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 With his sister and two brothers looking on, he tried out his new
limb for the first time in the family living room, slowly flexing at
the elbow to close the hand.
"It's going to help me pick things up, things like toys," he said,
grinning widely, before tentatively shaking the hand of Guillermo
Martinez, founder of Ayudame3D, the social entity that made the arm.
A former toy designer with a passion for 3D printing, Martinez, 27,
began tinkering with the devices as a hobby.
But after a 2017 trip to deliver prostheses to an orphanage in
Kenya's Rift Valley, he decided to dedicate himself full-time to the
initiative and set up Ayudame3D.
"The five arms that I took (to Kenya)...worked so well, so perfectly
that I asked myself 'How can I just stop here?'"
Four years later, the organisation has grown into an international
entity that delivers 200 to 250 arms a year all over the world, free
of charge, to anybody who requests one.
From his workspace in a converted shipping container crammed with
dozens of printers, prototypes and off-cuts, Martinez oversees a
team of six staff and multiple collaborators across the country.
Prosthetic arms, based around three core designs reaching to the
wrist, elbow or shoulder and made of plastic, are Ayudame3D's main
product, but it also produces other medical devices, toys and
souvenirs it sells to generate income.
[to top of second column] |
 Martinez did not give an exact
figure of how much they cost to make but said
it's a tiny fraction of a traditional
prostheses, which can cost up to $40,000. His
organisation relies on donations and awards and
also gives companies 3D printing courses.
In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic when
face masks were scarce and many health staff
worked unprotected, the group manufactured and
donated some 20,000 plastic face-shields.
Looking to the future, Martinez wants to expand
Ayudame3D's reach and range of products, but
said he is not very ambitious.
"We just want to help as many people as
possible. If we are in 50 countries this year we
hope to be in twice as many next year."
(Additional reporting and writing by Nathan
Allen; editing by Andrei Khalip and Emelia
Sithole-Matarise)
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