SLEONE-CONFLICT-AMPUTEES-FOOTBALL

Sheku Turay uses crutches to make his way down the mountain from his home in Freetown on April 12, 2022. - Sheku owns a prosthetic leg but he cant use it on the rough roads and path ways that lead up the mountain to his house. He was just 12 years old when rebels attacked his village in the northern Tonkolili district, during the civil war that left tens of thousands dead from 1991 to 2002. Doctors sacrificed his leg to save him from gangrene. Like many others like him, he has found much-needed support and a new lease of life through his team of footballing amputees. The Single Leg Amputee Sports Association football team was created in 2002, at the end of the war, by Mamoudi Samai, pastor of a church in the region. There are a total of 70 players involved, including a dozen women, all of whom are missing an arm or a leg. (Photo by JOHN WESSELS / AFP) (Photo by JOHN WESSELS/AFP via Getty Images)