How a robot ended up teaching exercise classes in a Dutch retirement home

The Washington Post, Matt McFarland, May 27, 2015 

Residents follow Zora’s instructions during a physical therapy class.
(Regy van den Brand)

They aren’t on Snapchat. They aren’t livestreaming their adventures on Periscope and Meerkat. And they definitely won’t be recording 360 videos from drones.

Yet for residents of Vughterstede — average age 87 — technology isn’t just the bastion of the young. When they gather for a physical therapy class, the senior citizens follow instructions from a 22-inch humanoid robot that can move, speak and dance.

The robot is positioned on a table and demonstrates different exercises, which the residents then try to mimic. A human instructor is present too, and provides individual instruction to anyone needing extra attention.

The chief executive of the nursing home, Tinie Kardol, happens to also be a professor of gerontology at the Free University Brussels. One of his students tipped him off to Zora the robot. Kardol saw an opportunity to improve his own operation and introduced it a year ago.

By then the Belgian makers of Zora had been tinkering on the robot for three years. The QBMT software developers first bought a Nao robot from Aldebaran, a French company, imagining they’d configure it to work as a hotel clerk. Instead they have found a market in health care. First a Belgian hospital inquired about using a robot to demonstrate exercises to children rehabilitating from surgeries.

A Vughterstede resident holds Zora the

robot. Chief executive Tinie Kardol says

he’s been surprised at how his residents

have embraced Zora. (Regy van den

Brand)

Kardol says now over 6,000 elderly people are in direct contact with a humanoid robot in Belgium, France and the Netherlands. One program lets Belgian children at school chat with the elderly by typing on computers in their classrooms. The robot, located in nursing homes miles away, speaks the text. Its eyes light up green as a cue that it’s the senior citizens’ turn to talk.

The Zora robot is also being used in hospitals and one psychiatric institution.

“A lot of elderly people are actually feeling alone. Solitude is something which is horrible for the moment for a lot of elderly people,” said Fabrice Goffin, one of Zora’s creators. “People don’t have all the time to visit their families and they can find some kind of relationship with the robot and that is a nice thing to do.” 

At Kardol’s nursing home, the robot spends most of its time in a common area. It reads out weather forecasts and news articles. It’s programmed so that a staff member can type instructions for what to say on a computer.

In some cases, the robot has been able to accomplish what humans can’t. Kardol told me of one resident who hadn’t spoken in four months. One day late last year she was sitting in the common area next to her son. The staff used the robot to address her by name and ask how she was doing.

“I’m well,” she blurted out, surprising everyone in attendance. They then carried on a brief conversation. Interactions like that have motivated Kardol as a researcher to investigate why the robot can trigger positive reactions from those who struggle to communicate.

To others, the appearance of robots in nursing homes might be a sad commentary on how we treat the elderly. Will we all one day let our loved ones be entertained by machines, while we go about our busy lives? And will robots ever replace the humans in nursing homes, once they can do the job at a lower price?

Kardol is adamant that Zora isn’t replacing the role of human contact, or humans’ jobs at his retirement home. But as robots inevitably become more capable, and more retirement homes consider using them, it remains to be seen exactly what role robots will play.

Related: Why you should root for a robot to take your doctor’s job

3D printing helps separate conjoined twins in Shanghai

Want China Times, Xinhua and Staff Reporter 2015-06-10

The twins after the procedure to separate them, June 9. (Photo/Xinhua)

With the help of 3D printing technology, doctors in Shanghai on Tuesday successfully separated three-month-old twin sisters who were conjoined at the hip.

The twins, born in Ganzhou in Jiangxi province, were connected by soft tissues at the hip and lower spine. They had mostly separate digestive systems but shared one lower bowel.

After a five-hour operation at the Children's Hospital of Fudan University in Shanghai, the twins were separated and both underwent reconstruction work on the anus, perineum and muscle surrounding the rectum.

Chief surgeon Zheng Shan said the medical team used 3D printing to build two models to represent the structure of the babies' connected parts, which helped them better understand the anatomical structure and carry out simulated surgery when making plans for the procedure.

Since 2000, the hospital has successfully separated seven pairs of conjoined twins.

