Amputees in Sierra Leone turn to farming to combat discrimination

FREETOWN, SIERRA LEONE —  Lahai Makieu struck the bamboo with a machete until it cracked and fell. Balancing on his crutch, he reached to pick it up. But colleagues pulled the bamboo’s other end, and he tumbled into the dense grass. “They forgot I had one leg,” the 45-year-old said, laughing. The trainer at a center for amputee farmers picked himself up and added: “We fall and we rise.” The phrase encapsulates his journey since the civil war in Sierra Leone. From 1991 to 2002, conflict in the West African country created some 28,000 amputees like him. Amputation by machete

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