I met many courageous landmine survivors during the years I spent with Jesuit Refugee Service in Africa. Many of their faces came back to me as I read Patricia?s plea to take ? again - positive action in the Campaign to Ban Landmines. I have already told this story in Servir, the magazine of JRS, September 2003. But I tell it again, as a message of what should never have happened, and what should not happen again.

Not so long ago Americo Sawandi was living in Jamba, Angola,  and enrolled in first grade -just one more ordinary football-loving boy.

He told us the story. Americo was returning from the fields with his father near the Kwando River, in the direction of Mavinga. His father was walking ahead when Americo deviated some metres from the path, detonating the mine that shat-tered and crushed his left leg. All that he remembers is a very loud noise as he lost consciousness. Americo's fa-ther immediately cleaned the wound with warm salt wa-ter, tied the leg with his trousers and carried his son on his back, looking for a hospital. At first, the father was reluc-tant to cross into Zambia, but the unavailability of medical care in Angola spurred his decision to cross the Kwando River. He crossed the river by canoe and reached Kaunga-mashi, Zambia two days later. Father and son were fortunate to get a lift from the police or the military, and eventually to reach Senanga District Hospital. The doctor immediately performed an amputation above the knee, and saved Americo's life.

Americo was discharged from the hospital on November 16th and now lives in Nangweshi Refugee Camp with his father, but has not seen his mother since the day of the accident. He had to spend one month recovering at the Health Centre.

When his wounds healed, JRS began to accompany him as he learned to walk with the aid of crutches, and prepared him to be fitted with a prosthesis in the future. It seems that Americo has good prospects for a full recovery, thanks to prompt assistance from those who helped him, to the medical care he received, and to his father who rarely left him unattended. Now he has learned to walk with crutches, and has been measured for a prosthesis. He is the youngest beneficiary, alas, of the JRS programme in Nangweshi, where amputees and land mine survivors learn to make and repair prostheses for others in the same condition.

Americo says "the new leg is too heavy". He prefers the crutches because at least he can play and move around quite speedily. When he is among friends, he feels like a 'normal' boy. "My best friend is Celestino, because he helps my father to carry water for me to bathe", he men-tioned with a big smile. He likes Maths and would like to be a teacher or a doctor one day. For the moment, he is an intelligent and resilient youth who seems to be blessed with the coping skills necessary to overcome his disability, full of hope for the future. He inspires everybody around him with the powerful message that a disability, or any problem, for that matter, is not the end of life.

Lolín Menéndez rscj
International Community, Rome