Dutch nerd of the year builds malaria detector in a shoe box

DutchNews.nl, June 10, 2015

Photo: YouTube

A Dutchman who invented a simple device for detecting malaria using a shoe box, heating element from a hair dryer and some cheap items from a diy store has been voted Nerd of the Year by magazine Vrij Nederland. 

Wouter Bruins tops the list of 101 ‘nerds’ who were judged on their ‘technological solutions for an existing problem’ or ‘other interesting technological discovery’. Judges included Bluetooth inventor Jaap Haartsen and start-up innovator Oscar Kneppers of Rockstart. 

According to Elsevier, Bruin’s discovery can contribute to more speedy malaria treatment and will begin major testing in Rotterdam and at a hospital in Zambia. Malaria kills more than half a million people every year.

‘I was shocked that it seemed to work better than existing methods,’ Bruins, 30, told a radio show on Wednesday.

The title ‘nerd of the year’ is ‘recognition for our sort of people’, he said. Working away in attics is ‘often about being a pioneer in isolation’, he said. ‘It is good to be noticed.’ 

Broadcaster Nos reports that Bruins now has two companies: one developing the malaria treatment and another developing a way of determining the sex of chickens.

Watch Bruins talking about problem solving

Pamekasan Prison for Drug Convicts Focuses on Rehabilitation

Jakarta Globe, Jun 09, 2015

The newly-opened Pamekasan prison focuses on rehabilitation of
drug-addicted inmates. (AFP Photo/Romeo Gacad)

Jakarta. Justice Minister Yasonna Laoly has opened a prison in Pamekasan district on Madura Island that will specifically focus on rehabilitating drug-addicted inmates.

Yasonna said the government was waging a war on drugs, but it was also trying to help drug addicts by providing rehabilitation centers.

Inmates that are drug addicts needed to get rehabilitated, he said.

“I hope that rehabilitation process could help reduce the number of drug addicts in Indonesia,” Yosanna told Tempo.co on Tuesday.

The Pamekasan facility covers 43,574 square meters and can accommodate 1,235 inmates.

“This prison was specially built for drug-addict inmates. The construction spent Rp 94 billion ($7 million). The budget was taken from the state budget,” said I Wayah Dusak, the head of East Java’s Justice Ministry Office.

The new prison is the sixth prison in East Java that is focused specifically on rehabilitation.

World's first 'feeling' leg prosthesis offers new hope to amputees

Yahoo – AFP, 8 June 2015

World's first 'feeling' leg prosthesis offers new hope to amputees

The world's first artificial leg capable of simulating the feelings of a real limb and fighting phantom pain will be unveiled by researchers in Vienna on Monday.

The innovation is the result of a two-fold process, developed by Professor Hubert Egger at the University of Linz in northern Austria.

Surgeons first rewired remaining foot nerve endings from a patient's stump to healthy tissue in the thigh, placing them close to the skin surface.

Six sensors were then fitted to the foot sole of a lightweight prosthesis, and linked to so-called stimulators inside the shaft where the stump sits.

"It's like a second lease of life, like being reborn," Austrian amputee Wolfgang Rangger, told AFP ahead of Monday's media launch.

The former teacher, who lost his right leg in 2007 after suffering a blood clot caused by a cerebral stroke, has spent the last six months testing the new prosthesis.

"It feels like I have a foot again. I no longer slip on ice and I can tell whether I walk on gravel, concrete, grass or sand. I can even feel small stones," he said.

The 54-year-old also runs, cycles and goes climbing. When he moves, the limp is barely noticeable.

Every time Rangger takes a step or applies pressure, the small sensor devices send signals to the brain.

"In a healthy foot, skin receptors carry out this function but they are obviously missing here. However, the information conductors -- the nerves -- are still present, they're just not being stimulated," Egger said.

"The sensors tell the brain there is a foot and the wearer has the impression that it rolls off the ground when he walks. All things considered, the procedure is a very simple one given the results."

This is not the first time the Austrian scientist has caused a stir with his research.

In 2010, he presented a mind-controlled prosthetic arm, which the user directed with motor neurons previously connected to the lost limb.

