Operation of Hope, an all-American volunteer team of medical doctors, is back in the country to offer free prosthetic hands.
The group, which last visited Zimbabwe in July last year, is also conducting free neo-natal workshops at Harare Central Hospital.
A prosthetic hand is an artificial device that resembles the natural limb.
Team leader Jennifer Trubenbach yesterday said this was their first volunteer mission to provide prosthetic hands and conduct workshops in Zimbabwe.
Their previous trips centred on cleft lip operations. Since 2006, the group has corrected deformed lips on more than 200 young and adult Zimbabweans. Operation of Hope is partnering with a foundation in the United States that makes these prosthetic hands and we are trying to identify Zimbabweans in need of these hands, said Trubenbach.
Charles Mashanga, one of the beneficiaries of the artificial hands, said the devices would assist him do more chores he was no longer able to do since 1999 when he lost both hands in a work-related accident.
I was injured while I was at work in 1999 and lost both my hands. I have been like that since then and it was difficult for me to do anything, but now that I have these hands I will be better off, said the 60-year-old Mashanga.
Trubenbach said neo-natal workshops were targeted at midwives, pediatricians and nurses.
