Romel and Nick (right) presenting academic books

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Romel has been a regular visitor and a good friend of BTPOTC. This year, he and Nick visited the college as education consults and they brought four thousand US dollars’ worth of academic books to donate to the Bro. Tarcisius Prosthetics and Orthotics Training College (BTPOTC). BTPOTC was established in 2013 to train P&O technologists.  They will be the beacons of hope that will reignite the flames of Prosthetic and Orthotic technology in Ghana. A dream of the founder of OTC and the first P&O training college in sub-Saharan Africa. For this reason, the college has attracted students, professionals and lecturers from all over the world. Some pass through, others return and for the rest a memory they will forever  cherished. Amongst these people is Mr Romel Mackelprang, a friend of BTPOTC.

His first visit to Ghana was for a research on wheelchair usage. Through this research, he stumbled on OTC.  Since then, he  have always been visiting the centre. When the college started, he has been visiting with some of the Semester at Sea students every year Semester at Sea is a study abroad program which is run on a cruise ship, and managed and sponsored by Virginia University.

This year, Romel returned but not with his students, he came with Nick, his colleague lecturer at Eastern Washington University. They came as voluntary education consultants to the college. They both have over 30 years experience in the field of education. Romel and Nick were here to assist the college to structure their e-learning programs; and also help with their transition from manual to digital lectures through the use of lecture recording software, videos, VHS, Skype et c.

Hopefully P&O technicians that have no educational backgrounds but are proficient will be have the opportunity to have  credential for their skills and experience.  Romel and Nick worked with the lecturers and students all week. They will return to finish up what they started. It was exciting to have them around. We hope more people like Romel and Nick will join hands with OTC in redefining prosthetics and Orthotics in Ghana through the college.