Supporting the work of this charity will be a Programme Action focus for SI Bingley from November 2016 to March 2017.

About 500 miles

Getting people moving

500 miles supports the development and delivery of prosthetic and orthotic services in Malawi and Zambia and a little in Zanzibar. The charity helps people with impaired mobility of all kinds to get moving, as well and as independently as possible, by helping them to access prostheses and orthoses.

Prostheses are devices which replace missing body parts, whilst orthoses are devices, like splints, which support body parts which are weak or don’t function properly.

Giving people back their lives

In Malawi, Zambia and Zanzibar, when people are born with deformities, lose their limbs or the use of their limbs due to accident, disease or poverty, many of them also lose their livelihoods, homes or families – and the most vulnerable even die. 500 Miles works to give them back their lives by making prosthetic and orthotic devices as accessible and as affordable as they can, not just today but on a long term and sustainable basis.

Olivia Giles, founder of 500 Miles, a Scottish charity founded in 2008 to help people with mobility difficulties and to give them a chance to live independent lives says “As a quadruple amputee myself, I know how important that independence is. The charity’s name comes from The Proclaimers’ famous lyrics, “I would walk 500 miles”, because that’s our aim – to get disabled people in Africa up and walking.”

Watch this space!