Hong Kong charity Stand TALL has provided free prosthetic therapy for Zhou Yuye and other Wenchuan earthquake survivors for 10 years. They intend to provide a bionic arm for Zhou this year. (Nora Zheng/China Daily)
Shadow of disaster
"Ten years have passed. Many people seem to have forgotten the earthquake," said Zhou, who is now a Grade-2 student at a high school in Dujiangyan, Sichuan province. Many students there did not experience the full strength of the earthquake.
"Students made fun of my cosmetic arm behind my back. That made me feel hurt and inferior," Zhou said.
Her prostheticist Ho Kam-wa, from Hong Kong charity Stand TALL, showed great concern for her. Ho, who has known Zhou since October 2008, created a cosmetic prosthetic arm for her free of charge. Ho checked Zhou's condition once a month at the beginning, then every two months, now every three months.
"Ho always talks to me in a gentle way. He has taken good care of me for 10 years," Zhou said.
Knowing Zhou pays attention to her appearance and cares about how others see her, Ho said a bionic arm will make her life easier and won't attract attention from curious strangers."She will soon start university and enter society," Ho said. "The cosmetic arm cannot meet her needs any longer."
Ho recently asked a prosthetics maker, Alex Xie Yi from Ossur, to make a bionic arm for Zhou, with realistic translucent skin very close in appearance to a natural arm.
