Three Iraqi nationals traveled to Jaipur to learn the art of prosthetics fabrication in order to treat victims in their war-ravaged country back home.
The delegation of Iraqis, along with an interpreter, were sent by the Abdul Hadi Chalabi Foundation (an Iraqi non-governmental organization), and will train in India for three months. Their hosts, the Indian charitable organization Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti (BMVSS), are promoters of the “Jaipur foot,” a rubber-based prosthetic leg that is lightweight and inexpensive to produce.
Interpreter and delegation leader, Ahmad Tofique, quoted in Daily India, “Our patients in Baghdad were using another kind of artificial limbs which were heavy. The Jaipur foot is lighter, plus it has got special joints, which help normal activities. Third, the cost is very low.”
The foot was originally developed in 1968 by orthopedic surgeon Pramod Karan Sethi, MD, a fellow of Britain’s Royal College of Surgeons, and a sculptor named Ram Chandra Sharma.
