 Hello and welcome to another episode of Stepping Up, where we explore the world of innovation, creativity and advocacy to aspire to greater and new things. I'm your host, Daniel Dubois. Did you know that St Lucia has the capacity to make prosthetic legs? Did you know that St Lucia is the only English-speaking Caribbean island who has the capacity to do so? And did you know? And we all know. St Lucia has sons and daughters of the soil in every corner of the world, well-planted, thriving and flying our St Lucia flag high. Well, this week for LinkUp, we switch it up a bit and chat with one of our nationals overseas, making us proud. This week we feature the National Council for and of persons with disabilities and the amazing work they continue to do. Mofilus James has been the president of the NCPD for almost five years and in this first segment, we have a candid discussion about their work and the national mandate and how the council continues to navigate through these challenging times. Later, we meet one of the technicians who will give me a tour of the lab and share with us his personal story. Let's take a look. Today we are in Carolee at the headquarters for the National Council of and for persons with disabilities and we are going to have this amazing discussion with the president and Mr. James. Everybody knows Mr. James. He is the person who is the face for everyone right now, especially with the NCPD and I just want to welcome him and thank you so much for saying yes to being featured on the show this week. Thank you. Thank you so much for the opportunity. Let us know a little bit more about the council in terms of the history and you know the genesis of it all and you know the rules that you guys play nationally. I came into this organisation about five years ago and what I learnt of the history is one of very rich advocacy. The NCPD was established in 1981. At that time, there was a need in St. Lucia for an umbrella organisation to champion the rights of persons with disabilities. Understanding that disability is so diverse, it is not just one category. We represent persons who are blind, persons on the autism spectrum, persons with various physical disabilities. There was a need for an umbrella organisation to represent all of these disabilities and to speak on their behalf. So the NCPD came about in 1981 and we are here continuing the good fight. Continuing the good fight. Yes. Let us know recently you guys received financial support from procedures from the officers, the Prime Minister's ball. Let us know how you felt about being selected to be able to receive those funds and what plans you guys have in terms of how you are going to use it to continue your mandate. We were very thrilled to be identified as a recipient from the office of the Prime Minister and not just for any amount, for a significant amount of $25,000. In our organisation where our needs are so diverse, where it is difficult to say that this amount is going to go towards helping persons who are physically challenged or persons with intellectual challenges, it requires us to be very creative to know how we spread this amount to impact the most number of persons with disabilities in St. Lucia. So we have already identified that our prosthetic rehabilitation and repair centre, which we establish here, will be one of the areas that we will be expanding our services to make high quality, modern artificial legs even more affordable to St. Lucia. We are going to provide support to farmers with disabilities in sustainable initiatives. We have great respect for agriculture. Over the past years we have recognised that many persons with disabilities, especially those who were isolated in rural communities, who were not encouraged to go out, to be educated. What they had, the resource they had at their disposal was land. So in cases where persons with disabilities have land, agriculture is always an exciting area where they can earn meaningful money. Has that been something that you guys have advocated? Well I guess so, in terms of the opportunity farming and access to the land helps and gives them as an opportunity. So do you have any other examples in terms of persons with disabilities who have had issues with integrating normally into society? How does the NCPD support them and give them avenues for them to be able to work and to make a living? So in the area of agriculture it's very exciting that we have our Farmers with Disabilities Beekeeping Association. This organisation came about, yes and you'll learn it now and it's very excited about this. There are subsidiary of ours. They came from a proposal, a collaboration between the NCPD and the SSDF, where we received funding to empower farmers with the skills required to successfully produce honey and buy products of honey. So they're based in the South, in Balambush and we're very proud of this organisation. And we believe in development, in always taking things further. So though they were first started as a beekeeping organisation and producing honey and buy products of honey, they also went into greenhouse farming, into aquaculture. We reached out to other donors to assist in this. So we believe in the beauty, the power of agriculture to empower our people. But also we know that persons with disabilities over many years, different programs and various proposals were only limited to programs such as handicraft. Having persons with disabilities do arts and craft and things like that, to the point that donor agencies are now shunning such proposals. They'll tell you they don't want to see that, they don't want to see things like handicraft. I guess it's now our time for the perception to change, that is not the only thing. Exactly, because we have persons with disabilities as university lecturers, as doctors, as lawyers, as professionals in all walks of life and we need to