My name is Mayerlinth Reyes. I suffer an accident when I was 15 years old. I was just standing in front of my house when a car lost control and run over me. Because of that, I lost both of my legs. Being in a wheelchair, for me, was very sad.

Because, here in Santo Domingo, they don't take people with wheelchairs into account. Even getting access to the street is difficult because there are no ramps. Buses will not stop for me because they have to carry my chair. In most places I can't go into a bathroom, because the doors are too narrow.

All this will make me feel bad, and would get depressed a lot. Sometimes I didn't even want to go out of my house. One day I went to the hospital and they told me about Orthopedic Innovation.

I went to Orthopedic Innovation, and in that moment my life changed from night to day.

Here at Orthopedic Innovation, we create artificial limbs for people who need prosthetics. It's a wonderful thing that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has supported this program.

It's a church that thinks of others no matter if they are members or not. After they took my measurements for the prosthetics, I was so anxious to have them. I wanted to see myself standing again, and know how it felt after so long. I was so excited to reactivate my life, like the way it used to be.

The day that I went to get the prosthetics, I was so happy. When I saw them, they looked perfect to me. All I wanted to do was put them on and go walking. I wanted to show everyone so they could see me standing.

Since then, I've never wanted to take them off. The entire purpose of our service here in the Dominican Republic is to help people help themselves, and we do that through our partner organizations. The church has provided resources for Innovacion Ortopedica to make prosthesis for people that have lost limbs here in the Dominican Republic. Now that I have the prosthetics, I feel great because I can lead a practically normal life. I can go into places where I couldn't go with my wheelchair. I can take my children to school, clean and wash my clothes, and do everything that a homemaker can do.

I feel that I can do anything.