Huambo- Huambo's "Princesa Diana" Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Centre was reinforced this Friday with a range of specialised equipment, valued at 75,000 euros, for prosthetics and orthotics, donated by the AZULE ENERGYAZULE ENERGY oil company.
The materials, donated in partnership with the British non-governmental organisation The Halo Trust, are intended to improve healthcare for people with disabilities, especially mine victims, who come to this health unit, which specialises in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.
Without giving details of the amount of equipment donated, AZULE ENERGY's director of government affairs and external relations, Hélder Silva, said that the gesture would help to minimise the difficulties faced by mine victims in the country (roughly 80,000 people) as a result of the armed conflict.
He also disclosed that the oil company AZULE ENERGY and the NGO-The Halo Trust have been working together since 2017 in landmines clearance in Angola and to heal people affected by mines, with a high rate of victims and various sequelae.
He highlighted the importance of physical rehabilitation in the country, taking into account the long period of civil war, calling on the other sections of society to support the victims for greater inclusion in society.
In turn, the director of the "Princess Diana" Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Centre in Huambo, Sabino Adão, said that the donation received at the health unit, with specialised services, would make it possible to provide better care for victims of landmines and other disabilities who come to the site.
He said that the Angolan government's increase in the number of physical rehabilitation centres in the country, from two to 11, had helped in the search for donors of expendable materials for prostheses, orthoses and other means of locomotion, in order to improve hospital care.
Sabino Adão said that despite a new manufacturing line for prostheses, orthoses and other specialised equipment, the centre has difficulties in acquiring expendable materials and means of locomotion, which depend on imports.
He also said that the support received from AZULE ENERGY will minimise the centre's worries, given the high number of patients on the waiting list for prostheses and orthoses for the normal exercise of their daily activities.
He said that in the last five years, the "Princess Diana" Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Centre has manufactured 5,313 orthoses, 5,069 crutches and 1,375 prostheses, while in the same period 1,344 prostheses and 354 orthoses were repaired.
The centre is located in the Bomba Alta neighbourhood, on the outskirts of Huambo city, it has a capacity for 30 beds and a monthly average of more than 7,000 citizens, has 177 workers, distributed among the Clinical Analysis, Cardiopneumology, Nursing, Physiotherapy, Medicine, Orthotics, Paediatrics and Clinical Psychology specialities.
Huambo's "Princess Diana" Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Centre was founded in 1979 under the name Centro Ortopédico da Bomba Alta (COBA), and was reopened on 27 September 2019 by His Highness Prince Hanry Charles Albert David, Duke of Sussex.
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