For the artificial leg, the principle remains the same except that the process works in reverse: information is guided from the prothesis to the brain, rather than the other way around.

No more morphine

In addition to increasing balance and safety, the prosthesis provides another remarkable function: it has helped eradicate the excruciating pain Rangger had experienced for years following his amputation.

"I was barely able to walk with a conventional prosthesis, didn't sleep for more than two hours a night and needed morphine to make it through the day," he recalled.

But within days of undergoing the operation last October, the pain vanished.

As Egger points out, phantom pain occurs because the brain gets increasingly sensitive as it seeks information about the missing limb.

"Plus the amputation is often tied to a traumatic experience like an accident or illness, and the mind keeps reliving these memories," he noted.

The advantage of the "feeling prosthesis" is that the brain once again receives real data and can stop its frantic search.

"Rangger is a very different person now to the one I met in 2012," Egger said.

The two men were introduced to each other at a support group for amputees.

"It struck me that he never laughed and he had these dark rings under his eyes. It was awful."

Importantly, post-surgery recovery is quick and there are no known health dangers associated with the intervention, he added.

"The only risk is that the nerves don't reconnect properly and the feelings fail to return," he said.

With the new technology ready, Egger now hopes that small companies will join his venture and start building the prosthesis to help bring down the market price.

At the moment, a high-tech foot model costs between 10,000 euros ($11,240) and 30,000 euros.

Egger believes his latest project could vastly improve quality of life for amputees, including in developing countries.

"People with amputations aren't patients in the traditional sense, they aren't sick -- they're just missing a limb," he said.

"By giving them back mobility, they also regain their independence and are able to reintegrate into society. That's what I work for."

Europe court backs France in quadriplegic right-to-die ruling

Yahoo – AFP, Cedric Simon, 5 June 2015

Vincent Lambert was left severely brain damaged and quadriplegic as a result

of a 2008 road accident (AFP Photo)

Strasbourg (France) (AFP) - Europe's rights court on Friday backed the decision of a French court to allow a man in a vegetative state to be taken off life support, in a ruling that could become a benchmark on the continent.

The fate of Vincent Lambert, 38, who was left a quadriplegic with severe brain damage after a 2008 road accident, has torn apart his family in a judicial tug-of-war over his right to die.

Viviane Lambert reacts after a hearing

 in the case of her son, Vincent (AFP

 Photo/Patrick Hertzog)

His parents and two siblings had appealed to the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights in a desperate bid to stop doctors from withdrawing intravenous feeding after exhausting their legal options in France.

But the court voted 12 to five that a French court decision, which said Lambert should be allowed to die, did not violate European rights laws.

"It is a scandal, our son has been sentenced to death," said his mother Viviane Lambert, who wiped away tears as the ruling was handed down.

"We will stay by Vincent's side and keep on fighting."

The case pitted Lambert's mother against his wife who insists her husband -- a former psychiatric nurse -- would never have wanted to be kept alive artificially.

Legal tug-of-war

Even though the court ruled in her favour, wife Rachel said she was "devastated" by the decision.

"There is no relief or joy to express," she said, adding "we want his wishes to be fulfilled."

The legal drama began in January 2014, when Lambert's doctors, backed by his wife and six of his eight siblings, decided to stop the intravenous food and water keeping him alive in line with a 2005 passive euthanasia law in France.

Viviane Lambert (L) says her son is

 merely handicapped and any attempt to

 stop life-sustaining treatment would

 amount to "disguised euthanasia" (AFP

 Photo/Patrick Hertzog)

His deeply devout Catholic parents, half-brother and sister won a court application to stop the plan, calling it "akin to torture".

In an appeal, the French supreme administrative court, known as the State Council, ordered three doctors to draw up a report on Lambert's condition and in June 2014 ruled that withdrawing care from a person with no hope of recovery was lawful.

Lambert's parents then took the case to Europe's rights court which ruled the State Council decision was "the object of a thorough investigation where all points of view were expressed and all aspects weighed long and hard."

Lawmaker Jean Leonetti, who drew up France's passive euthanasia law, said up to 1,700 patients were in a similar situation to Vincent Lambert in the country and urged people to make "living wills" so their medical wishes would be clear.

