BRAC provides prosthetic limbs to Sitakunda explosion survivors
BRAC is providing prosthetic limbs and pressure garments for survivors of the devastating fire and explosion at Sitakunda container depot that happened in June this year. The organisation is providing this high quality service free of cost, has said a press release.
BRAC Limb and Brace Centre (BLBC) organised an event on this occasion on Thursday at its office in Mohammadpur in the capital.
Asif Saleh, executive director, BRAC, Samanta Lal Sen, national coordinator, Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery, and Morseda Chowdhury, director, HNPP, BRAC, were present at the programme. The fire survivors who received the assistance were also present, among others.
The survivors who received the assistance are: Khaledur Rahman, Tuhin Hossain, Abdus Samad, Maruf Hossain, Monir Hossain, Nurul Akter, Robin Mia, Ridoy Hossain, and Hazrat Ali
Over 450 people were injured in the Sitakunda blast. Of them seriously injured 23 patients were admitted to the Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery (SHNIBPS). Nine of these patients through rigorous scanning were identified who needed prosthetic limbs and pressure garments.
National coordinator of Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery Samanta Lal Sen said, “We give our heartfelt thanks to BRAC for standing by the Sitakunda fire survivors. We call on BRAC to expand these services in other hospitals also.”
Addressing the fire survivors who received the assistance, BRAC executive director Asif Saleh said, “The assistance BRAC has provided to you should actually be done by your employers. But those systems are yet to develop in our country. We want you not to be known as mere survivors who lost their limbs, but as ones who have realised their potential defeating most difficult challenges. BRAC will be on your side always.”
He further expected that the government will undertake more such public-private partnership initiatives with BRAC in future to provide quality prosthetics, pressure garments and physiotherapy services to a far wider range of patients.
BRAC director Morseda Chowdhury said, “We hope that this assistance will help the survivors of Sitakunda fire to become self-reliant once again”
In last December BRAC jointly with Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery established a limb and brace centre on the latter’s premises.
It provides quality prosthetics related services to severely injured fire survivors. BRAC Limb and Brace Centre (BLBC), operating since 2000, provides user-friendly quality prosthetics, orthotic and physiotherapy services to amputees and people with disabilities. To date, over 43,000 patients have received these services from BLBC.