Tanda, Côte d'Ivoire
Partnership with 1040i
-
The 1040 Initiative is a nonprofit providing life-changing essentials to impoverished communities in Côte d'Ivoire and Morocco. Their work centers around providing education, health care, and safe drinking water to those who would otherwise go without.
Since 2010, 1040i has impacted more than 38,000 lives in Africa.
-
1040i has hosted over twenty Impact trips since 2010, with twenty-five Ivorians serving as administrative and auxiliary staff in Côte d'Ivoire. They have ensured an ethical and self-sustaining entity so that one day the Ivorians can thrive without any assistance.
-
LevLegacy supports 1040i in partnership with their healthcare team by providing much-needed lower limb prosthetic devices to amputees after amputations with the surgery team.
The Beginning
Founder Paul:
It all started in the beginning of 2016 when my Pastor Chris Truett had gone on a mission trip to Doropo, Ivory Coast in West Africa with 1040i. Realizing the desperate need for prosthetic care in West Africa and seeing that I had done work in El Salvador and Guatemala making artificial limbs, he thought it would be a good idea to inform Mike Cousineau, the director of 1040i (1040 initiative) about this. Mike called me and explained that their non-profit organization believed that through the use of water, health and education that poverty could be removed from individuals. He asked if I would be willing to join him in going all the way to West Africa and make artificial limbs for people. Considering the cost of traveling and amount of time it would take to make the trip, I told him that he had lost his mind but I would think about it, pray about it, and get back to him.
After two long months of consideration, I called Mike back and told him that we could go to “scope” the area and see if it would be possible for us to do a vision trip there (I had no intention of this happening). He asked me not to go if all I was going to do was to evaluate the site. He asked us not to waste time and funds but insisted that we bring the supplies needed to be able to see patients if we are traveling all the way to West Africa. I called Mike Cousineau after much consideration and informed him that we were willing to go to the Ivory Coast with 1040i on their June 2016 trip. During this trip we were able to fit and deliver 16 prosthetic limbs to individuals. We were able to see, fit, and deliver these devices, all from an elementary school classroom floor.
We knew that to continue these trips, we would need to think differently and needed to have a facility on site in which to do our work and see patients. We were able to obtain two shipping containers in 2017. We outfitted them with equipment through donations, etc. and created one container for seeing patients and providing our team with living quarters and the second was outfitted as a workshop for assembly and work to be done on the limbs we would deliver and also for making repairs or adjustments on a patient’s existing equipment. In January of 2018 the containers left North Carolina, USA bound for the Ivory Coast!
Tanda Legacy Clinic
