Features | Online edition of Daily News

The sparkle in his eyes and steadiness of his body movements show that he leads a happy life. He plays, runs, walks and does most of the things a normal healthy child does. There’s only a slight limp in one of his legs that draws your attention to the artificial limb which is fitted to his lost leg. He is one of the innocent victims of war whom we met at the Jaffna Jaipur Centre for Disability Rehabilitation (JJCDR).

The aims and the objectives of the JJCDR

* To provide high quality, light weight and low cost prostheses, orthotic devices and other mobility aid to the physically disabled persons living in the Northern region.

* Provide adequate physiotherapy and follow up rehabilitation services to disabled persons to ensure adaptability.

* Provide beneficiaries with micro credit revolving loans allowing them to engage in an income generating projects to achieve economic sustainability.

* Provide monthly educational grants to physically rehabilitated children to ensure the equal opportunities in education.

* Provide counseling services to the beneficiaries.

The JJCDR Centre

Working with enthusiasm

Fixing a limb

Two beneficiaries waiting for treatment

Kamalanadan Navaneedan is still 12 years old. He was affected by a shelling attack in 2009 in Kilinochchi during the conflict time. He is a very active boy who is studying at Hindu College, Jaffna. “We lived in Kilinochchi and got caught to a shelling attack in 2009. Including me, there were 10 of us. All of us were affected and I lost my leg. At the beginning I found it very difficult to carry on my day today work. But with this limb now I can lead a normal life. Today I came to the JJCDR for the treatments”.

JJCDR is one of the specialized centres in the Jaffna peninsula which provides all the aid to disabled people whose legs and arms are lost due to different reasons such as illnesses, birth defects, accidents, and also as a result of the past terrorist conflict. Mostly the centre provides the necessary aid to people free of charge.

The centre manufactures all the necessary mobility aid including trans-racial prosthesis, trans-humeral prosthesis, trans-fermoral prosthesis, trans-tibial prosthesis, supportive seat wheelchair, commode wheelchair, special seat wheelchair, ground wheelchair, tricycle, alarm walker, walking aid, walker with wheels, elbow crutches, walker, arm crutches, white cane, walking sticks, power/Manuel tricycle, power wheelchair, special remote controlled chair engine powered scooter etc.

JJCDR was first established in 1987, the Jaipur Foot Programme , the Jaffna branch of the Colombo friend in need society. It was the first orthopedic service facility in the North to provide support for the significant caseload of physically disabled persons in the region who were in need of artificial limbs and mobility devices.

Today it has been renamed as the JJCDR. The board of Directors, which mange the centre includes veteran physicians who have been providing medical service in the Jaffna Government Teaching Hospital. JJCDR was refreshed by the novel technology and aid given by the ICRC in 1999. To date the ICRC does support the centre in many means and it hopes to diversify the donors by 2014.

During our visit at the centre, we came across different types of disabled people whose stories are touchy and sad.

“I have lost one of my legs. I am happy because my body movements do not show that I am a disabled person with an artificial limb” said Premashilan, a 35 year old man who was being treated at the Jaffna Jaipur Centre for Disability Rehabilitation (JJCDR).

“I want to thank this centre because earlier I used to walk with difficulty with a pair of crutches. Today I am capable of standing on my own feet and work to generate an income to look after my family”, he added.

Another young face, N. Jemilda a pretty lady whose one leg is lost due to leprosy was there at the centre to get a new artificial limb. She is just 23 years old and her whole family is affected by leprosy. Her situation is pathetic and she was waiting there with eyes full of hope. P. Purushothman who is 30 year old is another victim of a shell blast in 2009. He is from Valvetithurei, Jaffna. He works and he was there to collect his second limb.

Kabilan’s story is emotional. He is just 23 and learns diesel mechanism. He has lost one of his legs in a land mine explosion at Muhamale. He resides at Kokuvil, Jaffna.

“Today my situation is better. But every moment I am weeping inside, because my sister went missing. She was taken away by the LTTE. Whenever I eat, sleep or relax at home she comes to my mind. Her loss can never be replaced by anything”, Kabilan said with tears in his eyes. There are thousands of such stories in the Jaffna peninsula. However the disabled are quite safe with the support of the JJCDR.

The chairperson of the centre, Dr.Ganeshamurthi and the Treasurer Dr. Devendran emphasized their service to achieve the vision of becoming a professional world class place for prosthetic, orthotic, mobility aid and rehabilitation services to the physically disabled. They further stressed that their main objective is to provide necessary aid to the disabled persons and empower them through a comprehensive rehabilitation programme to make them reach their dignity, social status, rights and recognition.

JJCDR celebrated its 25 years of services last month. There are separate sections in the centre where different parts or devices are produced. The specialty is some of the staff members are also wearing artificial limbs. They consider this as a service rather than an occupation. They are very enthusiastic and work hard to give an life to a disabled person. On the other hand the centre provides job opportunities to some of the disables persons.

Damayanthi Thangarasa, the Physiotherapy Assistant of the centre, plays a dedicated role to empower the beneficiaries. She joined the centre as a receptionist and today bears a huge work load after being promoted to the current position. Explaining the process, she said that the main aim of the physiotherapy unit is war victim adaptation. Once a month there is a clinic done by a specialized doctor which provides treatment to the beneficiaries. According to her, the technology used to manufacture limbs is different now. New technical methods have been introduced to the centre during past years. Earlier they used aluminum sockets to produce the limbs and now they use polypropylene technology to produce more developed limbs.

There are differences between two technologies. In Jaipur technology, in which aluminum sockets are used, the cost is less and more durable. It takes less time to produce and easy to repair.

In Polypropylene technology the cost is bit high and takes time to produce. But it resembles the real leg and the alignment system is there. The main thing concerned in this system is, cemetery. The technicians of the centre are properly trained in countries like Vietnam and Cambodia. They are very capable of doing it in a proper manner.

From tears to smiles