highlight this. So our training programs these days are at IT, identifying persons with disabilities who can be trained in and excel in areas such as IT, in mainstream professions and exciting for us here especially at this council. Is it that we have trained gentlemen who use artificial legs to make artificial legs and this is in keeping with our theme of empowering persons with disabilities to serve persons with disabilities. So as you mentioned, let's zone into the lab and the prosthetics lab. I didn't know we had the capacity to do so and then you see it, these are the things you see on television, in the series and you hear about it all the time. So I didn't know that we have that capacity here. So why is it that you like to let Shingdusha know about the lab and you said already that the three of them have met them before the show, they have their own legs but they also engage in making it for other persons. So let us know a little bit more about that. So I have used an artificial leg from the age of four and I always had to travel out of Shingdusha to get it done and even then I had to travel an hours journey to get to the hospital. So I know the struggle and when I became president of this organization, I bought this buyer so this preference of mine to make sure that no young person, no person who is in need of an artificial leg has to go through that struggle, that this is a service we need to offer right here in Shingdusha. So are you saying you were the champion one behind bringing that home? Well I'm saying that here, I have a great team, I have a great board and understanding staff who recognize the need for this. But it was a part of your vision. Well, so this is where my journey brought me. My personal struggle and triumph in this area enabled me to make this a success. So we first submitted a proposal to the Australian government in 2015 and we received a grant of about 14,000 EC dollars to start a very modest workshop where we made basic and we advertise it as basic artificial legs and that was in view for it. What we did recognize is that the minute you begin something and something good, other donors will jump on, other supporters, other corporate sponsors will want to be a part of it and this enabled us to highly upgrade from making basic artificial legs in view for to having this modern prosthetic lab right here at our head office in castries. Nice. How has the government supported your endeavours and where are the areas that they support you and you can also speak to the ways that you think that we could do a little bit better. So over the past years government has provided a subvention to our council. We receive a subvention which allows us to pay our staff to rent our office space but beyond that there is not anything really left for actual programs on the ground to be able to go out and serve our people and meet their needs on the ground. So we have to reach out to donors and corporate sponsors for this but we are very grateful for the government subvention. Also concessions, duty free concessions are available to persons with disabilities if they want to import or purchase a vehicle, power chairs, motorized chairs, mobility aids these are available and persons need to just come through our council and we will write the letters of support and help them greatly in that process. The government recently ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This is an international treaty which identifies and defines the rights of persons with disabilities and it is most significant. It's something our council has been advocating for for many years and recently the St. Lucian government ratified it. And what does that mean for persons with disabilities? So for us it means that legislation can now be drafted and passed which enshrines our rights so there will not be discrimination in the workplace and in addition to that in addition to just anti-discrimination there will be the promotion of the employment for persons with disabilities. So it allows for exciting areas for minimum employment quota legislation that businesses of a certain size will be mandated to ensure that a certain percentage of their workforce is qualified persons with disabilities that in terms of our building codes all buildings must be accessible to wheelchair users to persons with visual impairment. It's just an array of exciting possibilities. Congratulations. Thank you. I'm happy for you guys and I guess that's the beginning and as I was coming to wrap up my final question is ten years from now as president and even if you're not president but you know you still aspire and you have dreams to see your your your your companions and your colleagues. What do you think the National Council of and for persons with disabilities ten years from now what will be the ideal vision in St. Lucian? What do you think would be if they had to say that they did their best that they've achieved it? What is it that you aspire to? So given the diversity of our sector one of the things that I know is on the national level we would want to know that there would have been a St. Lucia Disabilities Act. There would be law in St. Lucia which protects persons with disabilities identifies their rights protects them from discrimination in the workplace and in all facets of society that more buildings more houses more public buildings would be built to standard which would allow for the ease of access. We realize in the Caribbean people don't really build for disability so with houses upon pillars and so many steps home owners don't even factor that should they themselves have a stroke or be on a wheelchair how difficult it would be for them to access their own home so accessibility is very important for us knowing that on the national scene we have boosted our profile it would be very important that in ten years that there are active