Mission Statement: The United e-NABLE Coalition brings together volunteers to create and deliver low-cost, custom prosthetics that restore independence and mobility for those in need—empowering them to pursue life without limitations.

Dear e-NABLE community, 

We are the United e-NABLE Coalition (UEC) led by Anh Quan Nguyen and students of First Technical Challenge (FTC) team 6165 MSET Cuttlefish.  As you may know, we have been managing a substantial e-NABLE project supplying prosthetic hands and forearms to Ugandan refugees and creating a channel for U.S. e-NABLE volunteers to put their printers and skills to good use, coordinating with the World Action Fund in Uganda.  While we organize efforts to design, build, and deliver prosthetic limbs to Uganda, the World Action Fund measures and assesses patient needs.  Once they receive the arms, they transport the limbs to the patients themselves (often hundreds of kilometers away) and to ensure compatibility for the patient.  

In the last six months, the UEC has delivered over 90 prosthetic limbs and raised over $18,000 for the World Action Fund in Uganda.  We believe we have proven our ability to deliver and now invite the community to help us scale up.  The attached proposal requests $10,000 in order to help our group and the World Action Fund continue to help patients in Uganda with Limb differences.  

Background

Early Development 

Early this year, First Technical Challenge (FTC) robotics team 6165 MSET Cuttlefish connected with the World Action Fund’s cofounder Peter Odama through the e-NABLE forum. At the time, Mr. Odama was collaborating with another student, but had a large number of prosthetic cases and needed additional support. To assist him, the Cuttlefish formed the United e-NABLE Coalition, eventually organizing over 90 volunteers to produce prosthetic arms.

Goals 

Although the coalition is mainly focused in Uganda right now, it hopes to expand to other places in the world by collaborating with people like Mr. Odama located in different places. Currently, at the end of the 24 month period, the Coalition strives to fit 800+ amputees, assess 1,000 individuals and provide rehabilitation, trauma counseling, and training for all recipients in Uganda. 

Of the $10,000, $1,000 will be used to pay for shipping costs to Uganda for the portion of UEC located in America. $9,000 will be used to pay for fitting, measuring, and other logistics for the World Action Fund in Uganda. This a subset of the large proposal attached below, with specific funding details.

Progress

In the past one year, the Coalition has raised over $18,000, allowing the following to be accomplished. 

• 265+ patient measurements

• 91 arms sent to Uganda

• 41 arms fit onto patients

• 90 global volunteers making hands

• NOTICE: 50 arms are sitting in Uganda, awaiting delivery and fitting

Through the establishment of different teams in the coalition, we’ve optimized production and patient care. Here is a complete list of our accomplishments in that area. 

• Creation of new hybrid Gripper Kwawu (G-K) Arm (combines Kwawu forearms with Gripper Hand)

  • Reduced assembly work for significantly faster production

  • Silicone thumb allowed for better grip (common feedback from patients since most are farmers)

  • Now featured at the NIH 3D Hub

• Quick fixes and responses to the G-K arm based off of patient feedback

  • Working on a rotatable wrist; some patients complained wrist and finger joints were very rigid

  • Sent padding to Uganda to put inside the arm, in response to complaints about pain caused from hard inner socket lining

  • Used two castration bands or smaller castration band due to poor grip strength without extra aids

• Creation of new hybrid Gripper Kwawu (G-K) Arm for long forearm

  • Adapted and created prosthetic for below the elbow amputees with long forearms

• Increased social media presence and outreach increased funding and volunteers

  • e-NABLE hub

  • Facebook

  • Instagram 

  • Website

• Received a gifted 3-D printer from Elegoo 3-D printing company

  • Used by leads 6165 MSET Cuttlefish

Coalition Organization

Teams

• Each team is made up and led by 6165 MSET Cuttlefish members 

• Coordinating Team

  • Ensures various parts of the coalition run smoothly, supports overall timeline and deadlines of other teams and that arms are delivered on a timely basis through a sheet with all hand tracking.

• Research and Development Team 

  • Creating improvements to current arms based on customer feedback + issues

  • With over 93 patients who have above elbow amputations, the team is currently working on creating a prosthetic for those patients

• Quality Assurance Team

  • Oversees any feedback provided by our team in Uganda providing fitting and measurements and works in parallel often overseeing smaller changes requested. 

• Organization

  • Weekly Committee Team Meeting on Wednesday at 9 P.M 

  • Discuss progress in all teams and any changes we want to make 

• More Documentation from an Operational Standpoint

  • Measurements sent from Uganda → volunteers assigned production →QA team checks → arms shipped → follow-up feedback loop

For more information about our organization please refer to this document or contact united.enable.coalition@gmail.com.