Paraplegia Hospital, Ahmedabad

ALTSO's first program was started in India, at Paraplegia Hospital in Ahmedabad in February, 2003. Since then, we have registered and evaluated more than 500 children from 28 districts in Gujarat State. More than 150 children have been fitted for prostheses and undergone physical therapy to help them get used to their new arms and legs. ALTSO has also provided hundreds of braces for the correction of bi-lateral and unilateral clubfoot conditions and has supported nearly 100 corrective orthopedic surgeries.

In 2005, also in Ahmedabad, the Shraddha Foundation was launched to help support ALTSO's mission and build on our collaboration with Paraplegia Hospital. Considering the great distances that families must travel to reach the capital, Shraddha decided to invest in a bus with an on-board orthopedic workshop. This clinic on wheels takes the Shraddha team's professionals on periodic visits to the remote parts of Gujarat and surrounding states, where children can be evaluated and fitted with prostheses made on the spot.

Special thanks to all our friends in Ahmedabad for their help and continued support: Dr. Prabhakar, Dr. Pankaj Patel, Pradeep Patel, Dhiren Joshi, Maya Joseph Chauhan, Yagnaben Shukla, and Dr. Modi.

Amar Jyoti Charitable Trust, Delhi

In Delhi, we have partnered with the Amar Jyoti Charitable Trust, an organization that has offered education, training and medical care for the disabled since 1981. It favors the integration and inclusion of the handicapped, and among its projects is a school where children with and without disability study together.

ALTSO's program with Amar Jyoti will provide high-tech, lightweight and durable prosthetic and orthotic equipment which is made in Amar Jyoti's in-house lab which ALTSO equipped.

Training of prosthetists and technicians will be conducted to increase availability of prosthetic and orthotic work throughout Delhi and Gwalior. Medical outreach programs in rural areas will be provided to identify children needing treatment who would normally go unnoticed.

The Amar Jyoti Charitable Trust not only provides orthopedic care and rehabilitation sponsored by ALTSO, but also equips them with education and vocational training to help them live an economically independent life.

She Hope Society, Kashmir

Decades of militant violence in Kashmir has created a great need for medical care and rehabilitation for the country's children. ALTSO's partnership with She Hope Society will provide corrective surgery, prosthetic and other mobility devices as well as physiotherapy and transportation to children from some of Ganderbal District's most impoverished villages.

To expand its outreach program, ALTSO is also funding the construction of a treatment center in Kupwara through a generous grant by the Dorothea Haus Ross Foundation. The center will be the only of its kind in a district where an estimated 35,000 people with disabilities reside. Once built, the She Hope Society - Kupwara Treatment Center will have the capacity to help 800 children with disabilities per year.