Aziza Boualem - Casablanca

The 11-year-old Moroccan boy is no longer hiding his hands behind his back or in the pocket of his coat in front of his schoolmates, after he became the first child in Morocco to get an artificial hand with the 3D printer technology.

Ayoub is suffering from a motor disability since his early childhood, born without fingers in his left hand, and distorted in the right as a result of congenital anomalies. His family hopes that the artificial hand will soften the psychological impact of this physical deficiency and improve the daily life of her child and others.

In the new hand, the parents found solace, unable to provide a hand of silicone to compensate their son's hands, because of the cost of more than thirty thousand dollars, and must be renewed annually.

3D Hand (Island)

Alternative hand
In a small, modest room in his family's home in the suburb of Casablanca, Ayoub sits at a small table and enthusiastically engages in the installation of his artificial hand with the help of his father, while his mother looks at him in surprise.

In a tragic scene, the boy stretched out his hand toward an empty cup and forgot for a moment that he had no hand and was trying hard to carry it. The joints of his hand seemed to be consistent with each finger, and he could move his thumb and grip. He tested it many times, and it was very encouraging to everyone, which was why Ayub got a three-dimensional hand from Canada.

Ayoub smiles, his face glowing with sorrow at his deep sadness, walking through his eyes among his family, watching the welcoming and encouraging looks. Although the words betrayed him to express his joy, his eyes described in detail the sense of having a complete hand, after years without it.

Ayoub was caught in his new, embroidered hand, which was fixed with adhesive and used as a glove. "She feels comfortable despite her robotic shape," he said in a timid voice. "I was impressed with his classmates and encouraged by his teachers to wear them.

Ayoub with his parents (Al Jazeera)

Although the new hand gave the sensation of a handshake as a mechanism, its grip felt normal. Ayoub's father expressed his joy and happiness in this artificial part, which he sees as extending his son with great hope, in the future to get a helping hand in his daily life. "His son used his hand, despite being an artificial humanoid, almost natural when eating, picking up things and greeting others," Bansharah said.

Ayoub's life was not ordinary since he was born, but he had a different ritual than the children of his age. In a tone filled with grief, his father tells Al Jazeera how his son wakes up every morning, raising his shirt and seeing the lack of his hands, unlike his two brothers, who are not suspicious of this distortion, while the deficit seems to be present in all the details of his life.

With a whispering voice and a deep sorrow in her eyes, his mother said that her son, who was pursuing his studies in the preparatory department, had to rely on others. She feels that this is the biggest difficulty in his life, feeling him lack, anxiety and depression, and is reflected in the behavior of aggression and introversion and build a negative image of himself.

Additional capabilities
However, the head of the Al-Wefaq Society for Social Work and Environment Conservation Hassan Mansouri, who was the reason for the child's hand, believes that the alternative hand gives the boy additional abilities to move them in a way that helps him to have a full hand. He said he spent a year working on developing it in coordination with a Syrian student who is affiliated with the Canadian University of Ottawa.

He added that it was her responsibility to make hands and arms free of charge for those who needed part or all of the sides of the hand, because of congenital deformity or accident, through three-dimensional printers.

Ayoub writes in his right hand, which suffers from congenital deformity (the island)

Mansouri recounted how an online search led him to reach this student through a Canadian journalist who reported on the subject. He explained that the experiment and measurements were tested by Ayoub directly, saying, "We took the size of the hand, and we painted and printed through a three-dimensional printer, failed the first time, but the second was crowned with success."

One of the advantages of manufacturing and developing hands printed with 3D printer technology is that it is tailor-made and cost-effective compared to other advanced devices, making the lives of hand-cutters better.

Al-Mansouri did not hide that the robotic hand does not compensate for the real hand, but he believes it is similar to its functions because it is flexible, convenient and easy to handle. "Certainly, it will improve Ayoub 's ability to move his hands and will gain him greater confidence in himself," he said.

The story of Ayoub in this new juncture in his life is nothing more than a story of suffering suffered by a large percentage of Moroccan children day after day; it is estimated that out of every 700 births, one is born with congenital defects.