25448: Wharram - news - Handicapped city woman collects prosthetics for her native Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

> From Bruce Wharram <bruce.wharram@sev.org>

The Advocate
www.stamfordadvocate.com

Handicapped city woman collects prosthetics for her native Haiti

By Christiana Sciaudone
Staff Writer

Published June 21 2005

Marie Malaika Boyer hobbled and bled on her first set of wooden legs. But
she had to get back to high school in Haiti after losing her limbs below the
knee at 16. Nothing would stop her.

Boyer, 27, who now lives in Stamford, got her artificial legs at St.
Vincent's Center for Handicapped Children in Port-au-Prince, which she said
is the only place in Haiti for prosthetics.

Now, years after receiving that first pair of dark-stained wood legs
complete with leather buckles, Boyer is in the United States scavenging for
fake fingers, arms, braces, socks and miscellaneous bolts and screws to send
to St. Vincent's.

Mike Hoffmann of Hanger Prosthetics & Orthotics Inc. in Stamford gives Boyer
socks for amputees. The socks are overstock, outdated or the packaging is
yellowed and won't sell, he said. Specially designed socks are used by
amputees to prevent chafing against their prosthetics.

Hoffmann said no used prosthetics or parts may be resold in the United
States, even if the piece was never used and is in perfect condition.

Boyer has made the most of that, and about twice a year, sends 50-gallon
drums filled with prosthetic pieces as part of the Malaika Boyer Foundation,
a nonprofit she established in 2000. That was a year after her arrival in
Connecticut.

Boyer travels to Haiti once a year to give seminars and talks in a country
that she said is intolerant of the handicapped.

"Once you are handicapped, it's like you are dead," she said. "Like you are
ignored. . . . It's something that's taboo. You just don't talk about it."

Tthe first handicapped person Boyer knew was herself. In 1995, she suffered
from migraine headaches. Her doctor prescribed vitamin E, which can be toxic
for some people.

After two pills, Boyer fell into a three-day coma. Scars grew on her arms
and legs and within a month, her legs were gangrenous. They were amputated 2
inches below the knee.

"I took it with a lot of courage," Boyer said. "I never looked back. I never
blamed somebody."

Boyer is modest and demure, yet she commands respect with her steady,
determined demeanor.

When she walks, it is impossible to tell that prosthetics are beneath her
long skirts.

Boyer is trying out her third pair of prosthetics. They have not been fitted
with silicone that will be her skin, and they look machine-like, a brace and
a shiny metal pole planted into a plastic foot.

After her arrival in the United States, Boyer graduated from Norwalk
Community College, and in December, from the University of Connecticut, with
majors in psychology and sociology. She received several thousands of
dollars in scholarships from Person-to-Person, a nonprofit social service
agency in Darien, and was a guest at the group's annual graduation party in
Darien last week.

Last week, Boyer interviewed with the state Department of Children and
Families in Norwalk for a position as a social worker.

At the event in a private back yard overlooking Holly Pond and Long Island
Sound, Boyer said she reaches Haitians here and abroad through church.

She said many Haitians resent helping the handicapped because most are so
poor. Boyer has the perspective of both sides because she was once not
handicapped. Her work, she hopes, will help them be more understanding.


Copyright © 2005, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.