functioning district councils all over St. Lucia so that at the local level our people are organized they have their functioning district committees where there will be greater communication collaboration and gives us a better feel of the needs of our people we would expect in ten years that we could boast that more persons with disabilities were employed in all sectors in a number of sectors and hopefully that we would even have persons with disabilities as a dominant force in the Parliament of St. Lucia so these are some of our dreams. Anyone and we want this to be a message to all St. Lucia and anyone who's probably seeing this this show right now assuming that you've lost a leg amputee whatever the reason let us know how the National Council of and for persons with disabilities will assist and let them know what the process would be like. So this program of making prosthetic legs available to St. Lucia's it is something that we want our people to fully take advantage of I have a artificial leg which was made right here so I can attest to the high quality of it and the prices that people pay here are the most reasonable in the region. Prosthetic legs out of St. Lucia would cost tens of thousands of EC dollars for a high quality below the prosthetic leg our price is 8500 dollars for an above me it may range from between 12500 to 15000 EC dollars but bear in mind these are the most reasonable prices usually after an amputation is performed the persons need about three to six months of healing time after which we can then assess them and take their measurements and proceed to making the socket for the prosthetic leg it's very important in that we recently received high quality donations from the UK this was made possible with our link for the Rotary Club of Grosily and these high quality donated components allow persons to save thousands of dollars if they go this way with us it would mean all they have to pay is about 4000 EC dollars that we make the socket it is the part of the artificial leg that you must push your residual limb into and this costs 4000 EC dollars there's no way of avoiding this it must be custom made for everyone so with the stock of donated components that we have and we've seen clients who receive these and these components are worth a lot of money tens of thousands of dollars so to pay 4000 EC dollars and to save tens of thousands it is a great deal that we encourage Saint Lucia's to take advantage of we are happy to serve you please contact our council at 4531539 and we will be happy to assist you thank you so much for stepping up thank you so much for the innovation the creativity and the love and the passion and pride as well Mr. James and I'm sure anyone who is probably newly amputated or going through any kind of physical trauma know that the NCPD is here to support absolutely so thank you very much and with that we'll take our first break rinse properly dry with a clean towel if there is no water do the same washing motions with an alcohol-based hand sanitizer containing at least 70 percent alcohol wash your hands wash them right this message brought to you courtesy the Bureau of Health Education of the Ministry of Health and Wellness welcome back I'm sure you got to understand the work of the NCPD and how their role is so important as they support empower and protect the rights of persons with disabilities in our country the next interview we meet Francis Felix and he's a prosthetic limb technician and wears his own prosthetic that he actually made himself right there the story of the lab is so interesting as all the technicians were prosthetics themselves let's take a look at the interview and the tour of the facility welcome back guys and we continue our feature on the National Council of and for persons with disabilities and as we heard in the previous interview we know that Saint-Ducia has been producing and creating their own prosthetic legs and I'm here with Mr. Francis Felix and he is one of the technicians here at the headquarters in Kareli and he's going to tell us a little bit more about what he does and a little bit more about his story thank you so much mr. Felix I'm Francis Felix a limb technician work for NCPD it's five years in some it's nine years since I lost my leg so I wanted to zone in let's talk about you let's talk about your story because you know he's in very high spirits and as he told me that he was never depressed or never really sad when he had this accident nine years ago so tell us a little bit about your story up until now when I lost my leg nine years ago it was some kind of a sad to know that you lost a leg as a young man but eventually I brought a vision within my own self and to the father I say well I'm not the first or neither the last that lost a leg so I continue moving my life eventually by as you know my last man eventually a vision come to my sight and tell me well take this and do that you have a leg and you'll walk did it it was very successful so you did your own thing yeah and nothing allowed but not have not have so what materials did you use I use pool arm the surgical fiberglass from the hospital that they cast your foot when it breaks and it was very comfortable everything the same with it and I keep on moving bogus NCPD from there we get some support from the church of the latter days the natural national trust so they get someone from Indiana to teach me the version of American vision and free other technicians and now we establish with a workshop a car will be here where we do prosthetics both a k and bk a k and bk what does that mean above me and below me okay nice so you're a below me yeah okay so um since we hang out tell me show me how you get prepared typically on a day a normal day in terms of how you you organize your leg well my legs help it's easy for putting on it's quite reliance like I was silicone or just