So just when you think you have finally hammered out your views on a specific development approach, something happens which throws it to the way side. Today, it was Jaipur Foot. Jaipur Foot is a compassion based organization which provides prosthetic legs ( and specially designed wheel chairs, crutches etc) to anyone who needs them. What more, they house and feed the recipient and their family and even pay for their return trip home. No small fee with patients coming from as far away as Orissa, India. All of this is absolutely free. In other words, charity. Now, here is my chance to go on a rant about what I previously thought I understood. Charity is not the way to empower to someone, charity is hand a out, it is crippling. Community and Capacity building is the true way to development. Yeah well, try telling that to Dr. Mehta, the current director, who has overseen over 1 million patients served and 35 years of service. Let me not forget to mention the "camps" they have set up in 10 different countries including Iraq and Pakistan. His response to the charity-is-bad critique is simply that it isn't true. He theorizes that if you truly meet the needs of recipients they will take care of what you provide. This is further seen in the third of his staff who are limb recipients themselves. As he analogized to the large group of SIT and Mumbai students:
Dr. Mehta: "Do you use google?"
Students collectively: "yes"
Dr. Mehta: " Do you pay google?"
Students collectively: "No"
Dr. Mehta: "Do you appreciate google?"
students ( thinking) : "Yes"
and he's right. I do appreciate google, heck, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have made it this far in school without it. and I have never payed a cent.
Through an incredibly efficient and resourceful process Jaipur Foot is able to produce a leg for around $45. This puts the $10,000 prosthetic in the states to shame. While it obviously lacks the technological engineering and wiring which accompanies the american model it is a fully functioning leg which allows the recipient to run, jump, walk, work, bike, climb trees, the list could go on. This leads me to wonder at what point is technology just silly? Is sacrificing the mobility of someone due to exorbitant costs really worth a perfectly aesthetically pleasing leg?
Check out the website here for more information: http://www.jaipurfoot.org/. And shockingly enough, there is not yet a TED talk on his work, something that TED really needs to jump on in the near future. That is if I don't recruit him for TEDxSetonHall 2012 first. Anyone want to donate a plane ticket?!?!
Well need to do some serious work on this Independent Study Project Proposal due tomorrow. It's looking like Gangotri, India for November. Helllooooo Himalayan peaks!
Cheers,
Cassie
Dr. Mehta: "Do you use google?"
Students collectively: "yes"
Dr. Mehta: " Do you pay google?"
Students collectively: "No"
Dr. Mehta: "Do you appreciate google?"
students ( thinking) : "Yes"
and he's right. I do appreciate google, heck, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have made it this far in school without it. and I have never payed a cent.
Through an incredibly efficient and resourceful process Jaipur Foot is able to produce a leg for around $45. This puts the $10,000 prosthetic in the states to shame. While it obviously lacks the technological engineering and wiring which accompanies the american model it is a fully functioning leg which allows the recipient to run, jump, walk, work, bike, climb trees, the list could go on. This leads me to wonder at what point is technology just silly? Is sacrificing the mobility of someone due to exorbitant costs really worth a perfectly aesthetically pleasing leg?
Check out the website here for more information: http://www.jaipurfoot.org/. And shockingly enough, there is not yet a TED talk on his work, something that TED really needs to jump on in the near future. That is if I don't recruit him for TEDxSetonHall 2012 first. Anyone want to donate a plane ticket?!?!
Well need to do some serious work on this Independent Study Project Proposal due tomorrow. It's looking like Gangotri, India for November. Helllooooo Himalayan peaks!
Cheers,
Cassie
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