The Rotary Club of St. Joseph Benton Harbor is offering a unique glimpse into another culture and an opportunity to help persons in the Dominican Republic who have lost arms and legs rebuild their lives with prosthetic limbs.
On Monday, October 16, at the noon meeting at the Lynn & Freeborn Kellogg Campus for Creative Aging at 2920 Lakeview Ave, St. Joseph, the club will be hosting Graviel Nuel Jacobo, Founder and Director of Operations for the Centro de Protesis & Terapia Fisica. The Centro de Protesis provides prosthetic limbs for those in need in the Dominican Republic.
Building Lives USA Tour
With help from Rotary clubs across the country, Graviel is undertaking the Building Lives USA Tour 2023, traveling across the country to raise funds for the work of the Centro de Protesis.
Graviel said, “In the Dominican Republic there are great numbers of people who have lost limbs from accidents or birth defects that have gone untreated because of the lack of facilities, expertise and money to treat them. They struggle and have little chance of advancement in life.”
Over 12% of the Dominican Republic population has a disability. The lack of health care and advanced facilities means that often limbs are amputated to save a life. Many Dominicans and Haitian immigrants work in fields, with little safety regulation and a high incidence of farm accidents resulting in amputations.
About Graviel Nuel Jacobo
At six years old, Graviel Nuel was looking for food for his family when an accident caused him to fall onto a train track where his right leg was cut off at the hip. Graviel lived with crutches until his teen years when he began work at a mission hospital and learned about prosthetics. The Christian organization raised funds for Graviel to fly to the United States to receive his first prosthetic leg. It changed his life.
Rotary reaches into communities to share its mission of “Service Above Self” by creating Interact clubs of high school age students, and Rotaract clubs of college age students and young professionals.
The Rotary Club of St. Joseph-Benton Harbor is active in Rotary International efforts to eradicate polio from the world and a current project building rain water harvesting stations to assure access to clean water in Uganda, as well as supporting the Centro de Protesis. Joining other clubs across the country to support Graviel’s call for assistance is an opportunity allowing collective impact to change lives. Rotary clubs throughout southwest Michigan are active internationally.
Graviel Nuel & Rotary
Graviel become a Rotaract Rotarian and saw a vision of service for himself in the Dominican
Republic. He founded the non-profit Centro de Protesis to provide arms and legs and counseling at no cost to hundreds of people waiting and hoping for prosthetic limbs. His work is providing hope and changing lives every day.
In 2021, Interact Rotraians from southwest Michigan High Schools visited Centro de Protesis to lend their support and learn about the work being done. Many Rotary clubs have stepped up to join the effort. The Rotary Club of Portland, Maine established a charitable fund to allow tax deductible contributions for the work of Centro de Protesis.
Graviel Nuel Jacobo’s October 16 presentation will kick off a month-long local campaign to raise funds to support the Centro de Protesis. The GoFundMe effort associated with Graviel’s visit to St. Joseph links to the Portland Club to assure tax deductibility. Prosthetic limbs in the Dominican Republic average $600 apiece. Donations of all levels are welcome and will go to the purchase of needed limbs. To donate, please visit www.centrodeprotesis.org.
