"Healing Broken Bones to Save Broken Families"
In support of SIGN, the Pacific Northwest District Kiwanis are working to fund at no cost to the recipients, by 2008, 100 SIGN Surgery Projects in developing countries where modern surgical implant technology is not affordable by most citizens. Each SIGN Surgery Project will heal 100 or more persons per year into the indefinite future.

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Understanding the Problem

Bruce D Browner, MD, Professor & Chairman of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, of the University of Connecticut Health Center wrote the following:

“Annually, 800,000 people die and 10-15 million are injured or permanently disabled from accidents on the world’s roads. Under- reporting of injuries is common in the developing world and these estimates may represent only half the true number.

“Seventy five percent of the fatalities and injuries occur in the developing world and the problem is growing. A five year study, published in 1996, entitled "The Global Burden of Diseases and Injury" by researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health and the World Health Organization examined the relative significance in terms of death and disability of the major health conditions and projected changes between 1990 and 2020.

“A startling finding of this report was the prediction that road traffic accidents would move from ninth place to third place on the list as a cause of worldwide death and disability. In this position, it would be exceeded only by heart disease and unipolar major depression. By comparison, War will rank eighth and HIV tenth. In its 1998 annual report, The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) recognized road traffic accidents as a major global health problem, equal in magnitude and seriousness to wars and natural disasters. They recommend that this global epidemic requires urgent attention.

“The World Bank estimates that the annual cost of traffic accidents in the developing countries is 100 billion US dollars. As the combination of all forms of foreign loans and aid totals 60 billion US dollars, it is clear that road traffic accidents are seriously undermining economic and social development in these countries. The trauma victims are often young males who are the workers and wage earners in their families. When they are killed or disabled, there is a profound effect on their entire family. In some countries, unfavorable customs and laws do not provide for the widows of those killed and the accident leads also to the break- up of the family.”