The Jaipur Foot Artificial Limb Fitment camp, fully funded by Government of India, was organized by the Jaipur-based Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti (BMVSS) from 03-30 September at Divisional Hospital Kondavil, Jaffna. This was the second camp organized in Sri Lanka, in line with the Government of India’s commitment to provide relief, rehabilitation and resettlement of the people affected by the armed conflict in Northern Sri Lanka. The camp served beneficiaries from across Sri Lanka with one of the world’s best and cheapest artificial limbs, the famous “Jaipur Foot”.
The camp was run by a team of 20 experts from BMVSS and provided services to 1163 beneficiaries in all. The devices provided included 535 prosthesis (limbs), 228 orthosis (calipers) and 400 crutches.
BMVSS is the world’s largest organization providing support to physically challenged persons. It is noteworthy that a few members of the technical team for the Jaffna camp themselves were physically challenged persons. They were rehabilitated by BMVSS and provided with jobs. Today they are highly skilled technicians.
BMVSS has so far conducted such camps in nearly twenty five countries and in all, nearly 20,000 people in these countries have benefitted from the Jaipur Foot or the Jaipur knee. So far, a total of over 1.2 million people have been provided with artificial limbs and calipers by BMVSS, in India and elsewhere.