always clean my silicone on the inside right so that you look the silicone is like a buffer for all the pressure that your weight yes it's a very tenderness to avoid any blistering yeah and it's very easy it's like all people who compete is to be like me I have a leg and to be moving about I think it all I think they just have to come carefully and check your family right there and you can fit them properly and you guys make it yourselves ourselves so let us know what the process is like is there anything that I can do to today what can I be part of like I can say well yeah I made my own prosthetic leg you don't have empathy but if you could still have an idea I'll give you a walk a talk to the workshop show you the basics that we do okay so before we do the tour how proud are you to be part of this process how has the council helped you well I'm very proud a thousand percent proud of who I am and what I am and what I've become now and what do you want Saint Lucians to know about the council and persons who use prosthetics well I would like Saint Lucians to take that opportunity we do prosthetics here instead of going foreign and haven't led to done for them we get it we don't need a much easier cheaper more reliance and the most important part of it we that do the prosthetics we are amputees also we wear prosthetic legs that motivated the people a lot when they come and see we have prosthetics and we do not like for them our mobility we feel in our mobile work with everything freely so I would like everybody to have that same vibes within themselves and like you said in the beginning that some people who who've lost one leg and you see them crying and they want to die don't don't do that yourself you haven't finished life love just begun it's another page just please the father and ask for strength and then I would like everybody to be happy like me you look very happy I need to take a picture of your book so you're ready to show me around the lab yes there part one of the prosthetics plaster of Paris plaster of Paris the one that you do the cast you soak it in water and we take your impression which is your size of your leg so when I wrap it from the leg it will come out exactly like the moon I filled it with powder of Paris plaster of Paris so which mean the first one will be like this that's the measurement and then you cover it I full it okay with the powder come out like this come out like this now from this when I do this a mold then I'll take a plastic from the oven and I burn it and put it over here to create a check socket and that's just one type of yeah one this plastic here see how thick it is place it in the oven with a hole this have a hole so we place it on top of it in the oven from the oven we'll take it and place it over there over the mold we'll dab it in then we'll have we'll get this out of it so we'll cut it off so we'll get rid of that we use this as a check socket so we'll check it on the person for final correction any mistake that we have in here we'll correct it in here before we do the laminating so this is called a check socket when we done this check socket we have to fold it back again when it's complete to get a mold again so we cut it and then we'll go to the laminating room to laminate it to do the carbon fiber so this is the compressor this is our vacuum air to vacuum all oxygen that will be in the mold to avoid no lump this is our oven where we do our baking of the plastic move over to the next room here we have the rock man we do our grinding of the carbon fiber this is the vacuum for the molding of the laminating that same mold out here we place it here that's where we done all the final product of the carbon fiber we use nightglass flexor stretch we have the carbon braids this is the carbon braid so we'll set all these things on here then we mix our reasons pour to laminate the vacuum will vacuum all oxygen will be inside to keep it safe and song and let it dry for at least a day and then you love this out of it a check socket carbon fiber that is the final part of it here then here then we'll leave and we'll go back to the molding table set our pylons our feet then I would ask solution take advantage of it of this project here a whole complete ec leg above me if I any which one is that when you walk you could have your feelings stepping and we are probably good for this one is an ak and this one is a bk so right now I with a bk standing next one ak then this one for brandy so is it anyway also in the region who's currently making prosthetic legs no apart from the French speaking matinee country which we're trying to reach out the whole Caribbean to assist them to do prosthetic legs for them and have people mobile and happy again well guys you saw it for yourself St. Lucia continues to step up and do amazing things who would have known that we would have been able to make our own prosthetic legs and support those persons who have become disabled because of accidents or any kind of natural condition or disease so thank you so much guys and I learned so much about it here today and I'll take you back to the studio thank you meeting the team at the National Council of and for persons with disabilities for me is what I like to call a rich life experience jumping into the shoes of someone else understanding and gaining an appreciation for their daily lived experiences I'm sure St. Lucia's will join me at saying great job guys and thank you so much for allowing us to share your work and stories with the world now it's time for link up Esther Lee Leach is a fashion and lifestyle editor from St. Lucia who has now settled in Cherry Creek after living in San Francisco New York and London she holds a master of arts degree in fashion journalism from the London College of Fashion and has experienced as a journalist fashion editor television host film and television producer