Hariyo Kharka Hospital and Rehabilitation Centre in Pokhara have announced that they will arrange for a prosthesis leg free of cost for nine years old Reema Puri from Gulmi who has lost the ability of move her right leg.[break]
It was after they heard the story of Reema, who has been staying with Srijanshil Bal Sewa Pariwar in Kadaghari for the past four years, that they decided to provide a prosthetic leg for her.
“We’ll have a prosthetic leg fitted to her limb that she’ll find easy to use,” said Hari Bahadur Baniya, chief of Prosthetic Parts Department. “This will bring a lot of ease in her daily life.”
Taking the help of her classmate while going to and from the nearby Gandhi Adarsha Higher Secondary, the third standard student had expressed her hope to the media to make her life easier with a prosthetic leg.
Before attaching the prosthetic leg, a minor operation is needed below her knee. The operation is being done with the money collected from students from various schools in the capital. The students had donated their lunch money, said the orphanage’s director Uma Devi Basnet.
“We’ll have her operated within a month,” she said. “Then we’re taking her to Pokhara to have the prosthetic leg attached.”
On learning of her condition through newspapers and news on FM stations, students had collected nearly Rs 40,000.
Reema is ecstatically looking forward to her operation. Basnet said that after her story got published in the newspapers, her confidence has also soared. She has become popular among the students after her story got published in Nagarik Daily on August 11. The photo story is now stuck on the wall of her school building.
“Those who used to call her lame now address her ‘didi,’ said her classmate Safal Nepali. “Students from other classes also love her.”
She had said that she felt hurt whenever she was called lame.
Basnet said, “When her friends teased her, she would return with a sad face. But now when she returns, she’s always smiling. We’re excited to see her so happy.”
The day the prosthetic leg is attached, her happiness will know no bounds, Reema said. “I’m feeling happy these days. I have fun at school,” she said.
Though she does not have much knowledge about her birthplace, she would like to return there one day and sing and dance in the park. She was abandoned by her parents when she was young.
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