This led to Dr Daya actively seeking out models that could be picked out of showcases and handed over to needy children in low and middle income countries, free of cost - conceiving the Gift of Hand project.
Eventually in January 2016 Dr Daya reached out to Jon Schull - founder of the e-NABLE movement and a RIT professor to collaborate, heralding a new beginning!
Disability is an important public health problem globally with an estimated 35 million people living with some form of limb-loss (WHO estimate). India accounts for nearly 10% of that burden with 2.6 million people (26,810,557) living with disability according to the 2011 census. A majority of the disabled reside in rural areas where accessibility, availability, and utilization of rehabilitation services and its cost-effectiveness are major challenges. With some exceptions, the situation for people with disability in urban areas resembles rural areas. Only a dismal 5% have accesses to prosthetic care. Research on disability burden, appropriate intervention strategies and their implementation to the present context in India is necessary to improve the quality and access to healthcare for disabled persons.
A prosthetic arm these days can costs upto $40,000. One in 2,000 kids are born with some kind of an arm or hand abnormality. They don’t get prosthetics because it makes no sense to spend $40,000 on something they’re going to outgrow in a year. With a 3-D printer, we can start making these things almost for nothing.
Instead of $40,000, we can do it with about $10 or $20 worth of plastic. And it’s not as sturdy as a $40,000 titanium artificial arm. On the other hand, if you outgrow it or break it, you can make another.
One of the interesting things about this project is that the kids for who we’re making these hands for will be actively involved in the process and become inventors and designers in their own right.
It will also give opportunities for student entrepreneurs to innovate further and create a global movement and a community of makers, tinkerers, artists, designers, humanitarians, teachers, parents, children, engineers, occupational therapists, medical professionals, philanthropists, inventors and everyday people who can using the 3D printers and design skills to create free 3D printed prosthetics and prototypes for those who need them.
The Inclusion vertical of AarogyaSeva has been growing strong year after year. Being the organizing partner at India Inclusion Summit for several years and having worked with pioneers like Major D P Singh, Dr Daya was on the lookout for a breakthrough in upper limb prosthetics to match the blade and the Jaipur foot being available for lower limb prosthesis.
Around the same time 3 D printed prosthetics started emerging in the US and UK. However, these were mostly prototypes or demo models and were not available at scale, specially to the communities that needed them.
Our Approach
Our Story
Meet the Team
A strong team of passionate, dedicated and hardworking changemakers are coming together to make this world a better place, one hand at a time. Come, Lend a hand!
Dayaprasad G Kulkarni
Founder & Director
A medical Doctor, Public Health specialist, Entrepreneur, Artist and Development Consultant; founded DoctorsForSeva Arogya Foundation - a flexible micro-volunteering platform for doctors to provide free healthcare services to over 100000 underserved beneficiaries in 7 countries. He has also set up the Global Health Volunteer Alliance, a not for profit company in the US, having a network of over 25000 medical professionals and Tech4Health. He is a medical graduate working for the last ten years at the community level with vulnerable, marginalized and underserved populations
APLP Leadership Fellow, USA; Common Purpose Navigator Fellow, UK; TEDx Speaker, Rex iCongo (instituted with the UN) Karmaveer Chakra and Global Fellowship Awardee
Jon Schull
International Project Director
A former Research Scientist at Rochester Institute of Technology's Center for Media Arts Games Interaction and Creativity where he coordinates the the MAGIC ACT/e-NABLE Lab, Schull's obtained a Ph.D. in biological psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1980, earned tenure at Haverford College in 1987. In In 1991 he founded SoftLock.com aka DigitalGoods.com (NASDAQ:DIGS) a seminal digital rights management company. He joined the RIT faculty in 2002, to teach human computer interaction, and innovation and invention. He earned tenure in 2008. In 2013 he resigned from the RIT faculty to become a Research Scientist, create e-NABLE, and found and establish the Enable Community Foundation a 501(c)3 non-profit.
The author of 19 patents and scores of scholarly articles, his scholarly, entrepreneurial, and humanitarian work has been covered by national and international news organizations in print, network television, and on the web . His current research is focusssed on developing tools for cultivating, empowering, and understanding global communities of connected humanitarians.
An inspiring public speaker, Schull has been the recipient of NSF and NIH Graduate Research Fellowships, and is currently a JMK Innovation Fund Fellow.
Next Steps...
Need a Hand
If you or anyone you know are in need of a prosthetic hand get in touch with us here!
Build a Hand
If you have access to a 3D printer or can help with the design and development process get in touch with us and we will find you a match.
Lend a Hand
If you are a doctor, prosthetist, or just a volunteer wanting to help with assembly, fundraising, organising corporate events, follow-up with recipients or simply cheer for us, Click here!
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