Former Secretary of State Colin Powell once recognized the Polus Center as having "created path-breaking, community-based programs in Nicaragua and Honduras, providing artificial limbs to the poorest of the poor" and the US Agency for International Development's Leahy War Victims Fund has reported that the artificial limbs produced are "durable and of the highest quality."
Vida Nueva exemplifies the Polus Center's approach of working at the grassroots level and working towards sustainable solutions. By training local people, many of whom are prosthesis users themselves, to become prosthetic technicians using appropriate technologies and components that can be purchased locally, and fostering strong relationships within the community, Vida Nueva is building towards self-sufficiency both financially and in expertise, despite the fact that the average prosthesis costs about $600, almost one year's income ($730) of the average Honduran. The Julia Burke Foundation grant provided new prosthetic limbs and related services to the 47 people on the waiting list at the clinic.
For more information about The Polus Center, go to www.poluscenter.org