While the decision relating to the contentious euthanasia debate is likely to have an impact across Europe, the bitter Lambert family battle is set to continue in France.

Parents to fight on

Rachel Lambert (C) looks on

 after the hearing in the case

 of her husband, Vincent

(AFP Photo/Patrick Hertzog)

Vincent's parents plan to seek a new medical decision as the doctor who was behind the initial decision to stop intravenous feeding is no longer employed at the medical unit where their son is being kept.

Medical experts have said Lambert is in an irreversible vegetative state.

But Viviane believes her son is showing signs of progress, including lifting his leg and swallowing, and just needs better care. His parents want him moved to a new medical facility.

Viviane's lawyer Jerome Triomphe urged the health ministry to allow the transfer of Lambert "so that those who want to take care of him can do so rather than leave him on death row at the wishes of whose who want to get rid of him."

Laurent Pettiti, the lawyer for Lambert's wife, said it was difficult to imagine "how an administrative judge could go against the decision of the European Court and State Council."

'Inhumane procedure'

In practice, once all legal avenues are exhausted, the palliative care unit where Lambert is being held will stop artificial nutrition and hydration and sedate Lambert to avoid discomfort and suffering.

Vincent Lambert is in an

irreversible vegetative state, 

according to medical experts

 (AFP Photo)

In such cases it can take between a week and 10 days for the patient to die.

The "Death with Dignity" association welcomed the ECHR ruling, but deplored the fact that euthanasia was not legal in France and could allow Lambert to avoid the "inhumane procedure."

Lambert's case ignited a fierce debate around euthanasia in France where it remains illegal despite recent efforts to ease legislation dealing with the terminally ill -- a campaign promise by President Francois Hollande.

In March, lawmakers voted overwhelmingly in favour of a law allowing medics to place terminally ill patients in a deep sleep until they die.

The law also makes "living wills" -- drafted by people who do not want to be kept alive artificially if they are too ill to decide -- legally binding on doctors.

Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg as well as in the US states of Vermont, Oregon and Washington.

Related Articles:

Top French court grants coma patient the right to die
French doctor acquitted of poisoning charges after giving lethal injections

Former doctor Nicolas Bonnemaison arrives at the courthouse

 of Pau, southwestern France before his acquittal. Photograph:

Jean-Pierre Muller/AFP/Getty Images

Belgian law on euthanasia for children, with no age limit, will be first in world

Europe split on right-to-die regulations

French panel recommends legalising assisted suicide

Euthanasia declaration should be renewed regularly
Nine myths about euthanasia in the Netherlands


 "Current" Events –  Apr 10, 2005 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

"... The Ethics of Life

You, as a Human Being, are designed to appreciate and love life. But you put it in a box. You think you live once. You say, life is precious; make it count; keep it going at all costs; make it work. And the underlying thought is that because you only go around one time, all the purpose is wrapped up in one lifetime. Well, I'm going to give you something to think about, something that happened just recently that tens of millions of people all over earth who have the western news media know of.

It was all about one woman's life, and you know who I'm talking about. I'm talking about Terri [Terri Schiavo]. And I'm going to talk about Terri because, you know, she's here [speaking of the real Terri]! And I'm going to give you a perspective about Terri that perhaps you hadn't thought about before, and as I do it, she's going to watch.

It's very metaphysical, you know? This perspective is one from my side of the veil. Terri leaned into the wind of birth many years ago, just as you did. I was there, too. There were potentials laying in front of her - a track that she could take if she wished. There was no predestination, only predispositions of energy that laid before her: the parents she would have (which she had selected), the man she might meet or marry, the accident waiting to happen. All of these things were in her "potential track," and she could have chosen not to go there.

But like so many of you, she looked at it and examined it. These were the times we spoke to her and said, "Dear one, you're going into another Human lifetime that has a potential that's awesome - grander than most Humans on the planet will ever experience. You'll get to present something to tens of millions of people. You'll make them think about life. You'll change the legal system of your country. You'll awaken peoples' awareness to situations that need to be addressed with respect to morality, integrity, and even intuition. Will you do it?"

