Dr Shahinul Hoque Ripon

October 8, 2023

Artificial limbs change lives: Here’s how we can scale them up in low-income countries

Roksana Khatun lost her right leg when the building she was working in collapsed on top of her. The Rana Plaza building collapse in Bangladesh was the deadliest accidental structural failure in modern human history, killing almost 1200 people and injuring thousands more. Rokhsana didn’t think she'd ever walk, let alone work, again. Today, armed with a prosthetic leg, she is not only back in the workforce, but is earning more than what she made in Rana Plaza. Her story is emblematic of the work of the BRAC Limb and Brace Centre, which has equipped 42,000 people in Bangladesh with customised, affordable prosthetic limbs to date.