Mobilize funding
We raise money specifically for prosthetic care and physiotherapy: the two things that, together, return someone to daily life.
One Prosthetic Unlimited Opportunity
Open the Gait
Est. 2026
Turn a donation into a step taken
Your contribution funds the raw materials, prosthetic components and therapy equipment that reach a prosthetics center, and the physiotherapy that makes them work.
Make a donationOpen the Gait Foundation is a project of the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) Foundation, a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit that holds and governs every donation.
How the partnership worksA prosthetic is not just a medical device. It is a means of restoring dignity and independence.
Open the Gait Foundation mobilizes funding to deliver prosthetic care to conflict-affected and underserved amputees worldwide. Through partnering with trusted organizations, we aim to restore dignity and independence. We are also dedicated to raising awareness for amputee needs.
Raise awareness
Amputee needs do not end when the limb is fitted. We work to make the ongoing reality of prosthetic care visible.
From a donation to a fitted limb
We work in partnership with the Syrian American Medical Society. We raise the funds; SAMS makes sure they buy what is actually needed and that it reaches the center of prosthetics.
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We raise the funds
Donations and campaigns are pooled into a single fund dedicated to prosthetic care and physiotherapy.
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SAMS verifies and holds the funds
The Syrian American Medical Society holds and oversees the funds, and confirms how they are used.
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Materials are purchased
Funds buy raw materials for prosthetic fabrication and the therapy equipment rehabilitation depends on.
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Everything is transported
Supplies are transported to the center of prosthetics, where clinicians fit limbs and run physiotherapy.
Millions of people will never be offered the care that makes walking possible
Access to a prosthesis is determined less by medical need than by circumstance: where someone lives, and whether anyone is funding their care.
2.5bn
people need at least one assistive product, including prostheses
Source: WHO & UNICEF, Global Report on Assistive Technology (2022)
1bn
of them have no access to the assistive products they need
Source: WHO & UNICEF, Global Report on Assistive Technology (2022)
Made by hand
Plaster, casts and hand tools at the prosthetics workshop your donation supplies.
Conflict multiplies the need and destroys the supply
Armed conflict produces traumatic amputations at scale while damaging the hospitals, workshops and supply routes that would treat them. The people with the greatest need are consistently the hardest to reach.
It started with one person who received the care, and could not accept that most never would
When co-founder Sam Lababidy underwent quadrilateral amputations, he recognized that a prosthetic is not just a medical device but a means of restoring dignity and independence. Sam received the high-quality care that made that restoration possible. He knew, however, that millions of amputees around the world would never be afforded the same opportunity.
Together with Leith Fattouh and Jad Dola, who had witnessed those disparities firsthand on medical missions, they founded Open the Gait to bridge that gap.
Read the full story