Over 40 Receive Free Prosthetic Limbs as Ruparelia Family Marks Rajiv Anniversary at Mulago

By Gad Masereka

More than 40 Ugandans received free prosthetic limbs at Mulago National Referral Hospital on Saturday as the Ruparelia family marked the first anniversary of the death of Rajiv Ruparelia not with a private ceremony but with an act of service that Rajiv himself had long championed.

The prosthetic camp, organised by the Ruparelia Foundation in partnership with medical specialists and rehabilitation experts, provided custom-fitted artificial limbs to amputees who had been waiting for access to prosthetic care that most of them could not afford through normal channels. For the beneficiaries, many of whom had lost limbs to accidents, diabetes or war-related injuries, the camp represented not just restored mobility but a return to the dignity and independence that disability had denied them.

The choice of a medical outreach to anchor the anniversary was deliberate and consistent with the philosophy that has guided the Ruparelia family’s philanthropy since Rajiv’s death. Sudhir Ruparelia, speaking at the camp, said that if his son’s memory was to mean anything beyond grief, it had to translate into action. Rajiv believed in doing. He did not wait for perfect conditions or adequate resources. He saw a need and he moved. Holding this camp on his anniversary is a way of continuing to move the way he would have moved.

Jyotsna Ruparelia moved quietly among the beneficiaries, spending time with each person, listening to their stories and ensuring that the care being given felt personal rather than institutional. Her presence, and that of other family members including daughter Sheena Ruparelia, gave the camp an intimacy that the beneficiaries responded to visibly, with tears and expressions of gratitude that went beyond the practical relief of receiving a prosthetic limb.

The prosthetic camp formed part of a wider programme of remembrance activities organised around May 3, the anniversary of Rajiv’s death. These included the Remembering RR memorial drive through Kampala’s streets, a religious service attended by family and close associates, and a series of smaller community activities in areas where the Ruparelia Foundation has sustained ongoing programmes.

For the Ruparelia family, the first anniversary was not an ending. It was a rededication. Forty people left Mulago on Saturday walking in ways they had not walked in months or years, and the family that made that possible did so in the name of a son who never stopped moving forward.