And I remember what she said. The grand angel who stood before me, who you now call Terri, smiled broadly and said, "I'm ready for that." And some of you cry in your sorrow and say "Why is this Human dead? How could such a thing be tolerated? Why would such a thing happen? Life is so precious." And I ask you this, as Terri looks on in her joy, would you take this away from her? Would you take that away from humanity, what she showed and did that resulted directly in her passing?

Start thinking of these things, perhaps differently. We've told you before that there are even those Human Beings who come in with a predisposition of suicide! What a horrible thought, you might say. "Kryon, could that even be appropriate?" And we say this: More than appropriate, it's by design! "But why should that be?" You might say. "What a horrible dishonorable death." And if that's your reaction, you're placing the whole grand picture in your own little Human box.

When you start examining it spiritually, without Human bias, you start to see that around a suicide there's this energy that develops. It's all about the family. Is there shame? Is there drama? Does it kick the family in the pants so that perhaps they might study things they never did - or perhaps they might they even look within themselves for spirituality? Blessed is the one that comes in with these tasks [like suicide]. There are so many of them who do. For these are the grease of personal change within families, and provide a gift that is grand!

You see, Spirit looks at these things differently. The curtain goes up, it goes down. You come and you go and there are profound lessons, some of which are taught harshly, by those who teach them through their own deaths.

"Well, what is it Kryon? Don't dodge the question with a diversion to suicide, for this isn't what Terri did. Is it proper or is it improper to have somebody in this vegetative state put to death by others around her?" Our answer: Exactly which Human are you talking about? You want a blanket answer, don't you? For six and half billion souls and paths, you want one answer for all. Well, you won't get one. For Terri, the answer is a solid yes. It was as it should have been. She came in with this grand opportunity to change the world, and she did it while everyone watched.

There is appropriateness in all things and sometimes you create for yourselves what seems to be inappropriate. Yet later you understand what the gift was within the challenge. Celebrate Terri, and don't think of this as a shameful thing that Humans did to her. Think of it instead as a book that was written for you to look at, one which pushes you to a place to ask, "What should we do about this now, personally? What should our legislatures do about this, if anything? How can we approach these things more humanely and with more honor? Is our culture addressing this issue? Are we addressing this issue personally?" Let's put these questions where they belong. It's not about "right to life"; it's about the appropriateness of "this life." Each case is individual, and some are profoundly given for the planet and for those around the individual.

Oh, as all of you came into this planet and leaned into the wind of birth separately, each was unique. Each of you has a different story, a different goal, but all have the same purpose: the elevation of the vibration of the planet. Sometimes it happens to many of you at the same time. We'll get to that before we finish. ..."

"THE THREE WINDS" – Feb 23-24, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Humanity, Home - other side of the veil, Wind of Birth - Birth, Wind of Existence - Life, Wind of Transition - Death) - (Text version)

End Death Penalty, Adopt Anti-Drug Policies That Work, Experts Tell Jokowi

Jakarta Globe, Jun 05, 2015

Flowers are placed outside the Indonesian consulate in Sydney on April 29,
 following the execution of two Australian drug convicts Andrew Chan and Myuran
 Sukumaran in Indonesia. Indonesia executed seven foreign drug convicts
 including two Australians by firing squad on April 29, causing Canberra to
withdraw its ambassador over the 'cruel' punishment. (AFP Photo/Saeed Khan)

Jakarta. Prominent academics and experts have called on the Indonesian government to end the death penalty for drug offenses and commit to proven public health approaches to address drug use.

In an open letter to President Joko Widodo published in the June 6 edition of the British health journal The Lancet, the group called for the discontinuation of “strategies which have been found to be counterproductive such as involuntary rehabilitation and the death penalty.”

“A close examination of the nature and extent of drug use in Indonesia reveals substantial gaps in knowledge and a scarcity of evidence to support forced rehabilitation and the punitive, law enforcement-led approach favored by the government,” the letter said.

“The Indonesian government has shown increased commitment to addressing drug use and guaranteeing the well-being of its citizens, but in order to achieve this it must choose public health and harm reduction strategies,” Prof. Dr. Irwanto of the HIV and AIDS Research Center at Jakarta’s Atma Jaya University and a veteran drug and HIV researcher, one of the signatories of the letter, said in a statement.

