yacine Ndiaye Kone in French through a translator. Kone is from Senegal and has a physical disability that has confined her to a wheelchair. Many disabled people in her country don’t receive the care they need, so they often consign themselves to a life of sitting on the couch and watching TV, she said.

“I’ve been very moved by this experience,” she said.

Jean Nzaou Pamboud, who is from the Democratic Republic of Congo and also in a wheelchair, said he, too, was touched by the tour of the VA clinic.

“If every country would follow this example, there would be so much less sadness in the world,” he said.

“There are people with disabilities everywhere, in every country in the world, so it’s a way for us to share with them how we assist people with disabilities and the different variety of services we can provide,” said Dr. William Sullivan, chief of physical medicine and rehabilitation service at the Jewell Clinic.

The group of 10 Africans also toured hospitals in Washington D.C., Oregon and Ohio as part of a program sponsored by the State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program. The group also toured the Aurora-based performing arts company, PHAMALY, which consists entirely of performers with disabilities.