Society
Of The Divine Word

The Orthopedic Training Center (OTC) was founded in 1961 by a Divine Word missionary from the Netherlands, Brother Tarcisius Chrostophrus de Ruyter. He came to Ghana, specifically Adoagyiri Nsawam, during the polio pandemic and had a desire to help those affected by polio to walk again and lead independent lives. This led him to establish the Orthopaedic Training Center. Adoagyiri Nsawam is located in the Eastern Region of Ghana, 40 km from Accra, the capital of Ghana.

Initially, Brother Tarcisius trained people on the job to assist him in taking care of patients and making prostheses and orthoses for them. Cases treated at the OTC include upper and lower limb prosthetics for amputees, orthotics for patients with spinal problems, waist and knee problems, orthotics for patients with muscle weakness, and shoes for patients with foot deformities and leg length discrepancies. The OTC takes care of approximately six thousand (6,000) patients annually, most of whom are children. Today, the OTC consists of an orthopedic clinic and workshop, a children’s ward, and a prosthetics and orthotics training school. It also has a mobile orthopedic unit that regularly travels around the country to serve patients close to home. On January 15 of this year, the 10th anniversary of Brother Tarcisius’ death, the OTC opened its first branch in Walewale in the northern part of Ghana. The Center noticed that the number of patients from the North had increased and that patients had to travel long distances and pay large sums of money to travel to Nsawam for treatment. The purpose of this new Center is to bring prosthetic and orthotic care to the doorsteps of people in the North and to relieve them of the stress and financial burden of traveling to Nsawam for treatment.

In 2012, Brother Tarcisius saw the need to train technicians in a more professional way than training people on the job. Thus, the Brother Tarcisius Prosthetics and Orthotics Training College (BTPOTC) was established at Adoagyiri Nsawam on the same premises as the OTC on November 1, 2012. This school trains people to obtain a Certificate or Diploma in Prosthetics and Orthotics. Prosthetics means making an artificial part of the body to replace a missing part of the body. In our field we deal more with upper and lower limb prosthetics. Orthotics means making a device to accommodate, compensate, align and correct a deformity on the body.

In the year 2021, the Province of Ghana sent me to study Prosthetics and Orthotics at the Brother Tarcisius Prosthetics and Orthotics Training College. The purpose of my studies was to find myself in the administration of the Center so that the SVD presence would be felt again and I would be able to continue the legacy started by Brother Tarcisius. I completed my studies on August 29, 2023.

Currently, I am working as a prosthetist and orthotist especially in the prosthetic department where I am making transfemoral prosthesis, transtibial prosthesis and through knee prosthesis for amputee patients. Some of the causes of amputation of these patients are diabetes, gangrene, congenital deformities, road traffic accidents and domestic accidents. I am also part of the mobile unit that travels around the country to take care of patients closer to their homes. Besides being a technician in the workshop, I am also the chaplain of the Bro. Tarcisius Prosthetics and Orthotics College and the Orthopedic Training Center. I celebrate Mass for the workers, patients and religious sisters. I also give counseling to patients who need it, and sometimes I participate in a group called “Smiles of Hope,” whose leaders are physically handicapped or amputees who meet patients at the hospital to talk to them and give them hope.

People are used to seeing a pastor most of the time in a parish. My ministry is different. As a Divine Word Missionary working in a wounded world, I can compare my ministry with Jesus in Mark 5:25-34 when He healed the woman with the hemorrhage and I can also compare it with Peter in Acts 3:1-11 when he healed the crippled beggar sitting at the Beautiful Gate. In the first quote, the woman had seen several doctors and did not get well and had lost all hope until she met Jesus who gave her hope and healing. This reminds me of a young man who broke his leg in a sport race. He went to the local bone healers for treatment and the leg later became infected. After a series of trips from one hospital to another, his leg was amputated and all hope was lost. His desire to become an international athlete came to an end and this young man thought he would never be able to walk again. When I met this young man, I gave him hope that he could walk again. I asked him to come to our center where I took a cast of his stump and made him a transfemoral prosthesis. Today, this young man is able to walk again and he is very happy. He has contacted the Paralympic team, which shows that he can fulfill his dream of becoming an international athlete.

In the second quote, the crippled beggar hand had never walked in his life, he thought he would spend the rest of his life sitting at the beautiful gate begging, and when he was healed he never stopped praising God for the good things he had done in his life. This also reminds me of a 10-year-old crippled boy I met two years ago who had never walked before and was abandoned in the house. A parishioner informed me of this boy’s case and I advised her to bring the child to the Center. The contractures the boy had were operated on and both his upper and lower limbs are now straightened. The boy who never walked from birth now walks with the help of calipers and crutches. And the boy and his parents, who were unable to help him early on, continue to praise God for the good things He has done in their lives, just as the beggar at the beautiful gate did after he was healed.

In short, I can say that my work at the Orthopedic Center is not easy, but it is very fulfilling. I say this because I am able to give hope to people who have lost hope and to put a smile on their faces. Second, healing is part of the ministry of the priesthood. Normally priests give healing through preaching, counseling, encouragement, prayer and charity. I can give healing to people in a more practical way, by making people who have never walked, or people who have walked in the past, walk again.

Fr. Eugene Asante, SVD