HELP HANDICAPPED INTERNATIONAL
5th Floor, Vasant Vilas. 31 Dr.
D.D. Sathye Marg, Mumbai - 400 004.
Tel : 91 - 22 - 23898930 / 23821901 Fax : 91 - 22 - 23821969
Email : promain@vsnl.net / mgmehta@rediffmail.com
(A REGISTERED CHARITY)
INTERIM REPORT OF THE JAIPUR FOOT CAMP CURRENTLY ON AT THE ORTHOPAEDIC CENTER INSIDE WAZIR AKBAR KHAN HOSPITAL KABUL AFGHANISTAN Help Handicapped International (HHI)
HHI, a registered charity, organizes camps in various parts of the world for the free fitment of Jaipur foot, an Indian prostheses. Such camps have been held in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Kenya, Sudan, Burundi, Columbia, Honduras etc. Subsequently permanent centers have also been set up at Nairobi (Kenya), Bujumbura (Burundi) and
Khartoum(Sudan) in addition to the one in Mumbai (India).
A team from HHI had gone to Afghanistan to explore the possibility of organizing such a camp for the thousands of landmine amputees in that country.
The Hon. Minister of Public Health, Afghanistan, graciously offered the complete orthopaedic center of her Ministry in Kabul and invited HHI to organize a Jaipur Foot camp. An MOU was signed and a proposed 30 days camp commenced at Kabul from the 20th of September 2003.
Technicians, machinery and raw materials were flown into Kabul from India and the camp began on Saturday 20th September 2003, as per schedule.
Patients were mobilized with the help of:
(i)Banners hung at strategic places in Kabul especially on the entrances into Kabul from the provinces.
(ii)Pamphlets were stuck at various locations within the city, on many cabs and buses in Kabul as well as distributed through youngsters who normally sell newspapers at traffic junctions in Kabul.
(iii)Announcements were made on the local radio and television.
(iv)After the commencement of the camp journalists from the local press, representatives of the FM radio channel and a team from Kabul Television were also invited and this multi-media coverage helped to mobilize patients.
Till date nearly 300 limbs have already been fitted at the camp and the modest target of 500 limbs proposed till the completion of the camp would be easily surpassed. Raw material provisions have been made to extend the camp if required at least till the end of October 2003 when the holy Muslim month of Ramzan begins.
This is HHI's first Jaipur foot camp in Kabul and plans are underway to hold such camps in the Afghanistan provinces of
Kandahar, Jalalabad, Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif. The possibility of setting up a mobile Jaipur foot center in a bus/commercial vehicle is also being explored which could fit the prostheses even in the remote areas of Afghanistan.
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PHOTOGRAPHS
OF FREE JAIPUR FOOT CAMP |
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Information
Courtesy : Mr. Mahendra G. Mehta |
