October 22, 2007
More prosthetics: International Red Cross link
In my quest for information on prosthetics and Iraq I came across a whole bunch of articles on the International Red Cross website who continue to help civilians in Iraq.
You can also donate directly to their Iraq projects here you just have to select the area of the world that you want to donate to. So many NGO’s have been forced to withdraw from Iraq because of the violence that it’s critical we support the ones who remain.
$240 bucks will provide prosthetic materials so that four landmine victims can walk again, while $25 can provide first aid care for a war wounded assisted in a first aid post. If you’re lucky enough to be flush then donate $8,000 to provide surgery and hospital care for 100 war wounded patients until their discharge
Alternatively, if you wish to make an immediate difference to someone by tomorrow morning then support the Rapid Prototyping for Baghdad project (RP4Baghdad)
- Donate 250$ and help us treat a patient with a head injury.
- Donate 750$ and help us treat a patient in need of a leg prosthesis. This includes mould making, model making, transport and model fitting.
There’s full disclosure on their financials on the website, this extraordinary organisation have an annual budget of $32,000 dollars and I am very struck by the immediacy of the work they’re doing, as they can help a patient in a week from obtaining a three-dimensional CT scan of the patient in Baghdad then having models made elsewhere that are sent back to Baghdad swiftly and the patient is operated on.
This a very unique and intelligent project delivering essential humanitarian medical support Applaud it by helping finance it. It feels to me that only tangible form of protest against the unbelievable civilian suffering right now is to provide relief.
October 19, 2007
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.