BG (ta) pointed this out to me http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7519966.stm and at first sight I am impressed by it, although I have my concerns as how it might work in the more rural parts of Africa.
A few years ago one of the prosthetists who treats me went on a UK Government sponsored sabbatical to Cambodia helping victims of landmines and one of the immediate questions I had was "why not send out old, but perfectly serviceable, limbs from the UK?"
His aswer was simple: "because the technology is wrong". He meant that if a high tech Western limb (such as the one I wear - Otto Bock) went wrong then that would be it - there would be no facilities to fix it; whereas there was a wonderful cottage industry making functional, working but repairable limbs locally which relied upon locally available skills and materials.
He was used in training local people in how to measure and fit these limbs.
As always it is not necessarily alternative technologies but appropriate ones.
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