When being bombarded with the latest evidence of humanity’s nasty and brutish side, it can be hard to remember that there are gleaming moments among the trash. The news media doesn’t seem to have figured out a way to make money off of too many heartwarming stories and so we are often left with the impression that our best bet is to close ourselves off from our fellow human beings and to view everyone with a deep sense of mistrust.
While I am not suggesting that we all put on rose colored glasses and act the part of an ignorant Polyanna, one of the things that is so nice about writing for 3DPrint.com is that I, more often than not, get to write the stories that demonstrate man’s humanity to man [sic] and not the dregs of human behavior.
In a refugee camp in East Africa, however, it is not as simple as sending the files off to Shapeways or running down to the local 3D print hub. There are some significant difficulties in accessing and operating 3D printers there, as Yakubu explained:
“A lot of companies selling 3D printers, filament and parts do not ship to Nigeria. We have to ship to a warehouse in the US and ship to Nigeria using additional delivery services that charge extra. 3D printer companies also do not support Africa, so we cannot get solutions from them on technical issues or do a part swap when our parts fail. We have to buy new parts since we cannot get them fixed.”
This is the difficulty with high-tech solutions. They are wonderful when they work, but to reach those who need them most is complicated by lack of infrastructure and support. In addition to the challenges of getting materials and maintaining machines, the supply of power in the area is highly unstable, meaning that there is a need to provide a source of secondary, back-up power to get the machines through the outages without interrupting the print.
Yakubu shared his cautious optimism for the possibilities created by 3D printed prosthetics:
“The number of amputees in Africa is the greatest in the world. There are not enough people making prosthetic limbs, even for the people who can afford it…in countries like Mali, Uganda, CAR, Eritrea, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and other poor countries with recent histories of war, disease, extreme poverty and terrorism. e-NABLE has been an awesome experience and this is only the beginning. 3D printing is the ‘future of the future’ and we are excited to be part of the journey.”
For 12-year-old Musa and his family, the results have already been dramatic and stand as an example of the ways in which people help each other, even when they don’t have to, just because it is the right thing to do. Discuss this story in the 3D Printed Prosthetic Forum on 3DPB.com.