Joe-Verly Charles is learning how to walk and act like a normal teenager, thanks to the help of some volunteers here in the Quad Cities.

Joe-Verly lost part of her left leg after a wall fell on her during the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Since then, she’s used a prosthetic leg improperly fit for her body.

“On the old prosthesis, her foot was about 2 centimeters longer than her current one, so it was really hard for her to get over the toe of it,” said Ken Horsfall, a Certified Prosthetist for American Prosthetics and Orthotics.

“Her hip was going one way, her foot was kicked out, she was sometimes staggering,” said Judy Foster, Joe-Verly’s translator.

After Shani Marland, a Genesis nurse, met Joe-Verly in Haiti several years ago, she used her resources in the Quad Cities to get Joe-Verly the treatment she needed, and set up a trip to the U.S.

Over the last two weeks, Joe-Verly was cast and fit for a new prosthetic leg, and trained with specialists to learn how to walk on her new prosthesis.

“She has been kicking a ball, we’ve been working on fast gate, she has climbed steep hills,” said Susan Bode, a Physical Therapist at Genesis. “We would like to progress to jogging before she leaves.”

“She was really lazy when she would walk,” Horsfall said. “The prosthetic she had gotten used to had created some bad habits, but with therapy she’s starting to move her arms more and she’s standing more upright.”

Harvest House Haiti paid for Joe-Verly’s trip to the U.S.

The prosthetic leg, casting, therapy time and space was donated by Genesis Health System, American Prosthetics and Orthotics, and ÖSSUR Prosthetics.

“Now her balance is beautiful. She’s a normal kid and very happy about it,” Foster said.

Joe-Verly and Foster will finish her therapy this week and head back to Haiti over the weekend.