Raise

Now and again, usually infrequently, you come across something that’s so intelligent and progressive that it’s difficult not to slap your head repeatedly and wonder why oh why can’t governments come up with and support such promising and necessary possibilities.

I give you the Open Prosthetics Project. A gang of inventor/industrial designer dudes (Tackle Design) from North Carolina joined forces to collaborate and establish this. Bloody brilliant.

The Open Prosthetics Project is producing useful innovations in the field of prosthetics and giving the designs away for free.

Another interesting project is RP4 Baghdad

Rapid Prototyping for Baghdad supports severely injured people in Iraq by providing Iraqi surgeons with surgery equipment, prosthetic limb sockets and tangible 3D models.

The situation for amputees in Iraq from what I can gather is supremely shite. It’s very difficult to obtain information, so it must be ridiculously difficult for Iraqis to actually get access to prosthetics.

These assertions are supported by the following recent articles:

Interview and slides from photojournalist Farah Nosh: Iraq’s Brutally Wounded

Demand for prosthetic limbs by amputees outpaces supply in Baghdad

If anyone knows anything further about the prosthetics situation in Iraq please comment or email with more links or info.

We, outside Iraq, on central heated sofas, despite our vehement (and unsuccessful) anti war protests need to urgently take this kind of suffering a lot more personally.