Imagine if you don’t have a hand or a leg! How it would be so difficult to deal with things or to manage your work! There are many around the world who suffer from amputation for several different reasons. Losing a blessing that we have is something unbearable and hard to imagine. March 30, 2018, Gaza people started to call out for the Great March of Return, a series of demonstrations held each Friday in the Gaza Strip near the Gaza-Israel border. The Great March of Return indicated a new trend in Palestinian society towards adopting a totally non-violent form of protest. Therefore, participants were non-armed protesting peacefully to demand their rights and end the 15-year-old, land-sea-air blockade on the Gaza Strip. Once we heard that people were going to protest on the border, we thought that it would be a good idea to participate; since it should be a political right, let alone being continuously promoted by the international community. However, the protests were not respected by the Israeli forces and demonstrators were met with violence instead. As a result, and according to OCHA figures, as of 22 March 2019, 195 Palestinians (including 41 children) have been killed and close to 29,000 people injured.
My brother, Mohammad, is a 25-year-old who graduated from Al-Quds Open University. Mohammed loves to discover how things work for example how toys work and how plastic cars move. From there he decided a long time ago to study as an engineer. In his university project, he was trying to find a rare idea that no one came up with here in Gaza. The idea showed up when he was walking in the street and ran into one of his old friends. My brother was shocked that his friend had lost his right hand in the Great March of Return. After this unplanned-for meeting, the light above his head turned on to come up with a great idea, which was the prosthetic hand! Thus, he started working on the idea to make it come true. In the manufacturing phase, he was facing many troubles in this project, especially the lack of equipment that was not here in Gaza. That made him ask many from outside Gaza to help him by sending those materials but it was impossible at that time! So, he was trying to find alternative materials. After many grueling attempts, my brother succeeded to get all equipment needed to manufacture the project device.
The prototype was first tried on his friend, who lost his hand in the Great March of Return, and it functioned very well. Before this prototype, his friend always got embarrassed to show his hand to others- which made him wear a heavy sweater even on a very hot summer day. Now, the device is helping him put up with the "new normal" of his life. Jubilantly, the project was presented at Al-Quds Open University and was rated Excellent by the Higher Academy of Evaluation.
