Give someone a hand.
The LN4 is a simple prosthetic hand, given free to anyone who has lost a hand. Our club and District 5320 have built them, carried them and fitted them, from Cambodia to Ukraine.
A hand gives back a life.
Losing a hand to a landmine, a bomb or an accident takes away far more than a limb. It takes away the ability to work, to cook, to eat without help, to hold a child, to write your own name. In many places a commercial prosthetic costs more than a family earns in a year, and many are only cosmetic.
With an LN4, a person can pinch and grip again: a spoon, a toothbrush, a pen, a cup, a tool. People fitted with LN4 hands have gone back to farming, riding motorbikes, typing and playing sports. That is dignity, a living and independence, all strapped on in an afternoon.
In Positive Peace terms, a hand builds High Levels of Human Capital and a Sound Business Environment, one family at a time. It is peace you can hold.
“We're trying to sell peace, like a product.”John Lennon, 1969. An LN4 hand is peace people can actually hold.
Named for Ellen.
American industrial designer Ernie Meadows created the LN4 in memory of his daughter Ellen, who died in a car accident at 18. “LN” is her name. He first designed it for young landmine victims, and it has since helped people who lost hands in every way imaginable.
The hand has no motors and no batteries. It straps onto the arm below the elbow and fits either side. Volunteers called LN4 Ambassadors, many of them Rotarians, fit the hands in clinics, schools and camps around the world.
Built in Newport Beach. Carried by hand.
On a Rotary peace mission, Steve Bender and our team run a free clinic in Kampong Cham, where hundreds of people line up under the tents. We fit LN4 hands for landmine survivors, alongside dental care and fluoride treatments for children at a landmine school in Siem Reap.
At a Rotary District 5320 Conference in Newport Beach, our club leads Rotarians from across the district in assembling LN4 hands. Every hand built that day is ready for someone waiting for one.
During the war, Steve hand carries LN4 hands into Ukraine, and teaches local volunteers how to fit patients with their new hands so the work continues after he leaves.
Steve and Shab El Awar begin planning an LN4 workshop so more Ukrainians who lost hands in the war can go home with one.
A thank-you card to Rotary.
Every fitting ends the same way. Once the hand is strapped on and adjusted, the new owner picks up a pen and writes a thank-you card to Rotary. It tests the grip, the fit and the control, and it is often the first time in years that person has written anything at all.
Lend a hand.
Become an LN4 Ambassador
Learn to fit hands and join the volunteer network that carries them to 100 countries.
Join the networkBuild hands with your club
Hold a hand assembly at your club, district conference or company, the way District 5320 did.
Become a partnerHelp Ukraine
Support our planned LN4 workshop for Ukrainians and the rebuilding work around it.
Our work for Ukraine