formerly the senior fashion editor of she Caribbean magazine Esther worked as a writer and stylist for publications covering fashion beauty lifestyle and entertainment in the Caribbean and the UK this segment we have a very exciting person to interview and for the first time removing away from government removing away from formalities and you know all of our governmental persons representing and we finally touching base with our diaspora who are doing amazing things stepping up throughout the COVID and just living their best life so without further ado Esther Lee Leach good day and how are you I'm great how are you thanks much for having me on you know when you sent me your bio I think I had to take about two days to like really internalize and taking everything that you've done already so let's just take it from the top it's vibe central to Cherry Creek fashion and of course you're based in Denver Colorado and let's just talk about the beginning when you and your sister were ambitious and you all started vibe central and talk about the journey to Cherry Creek fashion today so Davina and I my oldest sister we always wanted to be Oprah we were obsessed with her when we were teenagers and we just went out on TV show and we were always planning writing in our notebooks and one day we just decided why don't we create a teen show so we plan and we plan we looked for advertisers we look for content and like I think a two years later the show was on the air so we started a vibe central and then we went on to access Caribbean which was like a travel and tourism show which was a lot of fun to film because you kind of make up where you want to go and make up what you want to do and then you make it happen so I was doing that and at the time I was also the fashion editor for she Caribbean magazine me and Rick Wayne I had a great experience there learning all about photo shoots being on set traveling to fashion weeks and that was amazing so I always makes like the fashion and the TV so after working with she Caribbean for a while I wanted to do more and I wanted to learn more so I decided to go to London to one of the best colleges in the world calling University of the Arts London London College of Fashion study fashion journalism and I was very ambitious I didn't bother applying for a bachelor's degree I applied for the masters program exactly I'm like why not I've been doing this for years I know a lot about the industry already and then I got in I had my my portfolio and I got to the masters program and it was a fantastic experience learning in London it really encourages you to be creative and to think outside the box and I really appreciated and just use my life's solution this in my Caribbean nest to create work in London so I did that for a while and then I met my British husband in London and then I think a year later we moved to New York supposedly for three months for his work but then that turned into two years and then we never left the US so we went from New York to San Francisco and then we decided to move to Denver now we call Denver home for the last five years so when we got to Denver I took a couple of years off and I had my little son Hunter who's now four and after two years I said that's enough I need to get back to work because I love working and I love producing and creating content so I looked around the market and I decided that it was there was lacking like a magazine covering fashion especially in this area so the area where I live Cherry Creek it's called like the Beverly Hills of the Midwest it's very fashionable there are loads of stores designer stores restaurants here it's all walkable so I thought this would be a great place to base the magazine and then I can grow it out to different parts of Denver so in January 2019 I started my magazine Cherry Creek fashion magazine and it's a fully digital magazine I really wanted to be able to make the content dynamic at video interviews in and just keep it fresh and modern and moving so you can find everything at cherrycreekfashion.com and that's what I've been doing for the last year and a half and anyone can subscribe and get to enjoy the content on the magazine once you email and subscribe or you can just go on cherrycreekfashion.com and read it like the first of every month we have a new issue coming out every month nice on your Forbes feature you know Forbes magazine yes congratulations on that too doing amazing things one of the quotes were community and content are king so what do you mean by that community and content are king so that's Expanded. I learned from St. Lucia that you really have to go into your community find out what's going on find people to help you because you know when you know people you can pick up the phone and say I'm doing this what do you think I'm doing this what do you think and here I've kind of used the St. Lucia way to build my business I really hit the ground running when I started I met lots of people for coffees so walking on the street now you know I stopped every every other block talking to a friend a acquaintance a colleague because I really went out into the community and met everybody and for content it's just creating something valuable and something of good quality that people want to read you know a lot there's a lot of like fast content now but people are still looking for quality content. Authenticity and original stories and you know as you said another part of it too was that you wanted to capture the small business community and to find that niche not what everybody was capturing and in one of your podcasts you mentioned that we're so tired we're overrun with information about Corona and was it difficult for you having to decide that well you know what we're not going to focus on the Corona we're going to continue focusing my head you know how was that and how has COVID you know