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The official website of Paul Franklin: a father, veteran, activist, motivational speaker, and proud Canadian.

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Franklin Fund and the Northern Alberta Amputee Program

Under the support of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Alberta, the Franklin - Northern Alberta Amputee Program (known as NAAP) is a non-profit group established to enhance rehabilitation knowledge and care of people with amputation. NAAP provides a new opportunity for patients and healthcare providers to work together providing community support, education, research and clinical advancement in amputation rehabilitation.  During Master Corporal Paul Franklin recovery and rehabilitation at the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital in Edmonton, Alberta after losing both of his legs to a suicide bomber in Afghanistan, Paul noticed discrepancies between the level of treatment that was available to military patients versus civilians. Dismayed by the difference in care available versus what is possible, he vowed to make positive changes for all amputees in need of care and support.

We started in Northern Alberta and the funding and support of all Canadians led to a name change as the Franklin Fund.  Amputees from across Canada are facing several issues and each one will be addressed over time.  From provinces that offer discrepent funding issues, to high tech prothesis, to peer support issues.  We see that the future of amputee care can be addressed by the Triangle of Care.


triangle
Franklin Fund Triangle of Care
We are already working closely with the Amputee Coalition of Canada (ACC) to institute national level programs for amputee support. Any money raised under the banner of the Franklin Fund or the Northern Alberta Amputee Program has directly affected the lives of amputees in Canada.


Coalition des amputés du Canada
The ACC is an organization that I am very proud of.  The FF has helped fund the ACC and their development of the amputee peer support network.  



Together we have acrredited 232 peer visitors in every province of Canada,  (the programs are offered by certified trainers in either French and English).  It is based on the Amputee Coalition of Americas very successful program and the ACC is the only organization that offers this service.  Hospitals and Rehabiltation facilities know that if an ACC acccredited peer visitor makes the visit the amputee be it someone who just suffered limb loss or someone who has been long in suffering will never be the same.

http://www.amputeecoalitioncanada.org/en/index.php
http://www.amputee-coalition.org/inmotion/oct_07/intro_npn.html


pals
The FF has also helped fund the PALS  (promoting amputee life skills) program that has its roots at John Hopkins University.  The first set of trainers have gone through the program under its creator Dr Stephen Weaener and the next groups will soon be set up in Thunder Bay, Quebec city and Winnipeg.  Our goal of medically certified programs that directly help people with limb loss is and always will be our mandate
http://www.oandp.org/publications/jop/2006/2006-29.asp.
http://www.jhsph.edu/injurycenter/practice/promoting_amputee_life_skills/


IF YOU OR A LOVED ONE HAS RECENTLY HAD AN AMPUTATION OR WILL IN THE FUTURE, IT IS CERTAINLY A TIME OF HIGH STRESS, WORY, FEAR AND CONFUSION.
Two lower-limb amputees sitting and talking"You will certainly have some doubts and questions about your or your loved one’s future – doubts and questions about working, raising a family, maintaining a relationship, caring for yourself or your loved one, and doing basic daily living activities. Other questions may be more technical or focused on immediate concerns:
  • Is the pain terrible?
  • How long will I or my loved one be in the hospital?
  • Will it hurt a lot after the surgery?
  • How does the artificial limb (prosthesis) stay on?
So where do you turn for information, guidance and emotional support to help you through the numerous questions, decisions, choices and alternatives you will face as you enter this new path in life? Who can give you insight into the world you have entered and demonstrate that life goes on and can again become happy, full and productive? In many cases, only another amputee who has experienced a similar situation, had similar questions, and faced similar decisions can really provide the answers you need. That is the power of peer support."
by Becky Bruce, ACA Outreach Information Specialist
http://www.amputee-coalition.org/military-instep/power-peer-support.html


A chinese lion statue
Simon and I walking to school the day after leaving the Glenrose hospital 2006
www.naap.med.ualberta.ca




There are lots more organizations and groups that are not listed here so please forward them to me.
The NAAP/ FF website will be updated as we move forward with working even closer with the Amputee Coalition of Canada.


