Photographs courtesy of Alan Finnieston.
Wilfrid Macena, Mackenson Pierre, and Sandy J.L. Louiseme, who were among the thousands of Haitians who underwent emergency amputations to survive following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, had a private audience with Pope Francis in January during a conference to commemorate the earthquake’s fifth anniversary.
The three men are the public face of “Healing Haiti’s Children” and members of Team Zaryen, a volunteer amputee soccer team. The team was formed to change perceptions about disability in Haiti.
The young men’s prosthetic limbs were made possible through the “Healing Haiti’s Children” program, sponsored by the Knights of Columbus in collaboration with the University of Miami-affiliated Project Medishare.
Macena, Pierre, and Louiseme were accompanied to the Vatican by Robert Gailey, PhD, PT, Project Medishare’s director of rehabilitation; Jason Miller, MPT, CWS, its director of prosthetics; and Adam Finnieston, CPO.
The Project Medishare rehabilitation team has provided rehabilitation for 25,000 patients and fabricated over 2,000 prosthetic and orthotic devices. Össur provided the initial funding for the prosthetics and orthotics laboratory.
The story of the “Healing Haiti’s Children” program and the children it has served was captured in the documentary Unbreakable: A Story of Hope and Healing in Haiti.