Simple Limb Institute: An Affordable Prosthesis for Everyone

The Simple Limb Initiative¹ is a project and product delivery system built on the concept of affordability, co-design, cultural and emotional connection, scalability, and open source. Children throughout the world suffering from limb loss due to war, violence, or disease number in the hundreds of thousands². Their need for prosthetics that can grow with them, integrate them back into society, and provide a future of productivity is clear. The Simple Limb Institute website is a place where amputees, their representative, or a service organization can go to download plans for building a prosthesis (arm or leg) from locally sourced materials, using identified local organizations for fitting and rehab, for about the equivalent of US$30. The selected prosthesis meets cultural and aesthetic norms for the region they live in. The project is in its infancy, with initial concepts developed and available for testing for Colombia, Afghanistan, and Cambodia. Future concepts for Colombia will be developed by May 2014 with plans to expand to several other countries over the next three years.

Connecting a user to the product they live with daily is dependent upon many things – but the ability for a product like a prosthesis to gain emotional integration into the life of a user is what can create a successful life story for a young child. Self-acceptance of their existence as an amputee, acceptance into a family, and integration into a community and a culture – all provide for a thriving life for a young child from their youth through to adulthood. This goal is at the heart of the Simple Limb Institute and through Design, we strive to achieve this goal with our collaborators and future customers.

¹ Simple Limb Initiative Website: http://simplelimb.com/
² Unicef: http://www.unicef.org/graca/mines.htm