Kabul's Heroes of Healing
Orthopedic specialist Najmuddin Helal has just one requirement for prospective recruits at Afghanistan's largest prosthetics workshop in Kabul. Watching staff from technicians to security guards to helpers in the centre's physiotherapy sessions walk past with unsteady gaits, it's easy to spot. They are all disabled, and nearly 80 percent of them are landmine victims. "We employ only disabled," smiled Helal, "It is a kind of discrimination, but we like to call it positive discrimination." The main centre in Kabul produces around 4,000 prostheses, such as legs and arms and hooks to replace hands and around 10,000 orthoses each year, as well as walking aids and wheelchairs, distributed to other provincial centers. 43-year-old Helal himself lost both legs to a landmine at the age of 18. He was the centre's 34th patient.
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