adding to that question how has COVID changed your programming? Yes it was kind of easy for me to decide because I kind of go on okay what am I feeling what do I want to read now and there was just so much information out there about COVID-19 that I wanted some fantasy again I wanted to open my fashion magazines and see some fashion have an escape from what's going on which is what fashion magazines are about so I thought you know what I'm just going to continue with my scheduled programming and just continue putting the issues out there and giving people an escape and something pleasant to read and interesting stories to read to keep them entertained at home during this time and for COVID like we had we were shooting last year this time but I just continue trying to produce the content that I could. Yeah just stay true to your branding and try not to to move off anything like that. How do you bring St. Lucia? How do you bring your St. Lucia-ness your uniqueness to everything that you do and in doing some more research and you just launched Lee Productions or is it Cherry Creek Productions and all the little things that you continue to do. How has St. Lucia given you that foundation to be doing everything that you're doing today and how do you continue to blend St. Lucia and bring it into everything that you do today? Well my success now is because of St. Lucia because I've grown up there like I learned very early on to do a lot myself so when we did our TV show I took on multiple roles and that was a good trading ground so now I can set up the lights I can run the video I can take the photos because I learned that in St. Lucia and also it's all about an attitude. St. Lucia's can go anywhere in the world and achieve anything that's about attitude like we're so used to talking to anybody anywhere on the street corners to use that St. Lucia-ness and attitude here to talk to anybody and people seem to like that approach and they always say that you're so warm and welcoming and it's because of my upbringing in St. Lucia it's it has been invaluable to my success here. And that aspect of you know we're all people and we all have stories and it's okay to reach out and say hi you're okay and you know it's not the same in the United States where you know they always talk about you know you don't you can't go and just ask your neighbor for sugar and you know we have that communal spirit so I guess as you say you've been able to bring it to all aspects of your work. As we wrap up you spoke about a lot in your in your podcast the importance of the intrinsic motivation and the importance of wanting it to get done. Can you just share your message and let anyone who's probably watching this know how they can continue to work and aspire to what they want to do and you mentioned that formation was your your song right now and it's your mantra right now and that has so much to do especially now. Now more than ever the mental capacity the emotional grip that you need to have and you know we could start off in small spaces but you know we individually have that responsibility to want more and to always want to aspire for more so if we could just speak to that and share share with us. I think one thing we have to realize that we're all so unique and we have we all have a story and we all have something to put out there and if not you then who is going to bring your story forth your ideas forth your content to the world so you really have to realize that you have to get up and do something if it means sending an email to somebody if it means learning a new skill if it means picking up the phone it's kind of all up to you to start the ball rolling and once you start it you realize that other people sort of you know come to you and help you along the way but if you don't do the initial push with your ideas with your new business with whatever you want to do nobody's going to know about it or even know that you need help with it do you know what I mean so you have to kind of push yourself and know okay well it's my job to do it this is my idea and I'm gonna put it forth into the world and yeah Beyonce's Beyonce and Rihanna my ultimate queens to get motivation for I'm always editing in my office blasting them music because you know as Beyonce says just work hard and you grind until you own it until you achieve what you want to achieve and visualize it and move for it and go for it well Astley Leach thank you so much for joining us on link up for this segment of stepping up I'm so happy and I just want to wish you fortune and favors and goodwill and in everything that you do and I know it's not it's just the beginning and you're now on that customer to anything greater greater get greater things so just have my bi-luckiness know how we can reach out to you and any messages you have for your family back home oh hi mommy I just said I miss your booyah and your pigtail so people can just reach me at cherrycreekfashion.com my email is there or you can follow to Instagram at Cherry Creek Fashion or Astley Leach but hi St. Lucia I cannot wait to come back sometime this year hopefully well we St. Lucia we're here waiting for you welcoming you with our warm beaches and our warm weather and by the grace of God that'll be very soon thank you so much thank you so much Esther enjoy the rest of the day and you be safe this week marks our 11th episode and we have covered so many amazing stories this show for me will forever be etched in my mind as an eye-opener and a humbling experience meeting persons striving and stepping up despite the odds and challenges we want to take this time to extend an invitation to anyone in your community or the diaspora who are doing things which are noteworthy positive and commendable shoot me an email at steppingup758 at gmail.com thanks for tuning in and see you next time and until then keep stepping up