Amputee Support Links:

Amputee Specific
Amputee Coalition of Canada www.amputeecoalitioncanada.org
Amputee Coalition of America (ACA)
www.amputee-coalition.org
National Amputee Centre
Educational information for amputees and their families about all aspects of amputation.
www.waramps.ca/nac/home.html
Prosthetika
www.prosthetika.com 
Very good instructional videos on how people with different levels of amputation can perform specific tasks. Click on "watch instructional videos"
Hip disarticulation and hemipelvectomy amputation information and support
www.hphdhelp.org
Amputee News
amputeenews.com
Canadian Amputee Resources
www.amputee.ca
Other National Resources
Active Living Alliance for Canadians with a Disability (ALACD)
Promotes, supports, and enables Canadians with disabilities to lead active, healthy lives.
www.ala.ca
Canadian Association for Prosthetics and Orthotics (CAPO)
www.pando.ca
Canadian Paraplegic Association (CPA)
Assists those with physical disabilities to achieve independence, self reliance, and full community participation. 
www.canparaplegic.org
Community Specific Resources
Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital Adult Amputee Program
One of Canada's largest freestanding tertiary rehabilitation hospitals in Edmonton, Alberta providing services to Edmonton and surrounding regions.
www.capitalhealth.ca/adultamputeeprogram
The Steadward Centre for Personal and Physical Achievement
A disability research and fitness centre at the University of Alberta, in Edmonton, Alberta, that provides physical activity and sport programs for people with disabilities
www.steadwardcentre.ualberta.ca
Alberta Amputee Sport and Recreation Association (AASRA)
Supports and provides opportunities for amputees in recreation and sporting activities. 
www.aasra.ab.ca
Canadian Sports and Recreation
Canadian Paralympic Committee "Feel the Rush" program
Check out this informative website, where you can click on the "Get Involved" arrow and enter your location and sporting interest to find the nearest club or association in your area. Also provides information on Paralympic sport, a great venue not just for competition but for families and friends to try challenging sporting activities together with you!
www.feeltherush.ca
Canadian Association for Disabled Skiing (CADS)
A volunteer based organization having the objective of assisting individuals with a disability to participate in skiing and snowboarding. 
www.disabledskiing.ca
Canadian Association for Disabled Skiing - National Capital Division 
The National Capital Division is a member of CADS and oversees programs and services operating in the regions of Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec.
www.cads-ncd.ca
Canadian Amputee Hockey Team
www.canadianamputeehockey.ca
Canadian Amputee Golf Association (C.A.G.A)
www.caga.ca
Canadian Amputee Sports Association 
www.canadianamputeesports.ca
Canadian Paralympic Committee 
A non-profit, charitable, private organization that delivers programs that strengthen the Paralympic Movement in Canada, including sending Canadian teams to the Paralympic Games. The CPC empowers persons with physical disabilities, through sport, at all levels. 
www.paralympic.ca
Paralympics Sports Association 
Provides recreational and sporting opportunities for individuals with a disability across Alberta.
www.parasports.net
Ontario Amputee and Les Autres Sports Association
www.oalasa.org
International Sports and Recreation
International Paralympic Committee
www.paralympic.org
National Sports Center for the Disabled
Positively impact the lives of people with any physical or mental disability through quality adaptive recreation programs in over 20 sports in the United States.
www.nscd.org
Disabled Sport USA
www.dsusa.org
World Amputee Football (Soccer) 
www.worldamputeefootball.com
Online Groups for Information and Support
Consider joining an online group for information and support, such as:
Heather Mills Amputee Forum www.heathermills.eu/forum
Less than Four
The online community for amputees", which has a very informative "how to ride a bike" video for above knee amputees.
How to ride a bike: www.lessthanfour.org/bongoboy/blog/media/video/index.one?a=view_video&vid_id=107641
Other resources
Canadian Forces Personnel Support Agency - Soldier ON
The Soldier On program was created to support those in the Canadian Forces, both serving and retired, and their eligible dependents with a physical or mental disability to fully and actively participate in physical activity, recreation or sport. 
www.cfpsa.com/en/psp/SoldierOn/index.asp
Abilities magazine
www.abilities.ca
Rick Hansen Foundation
www.rickhansen.com
Td Can, To Do, Canada
Provides sports links for the physically disabled in Canada

www.td.ca
Freedoms Wings 
Provides sports links for the physically disabled in Canada

www.freedomswings.ca/fw



Pakistan and 2011 what is the future?


Pakistan has a problem in it has a huge army it can't afford. It is effectively fighting a two front war on top of an  insurrection. It needs to solve its India issues so it can ensure that if it turns its back on Kashmir, India won't push the proverbial buttons. 
The Taliban forces have been effectively forced out of Afghan and as the Afghan army comes up to strength the Taliban will continuously fall back or terrorist type attacks instead of open warfare. They will instead try and create an autonomous region within the north west frontier provinces. (Where bin laden and crew are hiding in open site). 
It is also responsible for counter terrorism, spying on potential Pakistan enemy's and the security of the nuclear and space forces of Pakistan.
The Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (more commonly known as Inter-Services Intelligence or simply by its initials ISI) is Pakistan's premier intelligence agency. It is the largest of the three intelligence agencies of Pakistan, the other being the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Military Intelligence (MI).



