Project Daniel

A South Sudan lab that 3D-prints prosthetics

Project Daniel is the world’s first 3D-printing prosthetic lab, set up by Not Impossible founder Mick Ebeling after he saw footage of a teenager who lost both arms when a bomb went off while he was tending his parents’ cattle. The young man was Daniel Omar, a resident of a sprawling refugee camp called Yida. Ebeling tracked him down via humanitarian physician Dr. Tom Catena, and set about creating new limbs for Daniel with the help of a team of makers and Richard van As, the founder of open-source 3D-printing prosthetic company Robohand. The project has a legacy beyond Daniel’s new limbs — Not Impossible left two 3D printers in Dr. Catena's Nuba Mountains hospital, in a community that had no concept of 3D-printing before his arrival. Ebeling trained locals to use the equipment so that other victims of the conflict are able to get access to a limb that costs $100 of materials, a fraction of the price of traditional solutions.