The Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti (BMVSS) is an organization that provides assistance including artificial limbs, prosthetics, calipers, and other aids free of charge. The organization itself has it’s headquarters in Jaipur, India but has reached 27 other countries. I’d like to know which countries have been reached and the prevalence of amputees and polio patients in each country. Are areas where there are a large number of both kinds of patients being targeted? Where can the BMVSS do the most good?
I personally find it remarkable that this organization can do so much good for no cost. How widely publicized is this service? A wide variety of prostheses and assistive technologies are offered, which begs the question of how this program remains cost-free to it’s participants. What materials are used? How long do the prostheses last with every day use? Are the materials cheap and non-durable? Is general function compromised with the use of cheap materials?
I find it interesting that in addition to these prostheses and calipers, physiotherapy and training facilities are also provided. Neither can be inexpensive to offer. With the physiotherapy in specific, there are a number of specialized therapies offered including laser therapy and extracorporeal shock wave therapy. Fancy names aside, it’s still remarkable the technologies available to those in need for free (that’s been the general trend of this blog post; disbelief that such a good service is absolutely free). I find it exciting that the Jaipur hand is further being developed by Stanford, especially since they did such a fantastic job with the Jaipur knee.