The 2008 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service

RESPONSE of THERDCHAI JIVACATE

The Honorable Chief Justice, Chairman and Trustees of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation, Distinguished guests, Fellow Awardees and dear friends.

First of all, I would like to thank the Foundation for selecting me for such an honourable award. I have often heard about this famous award and its distinguished awardees, ever since I was young.

I could hardly believe my ears when I was informed by Magsaysay Foundation President, Ms. Carn Abella, that I had been selected to receive one of this year's awards. At that auspicious time, I was busy fitting an artificial leg for a baby elephant in Lampang province. It was truly great and pleasurable news for me.

As an orthopedic surgeon for over the past forty years, I needed to cut off the legs of many patients. But when I was a young orthopedic surgeon, it was very difficult for the amputees to obtain artificial legs in Thailand, because access to the technology of making and fitting artificial legs was confined only to Bangkok. In addition, they were very expensive. Amputees had to use bamboo or wood or whatever materials they could find to make into artificial legs. This inspired me to further my studies in prosthetics and orthotics during my residency training in the United States.

Because prostheses and orthoses, in those days, were only made from imported parts, they were very expensive and could not be made for the poor. I began trying every means to make the parts of an artificial leg from local materials. This reduced the cost of an artificial leg by half and more amputees could receive an artificial leg.

In 1992 my colleague Mr. Boonyu and I were able to make artificial legs from used, hence wasted, yogurt bottles which made the cost of the materials for a leg ten times cheaper than those made from imported parts in a government hospital. When this became known to His Majesty the King's Mother, she established the Prostheses Foundation to support me in making artificial legs for poor and underprivileged amputees, to be distributed free of charge.

Because underprivileged amputees almost always live in remote areas, we set up a mobile unit which could travel to reach them. From 1992 up to the present, I have led 101 mobile unit trips to the rural and remote areas, and about 21,710 artificial legs have been provided to 15,981 amputees.

I owe a great deal to His Majesty the King's Mother and to her daughter, Her Royal Highness Princess Galayani Watana, who gave me a chance to do the work as Secretary General of the Prostheses Foundation.

Once again I would like to thank the Magsaysay Award Foundation for this prestigious recognition of our work. This Award will certainly give me greater moral support to continue my work for the sake of the amputees, not only those in Thailand, but in the region. I also wish to take this opportunity to thank all my colleagues and my family who have enabled me to continue to fulfill my mission. Korb kun krub.