Rosemary's Limb Project for the young amputees of Kooki, Uganda

This project has been established in memory of Rosemary Short, who was visiting Rakai, the capital town of the Kooki Kingdom in Uganda in 2018 on her 80th birthday along with her Rotarian husband. They were representing the Rotary Jaipur Limb Project, a UK based registered charity, supported by Rotary Clubs across the UK and Ireland. 

They had travelled to Kooki, one of the poorest regions of Uganda, to confirm previous information that there was a large population of lower limb amputees in the region, but there were no artifical limb making facilities. The large clinic they visited had no suitable building for an orthopeadic workshop nor any staff suitable for proshetist training. The Medical Director assured them that there were at least 400 registered amputees needing lower limbs. A proposal was submitted to Rotary Jaipur Limb that the charity fund limbs for the amputees and the limbs would be made and fitted at the Jaipur Limb workshop in Kampala, approximately a days travel from Rakai, and the stipulation was that the amputees would pay for their own transport and subsistence (estimated at US $300. 

For many of the amputees, particularly the children, this expense is more than they can afford. In the intervening four years , only 116 amputees have managed to get to Kampala and obtain new limbs.

Rosemary, sadly passed away in 2023 and the project which has been established in her memory, is to pay the travel and subsistence costs for the youngest amputees, up to the age of 16, and put them back on their feet.