JJCDR provides 5,400 artificial limbs to Northerners

Nipuni WIMALAPALA

ICRC records indicate that the Jaffna Jaipur Centre for Disability Rehabilitation (JJCDR) has provided 5,400 artificial limbs to people who lost their legs due to illnesses, accidents, birth defects and disabilities caused by the terrorist conflict.

Over 2,500 people have benefited from the centre to date. The centre mainly sponsored by ICRC provides a laudable service to the disabled people since 10 to 15 percent of the people of the Northern Province from the Jaffna, Vavuniya, Mullaitivu, Killinochchi and Mannar districts are physically disabled due to the estimations of the Sri Lanka Foundation for Rehabilitation of the Disabled (SLFRD). In the Jaffna district which is the most populated district in Northern Province with around 600,000 inhabitants, estimates indicate that approximately 2,000 - 3,000 people may be physically disabled.

JJCDR manufactures and provides high quality, low weight and less cost prostheses, orthotic devices and mobility aids to the disabled people in the Northern region.

They are mostly provided free of charge. It provides adequate physiotherapy and follow-up rehabilitation services to ensure their adaptability, micro credit revolving loans allowing them to engage in an income generating projects to achieve economic capability.

It offers monthly educational grants to physically rehabilitated children and the beneficiaries are provided with counseling service.

The JJCDR celebrates 25 years of service on July 1. A series of activities including a sports event where both male and female beneficiaries who have been fitted with prosthesis will take part in bicycle, tricycle and wheel chair races will be held to celebrate their anniversary. A dance performance will also be displayed.

The JJCDR plans to conduct debating and poetry competitions among school students in which 75-100 schools will participate. A statue will be erected and a flag day will be held for disabled people as an awareness programme in the Jaffna Peninsula.