“The current drug war approach has been a proven failure around the globe, even causing more harm than good,” he added.

Dr. Ignatius Praptoraharjo, a researcher at the Center for Health Policy and Management at the School of Medicine at Yogyakarta’s Gadjah Mada University, said the government had sidelined effective approaches to drug use in favor of a more punitive stance.

“We know what works: we already have the evidence and have been implementing health-focused programs that work in Indonesia since the early 2000s,” he said. “We have an ethical obligation to provide our citizens with options that save lives, such as needle syringe programs, opioid substitution therapy and community-based, voluntary drug treatment.

“But despite the proven success of these interventions, political commitment and funds are lacking, and current punitive strategies in Indonesia do not provide enough space for meaningful health programs. Our limited funds are instead being used to bolster fear-based approaches, which effectively drive people in need further away from health programs,” Ignatius said.

The letter said there was “evidence that criminalization of people who use drugs and punitive law-enforcement approaches have failed to reduce the prevalence of drug use and are fueling the HIV epidemic.”

The group also raised “serious concerns about the validity” of the figures for drug use and drug-related deaths frequently cited by the president and other officials to justify their hard-line approach to anti-narcotics enforcement, and urged the president to invest in more accurate data collection.

The group said it was concerned that the government was using the estimates as the basis for national policies without providing sufficient opportunity for independent peer review.

“Obtaining valid estimates of drug use is not an easy, straightforward process, yet we need to make sure that national policies are based on evidence that is thoroughly peer-reviewed and transparent,” Atma Jaya’s Irwanto said. “Each human life matters. Productive human lives may be compromised by misguided policies.”

Dr. Kemal Siregar, the secretary general of the National AIDS Commission, warned that drug users faced increasing stigma, discrimination and human rights violations as punitive drug control measures trumped public health.

“HIV infections will continue to rise as long as drug users continue to live in fear of arrest or placement in involuntary rehabilitation,” he said.

The signatories to the open letter, ranging from public health experts and researchers, to theologists and human rights activists, argued in favor of establishing an independent, multi-sectoral committee on drug use comprising relevant government agencies, ministries, researchers, service providers and community leaders tasked with reviewing available drug-related data, setting priorities, recommending evidence-informed actions and monitoring progress.

“As people who use drugs, we have seen and experienced for ourselves that repressive and punitive approaches have exacerbated drug-related deaths and harms such as HIV and hepatitis C transmission,” said Edo Agustian, the national coordinator of the Indonesian Drug Users Network.

“We urge the government to work together with drug-using communities, academics and other stakeholders to build a more effective response before any more lives are lost,” he said.

Further coverage

Editorial: Deal With the Drug Issue the Right Way

Related Article:

Indonesia, Netherlands Organize Harm Reduction Talks at UNODC

American Red Cross squandered aid after Haiti earthquake, report alleges

Despite raising nearly half a billion dollars and allocating $170m to ‘shelter relief’, the aid organization built only six permanent homes, an investigation has found

The Guardian, Alan Yuhus, 4 June 2015

An undated American Red Cross handout photo of the aftermath of the earthquake
shows the devastation to homes in Haiti. Photograph: Matt Marek/American
Red Cross/PA

Despite collecting nearly half a billion dollars for Haiti earthquake relief, the American Red Cross has built only six permanent homes and seemingly squandered millions in the country, according to a new report.

A joint investigation by ProPublica and NPR uncovered rampant mismanagement, high overhead costs and deeply rooted acrimony from Haitians toward the aid organization. Among the investigation’s findings was that although the Red Cross apportioned about $170m to the category of “shelter” relief, and although it at first planned to build some 700 houses, it only constructed six permanent homes.

The report charges the Red Cross with consistent misrepresentation of its projects, especially in housing. The authors cite promotional materials that say the Red Cross provided more than 130,000 people with homes, and then note that that total includes people in “transitional shelters”, recipients of short-term rent assistance, and people who had been “trained in proper construction techniques”.

