Walking Unidos
by Elizabeth Fine
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Hot coffee, delicious meals, a cozy atmosphere, and computers go together in the newly opened Ben Linder Cyber-Café,
where Walking Unidos, the Polus Center and WiRED are providing a means to support aid to the disabled, while they
provide the people of Leon, Nicaragua with high speed Internet access, as well as good food.
Providing free prosthetics to land-mine victims and those with other mobility disabilities is a challenge for Walking Unidos,
a local non-profit organization established in Leon, Nicaragua, by the Polus Center.
In 1999, its first year of operation,
Walking Unidos provided 100 artificial limbs, and repaired 88 prosthetic devices, at little or no charge to the recipients.
The clinic employs eight full-time staff members, including several amputees who received prosthetic limbs through Walking
Unidos. In order to become economically self-sustaining, Walking Unidos recently teamed with WiRED to open the Ben Linder
Cybercafe in Leon, Nicaragua.
The cybercafe is named for Ben Linder, an American engineer and social activist who was murdered by Contras in 1987 during
the Sandanista Revolution, while attempting to build a hydroelectric dam near Matagalpa.
http://www.hallamericanhistory.com/americas/1241.shtml
http://as1.ipfw.edu/weller/mulukukuchp2.html
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