JORDANIE DERULUS and ELOU DERULUS
When the earth started to shake in Haiti on January 12th, 10 year-old Jordanie Derulus was trapped in the rubble of his house with his cousin and his mother. “My mother was screaming, and I just told her to pray,” he said while he sitting at the Healing Hands for Haiti Prosthetic Clinic, “she died and they pulled me out of the rubble two days later.” Once out of the rubble, Jordanie was brought to the hospital where doctors were forced to remove his right leg. And while Jordanie never lost faith he would walk again, the leg that he has received has allowed him to get back to normal. “I can kick a soccer ball again, and walk,” he explained, “it’s a wonderful thing.”
DUILIO BARRETO – PROSTHETICS AND ORTHOTICS TECHNICIAN
When prosthetics and orthotics technician Duilio Barreto lost his leg during a war in Nicaragua, his life changed forever. “They gave me a prosthetic that didn’t fit, it hurt me,” he explained while installing padding on a prosthetic leg, “that’s why I take extra care to make sure they fit, I don’t want these people going through what I did.” As he walks through the workshop of the Healing Hands for Haiti Prosthetics and Orthotics Clinic, he wears shorts so that the Haitians getting their new limbs can relate to him. “I know what it’s like to not have a leg,” he said, “I hope I can be a source of inspiration for these people. To give them hope that if I can do, so can they.”
DUJEUX JONAS
For 18 year-old Dejeux Jones, the injury to his leg had happen before the earthquake had hit Haiti. “I fell down and hurt it really badly,” Dujeux explained, “but after the earthquake it got infected and a doctor had to take it off.” And while he says that having a new leg is exciting, he admits that it’s hard adjusting to the artificial limb. “At first it fit just fine and there were no problems, but I’m having problems with it now,” he said, “I’m going to just have to keep on trying.”