The Red Cross disputes the report and asserts it has “helped build and operate eight hospitals and clinics” and “move more than 100,000 people out of make-shift tents into safe and improved housing”. In a statement, the organization said it is “disappointed” by the “lack of balance, context and accuracy” on the part of ProPublica and NPR.

A major problem for the organization was leadership and staffing, according to the report. Integral positions, including experts for health and shelter, were left vacant for months and sometimes years. The positions that were staffed were predominantly held by expats or by people flown in from the United States, many of whom could not speak French or Creole.

In one 2011 document, Red Cross official Judith St Ford notes that there are “serious program delays caused by internal issues that go unaddressed”, including for cholera relief.

“There is a clear lack of foresight and planning,” she wrote, and “the lack of leadership ability has contributed to poor morale in the field.”

She also urged her superiors to hire more Haitians: “the implication that talented, smart, competent Haitians cannot be found in Haiti has to be dispelled.”

In its statement the Red Cross says 90% of its current staff are Haitians; the organization did not break down the hierarchy or positions of its staff.

“If they were an organization that had a real history in Haiti I think this would’ve gone a lot better,” said Justin Elliott, one of the journalists who co-wrote the report. “The entire Haiti reconstruction effort has been really problematic, but the outside groups that have done better have roots there, have Haitian people working at high levels, have people who speak the language.”

In one 2013 email published by ProPublica, CEO Gail McGovern admitted a project had failed and that she did not know what to do with a $20m remainder. “Now that the Northern project is going bust and we are still holding $20 million of contingency, any ideas on how to spend the rest of this?” she asked, before mentioning a mysterious “wonderful helicopter idea”.

Without Haitians in leadership positions, the Red Cross was particularly ill-prepared to deal with Haiti’s land tenure rules, a system so tangled and unforgiving that it has intimidated USAid and Vatican relief efforts.

Residents of the Jean-Marie Vincent camp for people displaced by the 2010
earthquake, wait for customers outside their tent where they have set up a
stand to sell rice, oil and canned goods in Port-au-Prince on 9 January 2013.
Photograph: Dieu Nalio Chery/AP

“Land tenure is probably the biggest stumbling block,” said Jonathan M Katz, a freelance journalist and author of a book about the earthquake, The Big Truck That Went By. The system has stymied aid organizations for years, and Katz said that for years aid organizations have “thrown up their collective hands and said ‘we don’t really want to deal with this.’”

The Red Cross entangled itself in a web of other organizations, often paying them to do relief work, themselves struggling in Haiti. This outsourcing is commonplace in the international aid industry, Katz said, and leads to inevitable but not necessarily unreasonable overhead costs. But eager to better solicit donations, organizations often try to downplay these costs.

The report notes that overhead charges by the Red Cross and its contractors undermine McGovern’s claim that “minus the nine cents overhead, 91 cents on the dollar will be going to Haiti.”

In one case, Elliott and his co-author, NPR’S Laura Sullivan, found that the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) exacted $1.56m in overhead from the American Red Cross’s payment of $6m, all to help give Haitians rental subsidies so they could leave tent camps. The IFRC said the costs were related to “administration, finance, human resources”.

In another case, the Red Cross commissioned Swiss and Spanish Red Cross societies to upgrade shelters, but still took 24% of the money for the project in additional overhead costs, according to the report.

Where exactly the $488m of the American Red Cross’s Haiti budget has gone is unclear, Elliott said, since “the whole international aid sector is pretty opaque in general. And the spending of the American Red Cross is incredible opaque. You can tell hardly anything from their disclosures.”

He said that the issue of money was particularly sensitive to Haitians who had coordinated with the Red Cross.

“They were furious basically over broken promises,” Elliott said. “About three years ago, the Red Cross told people they were going to build hundreds of new homes in this very hard-hit area, and this thing was just stalled. Over the next two years they had meetings with the community, handed out juice boxes and so on, and nothing happened for a long time.”

The Red Cross is now helping build a road and install solar lights in the area.

Katz said that the problems of the American Red Cross are “typical of the aid industry in general. The Red Cross is sort of the biggest kid on the block. Because they make way more money than anybody else, what they do is magnified.”

