ICRC Prothetics Centre

Rehabilitating a wartorn nation

Swipe or use arrows
ICRC employee standing in front of a ICRC Landcruiser
ICRC employees starting the day in an office
A patient waiting with his father on a hospital bed
ICRC employees working on shaping molds of feet for prothetics
ICRC employees molding end caps and making tubing for crutches
A lower leg prothesis being molded in heated plastic
Adding hinges to a molded lower leg prothesis and finished prothesis ready for fitting
ICRC employee sewing padding for the back of wheelchairs on a sewing machine
Paraplegist enjoying the morning sun in the courtyard
Four male amputees awaiting fitting
Portrait of a male amputee and a man in a wheelchair against the backdrop of Kabul's TV mountain
Two boys with leg prothesis in physical therapy
A man awaiting physical therapy
Male amputees resting between physical theraphy sessions

afghanistan

About ICRC Prothetics Centre

After nearly four decades of continuous war, Afghanistan has a large population who have paid a steep price for this unrest. Most victims are not wounded in combat — they are sheepherders, farmers, and children who have had the misfortune of finding landmines or unexploded ordnance (UXO). Large swathes of the countryside are unsafe because of the countless landmines laid by various warring fractions and armies. No one knows exactly where they've been put. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been active in Afghanistan since 1987. There are multiple centres who specifically deal with amputees and their needs. In Kabul, amputees work to make prothesis and orthesis for fellow victims.

Three decades of continuous use of landmines have contaminated the Afghan countryside.

About the groundwork project

Groundwork is a photographic project that focuses on those who do fieldwork for aid organizations. The idea is to balance the images usually seen of NGO’s, which typically revolve around those who receive the aid. Our aim is to humanize these organisations and the work they do. We want to show the hard work these men and women do, with great courage in often dire circumstances. And we hope to lessen the scepticism and preconceptions concerning aid operations.

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