Making an impact

I don't know other than that I have always been very active. When I was young I did field hockey, tennis and ice skating. In addition, I have been on skis since I was three years old. Every year we went to the mountains for three weeks. For me, sports and exercise was such a big part of my life that I also started to study in that direction: sports, health and management.

During my internship, I came across the Mentelity Foundation and got to go along to a Snowboard Fun Day on my first internship day. By witnessing how Bibian made participants with physical challenges shine, I knew I had made a good choice. Special to see how the participants gained so much self-confidence in just a few hours.

As a graduate intern, I have been working on the Re-abled project. I ended up helping to get the first participants onto Bibian Mentel Foundation's, in-house developed prosthesis, JUMP and researched the expectations of this particular modular prosthesis.

I am very happy that I now get to work with prosthesis builder Frank Jol on this project at the Mentelity Foundation. I am also following the Master's program in Sport and Exercise Innovation to make the JUMP even more valuable in the future. We are making a real impact on the life of a person with a physical challenge. I have seen people flourish now that they finally have a good prosthesis after years of poor facilities. People can do more and feel more freedom as a result. Then their physical challenge no longer feels like a limitation. With us, they don't get a prosthesis that ten years ago was said to be enough by the book. People want to be able to do more than just walk to the bank. With the right aids everything is possible, I am convinced of that and we show that.

"We are making a real impact on the life of a person with physical challenges with the Re-abled program."

Juul Tak
Re-enabled project