By Daniela Calone |
Montevideo, (EFE).- Changing the lives of hundreds of children and adults is the main objective of the Manos de Héroes Foundation, a non-profit organization that prints custom 3D prints and delivers free hand and arm prosthetics that They help, among other things, to improve the self-esteem and security of these people.
Three years ago it was unthinkable for low-income Uruguayan families to pay for a hand or arm prosthesis for their children or relatives, with an estimated cost of $10,000. The Manos de Héroes Foundation fulfilled the dream of more than 100 people with their work .
According to what its creator, the engineer Andrea Cukerman, tells EFE, “many people” come to her foundation asking for help, like Mía’s teacher who saw her ten-year-old student sad for feeling different from her classmates.
And it is that making Manos de Héroes implies making the hand they dreamed of and it is the children who decide the colors they will have and many want to wear the colors of their soccer team or those of their favorite superhero.
“Something that perhaps before was embarrassing now becomes a source of pride. Giving them a hand is giving them emotional support, ”she says.
Cukerman explained that the prostheses are attached to the palm of their hands and when the wrist is articulated, the threads move so that the children can open and close their mechanical fingers on a pencil for the first time.
help more people
Three years ago, the engineer wanted to turn her profession around and bring something that was not yet applied in the country, so she founded Manos de Héroes at the risk of not being able to deliver any hand.
However, constant work and the conviction that his project ultimately improves people’s lives has led to the delivery of more than a hundred prostheses in the country so far.
“In three years we have delivered more than a hundred hands and arms and there are a hundred stories that have touched us a lot, they are stories of very vulnerable people,” he says, stressing that many of these children live in poor neighborhoods and it is not in their power to pay a prosthesis.
The 3D printer is silent but constant, as in the famous sculpture “Los Dedos” that emerge from the sand of Playa Brava (Punta del Este), the filaments took the shape of nails.
Applied engineering
Each design is unique, not only in appearance, but also according to its needs: a mechanical hand is for those who have a palm, but not their fingers, and it works with the wrist joint.
A mechanical arm works the same, but uses the elbow joint so that the threads carry the movement to the tips of the fingers.
Cukerman explained that in more complex cases, new designs are used, such as the electronic arm that has a microprocessor inside that moves the internal motors to activate the movement and one of the ways to activate it is through a button that the person can activate. with his other hand.
It is also possible to place a sensor that works with muscle contractions.
“We can put it on the back of a person who does not have an arm and every time he or she contracts the muscle, the sensor detects that there is a movement and acts like the button, it sends that signal so that the motors can be activated and tense. the threads to be able to open and close the hand”, explains the engineer.
This new technology allowed them to undertake new projects such as more specific designs and, in the words of the creator, “help more people”.
At the back of the workshop hang the drawings of the children who have already been helped, the word “thank you” is repeated in different colors and sizes, on another blackboard are the names of the children who remain to be helped.