The interconnected NGOs and aid organizations of the world, ranging from the many satellites of the Red Cross to Doctors Without Borders to the Clinton Foundation, Katz said, should deserve more skepticism from the public. Reports have traced the 2011 cholera epidemic to United Nations relief efforts, he noted, adding that many organizations operate more like businesses than anything else.

“Even when an aid group is pulling off a project well,” he said, “if it isn’t going to be there forever, if it isn’t going to be accountable for successes and failures, if it isn’t leaving something behind that’s permanent, then it’s still capable of doing damage.”

Last year the Red Cross similarly took issue with another ProPublica report that said the organization had disastrously mismanaged aid relief after hurricane Sandy.

3D printers get Ugandan amputees back on their feet

Yahoo – AFP, Amy Fallon, 2 June 2015

Ugandan schoolboy Jesse Ayebazibwe, 9, sits next to his 3D-printed artificial

 limb at the Comprehensive Rehabilitation Services Uganda in Wakiso on April 24,

2015 (AFP Photo/Isaac Kasamani)

Kisubi (Uganda) (AFP) - Doctors amputated Ugandan schoolboy Jesse Ayebazibwe's right leg when he was hit by a truck while walking home from school three years ago.

Afterwards he was given crutches, but that was all, and so he hobbled about. "I liked playing like a normal kid before the accident," the nine-year-old said.

Now an infrared scanner, a laptop and a pair of 3D printers are changing everything for Jesse and others like him, offering him the chance of a near-normal life.

An infrared scanner, a laptop and a pair 

of 3D printers are changing everything 

for people with amputations, offering them

 the chance of a near-normal life in Uganda

(AFP Photo/Isaac Kasamani)

"The process is quite short, that's the beauty of the 3D printers," said Moses Kaweesa, an orthopaedic technologist at Comprehensive Rehabilitation Services (CoRSU) in Uganda which, together with Canada's University of Toronto and the charity Christian Blind Mission, is making the prostheses.

"Jesse was here yesterday, today he's being fitted," said Kaweesa, 34.

In the past, the all-important plaster cast sockets that connect prosthetic limbs to a person's hip took about a week to make, and were often so uncomfortable people ended up not wearing them.

Plastic printed ones can be made in a day and are a closer, more comfortable fit.

The scanner, laptop and printer cost around $12,000 (10,600 euros), with the materials costing just $3 (2.65 euros).

Ayebazibwe got his first, old-style prosthesis last year but is now part of a trial that could lead to the 3D technology changing lives across the country.

Life-changing technology

The technology is only available to a few, however, and treatment for disability in Uganda in general remains woeful.

"There's no support from the government for disabled people," said Kaweesa. "We have a disability department and a minister for disabled people, but they don't do anything."

There are just 12 trained prosthetic technicians for over 250,000 children who have lost limbs, often due to fires or congenital diseases.

The 3D technology is portable and allows technicians to work on multiple patients at a time, increasing the reach of their life-changing intervention.

Plastic 3-D printed prosthetic limbs can

 be made in a day and are a closer,

 more comfortable fit then the previous

 plaster cast models (AFP Photo/Isaac

Kasamani)

"You can travel with your laptop and scanner," said Kaweesa, adding that the technology could be of great use in northern Uganda, a part of the country where many people lost limbs during decades of war between the government and Lord's Resistance Army rebels, who specialised in chopping off limbs.

After receiving his first 3D socket Ayebazibwe was overjoyed. "I felt good, like my normal leg," he said. "I can do anything now -- run and play football."

The boy's 53-year old grandmother, Florence Akoth, looks after him, even carrying him the two kilometres (miles) to school after his leg was crushed and his life shattered. She too is thrilled.

"Now he's liked at school, plays, does work, collects firewood and water," said Akoth, who struggles to make ends meet as a poorly-paid domestic worker caring for five children.

Sitting on a bench outside the CoRSU fitting room were three young children and their parents.

"This is her first time walking on two legs," said Kaweesa, pointing at a timid young girl who lost both her legs in a fire.

"Because they've seen other kids walking, playing, they realise they've been missing that," he said "Once you fit them they start walking and even running."