Reconstructive surgery for Ramesh's right hand

Ramesh is 41. He was diagnosed late — the numbness in his right hand had been there for nearly three years before anyone told him what it meant. He completed twelve months of multi-drug therapy and he is, medically speaking, cured.

What the delay left him with is a claw hand: the fingers curl inward and will not straighten. He cannot grip a trowel. A mason who cannot grip a trowel is not a mason, and for two years he has been at home while his wife works.

A tendon transfer will restore the grip. The surgery, the hospital stay, six weeks of post-operative physiotherapy and the custom splint come to ₹48,000.

He has asked us to say, in his own words, that he does not want charity — he wants his hand back so he can work. We think that is the same thing.