Origin of the Meththa Foundations
Realising the need to provide a quality rehabilitation service for the Sri Lankan disabled population, the Meththa Foundation-UK (MF-UK) started in 1994 as a small but closely knit association of expatriate professional Sri Lankans in the UK. Two of these professionals were fully British qualified and accredited medical practitioners in Rehabilitation Medicine, employed by the NHS-UK.
MF-UK gained Charity Status in the UK in 2010 (Charity Number 1135141).
Utilising the available resources optimally in 1994, MF started an ad hoc mobile service, first for Sri Lankan soldiers and later, for war injured people in Batticaloa District. A more formal service named Meththa Rehabilitation Foundation Guarantee Limited (MRFGL) bearing registration number GL2162 was established as a non-profit company in Sri Lanka in 2013. Today, the MRFGL is a premier voluntary prosthetics and orthotics service in the Island.
The work of MRFGL is pioneering and innovative. In 1994, the founders of the parent Meththa Foundation-UK found an opportunity to obtain large quantities of high quality, modular prosthetic and other rehabilitation equipment from the NHS-UK at no cost. Realising the immense potential to serve disadvantaged Sri Lankan people, adopting the principle ‘Waste Not-Want Not’, they began recycling those components in Sri Lanka under strict safety protocols.
Pictures opposite show the earliest mobile clinics and the equipment collected and used.
Pictures below, which speak for themselves, illustrate how we started our services in 1995 with minimal resources.
Pictured in this section are our first visits as a Mobile Team to the Brigade Headquarters at Kuruvita in 1995 and to Batticaloa in 2005. In between those two, we did similar mobile clinics at Senapura (Gajaba), Boyagane (Vijayaba), Panagoda (SLLI) and Ambepussa (Sinha) regiments. Altogether we provided more than 700 modern prostheses for the soldiers and 120 prostheses for the civilians in Batticaloa
Pictures in this section illustrate our contributions to community from 2005 up to 2015 using a mobile service based at a temporary workshop at Mannar GH.
Subsequent progress
The Civil Conflict which lasted nearly 30 years led to to about 5000 amputees in the war torn area alone. Altogether there are possibly 20,000 amputee people in Sri Lanka. At present, approximately 800 amputations are done annually at the National Hospital alone. Now, in peace time the main reasons for amputations are Diabetes, Injuries, which are predominantly from road accidents and spreading infections. Unfortunately, a satisfactory prosthetic rehabilitation services is not active through the National Heath Service in Sri Lanka. Private purchase is beyond the means of the average amputees who become dysfunctional individuals, being unable to develop their full potential without prostheses.
To overcome this deficiency in the best possible manner, the MRFGL adopted the concept of a Hub and Spoke model. The hub was located at the GH Mannar and using a coach that was donated by a Dutch Charity, to transport staff and essenial equipment, MRFGL conducted regular mobile clinics at designated locations, serving a large number of amputee people who were otherwise neglected. Pictures in the slider on the left side show some of those clinics.
Present status
Our services have evolved gradually to fill this void in rehabilitation services in many districts. They include provision of artificial limbs, assistive devices including orthotic appliances and posture mobility devices to children and adults with neurological disabilities and muscular dystrophies as well as specialised diabetic footwear and customised insoles.
Our main Centre is located at Mahawa. It has a busy clinical department which deals with more than 1200 disabled people every year. Our manufacturing base which undertakes R&D activities and fabrication of components is also located there. The other three centres are fully functional as clinics and workshops which serve independently within the Meththa unbrella. They receive supplies from Mahawa.
MRFGL operates an open access policy accepting individuals who drop in on their own randomly as well as scheduled referrals from major Government Hospitals in North Western and adjoining Provinces. Few people also attend from distant places such as Moneragala. However, people from extreme South and North can now access our services at Balapitiya, Mankulam and Kilinochchi using the Hub and Spoke service which helps these rural disadvantaged people to receive our services more conveniently. There is a considerable demand for this service.
Slider opposite shows our main facility at Mahawa
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Pictures below show the present state at our four service centres at Mahawa, Mankulam, Balapitiya and Kilinochchi.. For further information, please see under the Tab, “Clinical Facilities” in the main menu.
The future
We aim to provide as holistic a service as appropriate for the needy, free of charge if they cannot afford even the highly subsidised costs. Those who can afford are encouraged to contribute towards the cost of production.
We work in partnership with the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Social Services, the Lebara Foundation, Oblates of Mary Immaculate in Jaffna and Manithaneyan Trust in the Vanni. We are supported by several international donor agencies such as the Rotary Foundation and the Porticus Organisation. Like minded volunteer organisations and individuals are welcome to join us..
We employ 30 people in our organisation in Sri Lanka which include 24 clinical and technical staff and six administrative staff managed by our CEO who is on site at Mahawa. Annually, we assess nearly 2000 people and provide around 350 new artificial limbs, undertake around 800 repairs, provide 350 posture and mobility devices and 200 orthotic devices including customised footwear. Our annual budget exceeds SLR 20 million with a further GBP20,000 collected as donations and spent in the UK for purchase of specialised equipment, materials and for shipping items to Sri Lanka.
Retention of degree qualified staff is a prob;em for us because our training enable them to seek better paid posts abroad. Therefore, we train our staff through a hands on apprentice programme, This and our R&D programme will give us the stability we need in the future.
Measuring success
We take great pride in our services and monitor Key Performance Indices and the quality of our Human Resources constantly. This includes a weekly clinical audit, regular surveys of outcomes including limb use and user satisfaction. Our finances are audited by an In House as well as an external auditos. Regular reports are submitted to all relevant Government Agencies as is required by law.
For further information please contach us using the “About Us Us/Contact” Tab