For over ten years POF’s Senior Director of Engineering, Program Development and Evaluation, Raymond Pye, and Edward Pennington Ridge, a designer and the owner of a UK company, Elegant Designs Inc., have shared prosthetic technical innovations. This May & June thanks to funding from Dr. Dudley S. Childress, the faculty advisor for the Shape and Roll foot that was designed at Northwestern University, Mr. Ridge taught the new Shape and Roll foot manufacturing methods to staff at the POF supported Makeni Hospital Rehabilitation center in Sierra Leone.
The inventiveness and dedication that Mr. Ridge put into his work during his time in Sierra Leone made it possible for the Makeni center staff to construct the keel and cosmetic cover used for the prosthetic foot. This is a very important step in helping developing countries become self-sustaining in their production of prosthetic limbs. In addition to the Shape and Roll foot project Mr. Ridge also assisted the Makeni team with refinement of the M1 Knee joint that had been introduced to Sierra Leone by the LEGS project of La Tourneau University of Texas in 2008.
During his time in Sierra Leone, Mr. Ridge worked closely with two beneficiaries of POF, Archipuss Sesay and Ibriham Turay (see picture below), both of whom now work at the Makeni workshop on component development. Field trials of the new components are now underway.
If you would like to read Ed Ridge’s report click here.
