AUTHOR: Nancy TITLE: No Hands DATE: 5/21/2008 05:24:00 PM ----- BODY:
Hi there,

I went to El Salvador again last week to see people from the Buffett Foundation and CARE, but ended up doing much more, and now I'm trying to write this without crying.

As we pulled up to REDES (the non-profit rural development organization), Gustavo, the stove factory owner, said, "Oh, you're in luck! There's Ingenio!"… and there he was, the man we'd heard about on our first trip. The man whose two hands were blown off in 1982. There he was as he had been for 22 years, working as a doorman at the REDES office, opening the door with a string attached to his arm.

Gustavo said, "Go tell him you're bringing him a hand!", but as I looked at the tall, handsome 45 year old, I could barely speak.

I told him in my limited Spanish that we were bringing him a new right hand, and he said he had investigated getting a prosthesis but it would have cost $1,800 plus an operation removing a part of his arm, and he didn't have the money.

I told him that we had a hand through the LN4 group that cost only $50.00 and was one that was fitted and strapped on so it required no surgery and that we were donating the hand as we had heard about his plight.

He looked at me shyly and said, "Well I don't need a hand as much as my friends do. I have four friends working in agriculture and none of them has a hand, and I think you should give your hand to them first!"

That's when the tears came. A man with no hands for 22 years was offering a donated hand to his friends.

Would anyone like to help by contributing enough to purchase the hands for his friends?

Nancy

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