The ISI could be easily tied to the Mumbai attacks, possibly 9/11, support of al Qeada, support for the afghan Taliban (Mullah Omar lives openly in Quetta), as well as the American fight against the Taliban and al Qeada. The ISI is also supporting the Pakistan Taliban and the army that is fighting it. The Pakistani Taliban is also attributed to the assassination of Presidental candidate Bhutto.

The Pakistan secret service agencies also have a problem as it has been playing both sides for so long it no longer knows what side is right or wrong. 

As examples:
In 1982 the ISI, CIA and Mossad carried out a covert transfer of Soviet-made weapons and Lebanese weapons captured by the Israelis during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in June 1982 and their subsequent transfer to Pakistan and then into Afghanistan.

(1982–1997) ISI are believed to have access to Osama bin Laden in the past. ISI played a central role in the U.S.-backed guerrilla war to oust the Soviet Army from Afghanistan in the 1980s. That Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)-backed effort flooded Pakistan with weapons and with Afghan, Pakistani and Arab "mujahideen", who were motivated to fight as a united force protecting fellow Muslims in Soviet occupied Afghanistan. The CIA relied on the ISI to train fighters, distribute arms, and channel money. The ISI trained about 83,000 Afghan mujahideen between 1983 and 1997, and dispatched them to Afghanistan. B. Raman of the South Asia Analysis Group, an Indian think-tank, claims that the Central Intelligence Agency through the ISI promoted the smuggling of heroin into Afghanistan in order to turn the Soviet troops into heroin addicts and thus greatly reducing their fighting potential.

In 1994 the Afghan Taliban regime that the ISI supported after 1994 to suppress warlord fighting and in hopes of bringing stability to Afghanistan proved too rigid in its Islamic interpretations and too fond of the Al-Qaeda based on its soil. Despite receiving large sums of aid from Pakistan, the Taliban leader Mullah Omar is reported to have insulted a visiting delegation of Saudi Prince Sultan and an ISI general asking that the Taliban turn over bin Laden to Saudi Arabia.  Following the 9/11 attack on the United States allegedly by Al-Qaeda, Pakistan felt it necessary to cooperate with the US and the Northern Alliance.

 In the 2000s the ISI is suspicious about CIA attempted penetration of Pakistan nuclear asset, and CIA intelligence gathering in the Pakistani law-less tribal areas. Based on these suspicion, it is speculated that ISI is pursuing a counter-intelligence against CIA operations in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

In July 2008, American intelligence agencies said that ISI officers helped plan the 2008 Indian embassy bombing in Kabul. They said that the ISI officers had not been renegades, indicating that their actions might have been authorized by superiors.


In 2010 a new report by the London School of Economics (LSE) claimed to provide the most concrete evidence yet that the ISI is providing funding, training and sanctuary to the Taliban insurgency on a scale much larger than previously thought. The report's author Matt Waldman spoke to nine Taliban field commanders in Afghanistan and concluded that Pakistan's relationship with the insurgents ran far deeper than previously realised. Some of those interviewed suggested that the organization even attended meetings of the Taliban's supreme council, the Quetta Shura.




During the Mumbai attacks of 2008 Ajmal Kasab, (was the only attacker who was captured alive) disclosed that the attackers were members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistan-based militant organisation, considered a terrorist organisation by India, Pakistan, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the United Nations,  among others.  The Indian government said that the attackers came from Pakistan, and their controllers were in Pakistan. On 7 January 2009, Pakistan's Information Minister Sherry Rehman officially accepted Ajmal Kasab's nationality as Pakistani.  On 12 February 2009, Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik asserted that parts of the attack had been planned in Pakistan.
Ref..

So as one can see there is a problem.

The real question is how long can Pakistan government, armed forces and the ISI can continue this game... Strategically.... Financially and morally
Potential future for 2011:

Unable to pay its armed forces it will turn on its master as it has in the past.  The question is can the country of Pakistan hold itself together?

As the only Muslim atomic power the US will be forced to prop up any government or security system (ISI) because the other option is too frightening to contemplate.   As Afghanistan moves from a failed state to a third world democracy the fiscal, the religious and military enemies will move back into Pakistan.

India may move on consolidating Kashmir or an alliance with Afghan and again the Pakistan government and people will feel trapped and lash out.



Will Pakistan become a failed state and can the world afford the consequences?  
A successful, secure Pakistan is in every ones best interests.  
A Central Asia that is capable, economically secure, strategically secure and able to be self determinate will help the world in 2011.