By IANS,
Jaipur : A 22-member team of a Jaipur-based NGO that provides artificial limbs to the disabled has returned from Baghdad after holding a month-long artificial limb fitment camp there.
The Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayta Samiti (BMVSS) provided 882 Iraqis artificial limbs during the camp while 75 people were given crutches free of cost.
The founder-chief patron of BMVSS D.R. Mehta led the team. Two technicians were from Pakistan where BMVSS is also running a rehabilitation centre. The team returned to Jaipur earlier this week.
The camp was organised in association with a charitable body of Baghdad’s Abdul Hadi Chalabi Foundation.
“In all, 882 persons were equipped with artificial limbs of whom 42 were provided artificial limbs on both their legs,” Mehta said.
Mehta said the Iraqi amputees accepted and adopted the ‘Jaipur Foot and the Stanford Jaipur Knee’ artificial limbs because of its simple technology and its light weight. The ‘Stanford Jaipur Knee’ was developed by the engineering students of the prestigious US Stanford University in association with BMVSS.
Mehta said there are about 50,000 amputees in Iraq who had lost their limbs in the wars and also because of terrorist attacks, diabetes and because of various road accidents.
Mehta said Chalabi Foundation was keen to run the camp round the year to enable more people to benefit.
“We at BMVSS suggested that a few technicians from Iraq should be sent to Jaipur for training in our centre here,” he said.
The BMVSS, Mehta said, would set up the centre in association with Chalabi Foundation.
He also urged the central government to bear the cost of training the Iraqi technicians. He said the camp would go a long way in strengthening India-Iraq ties.