01 — About us
Engineering mobility in the heart of Kabul.
Tech Orthopedic Service is the workshop brand of Empor Organization — a registered Afghan NGO building world-class prosthetics and orthotics at home, since 2003.
Our mission
To restore movement, independence and dignity — to every patient who walks through our doors.
We combine genuine German components and technique with hands-on craftsmanship and long-term support, so our devices don't just fit on paper — they work in real life, on Kabul's streets, at work and at school. Best quality for better life.
02 — Our story
From a one-man workshop to a national service.
The man who built it, and the friends in Germany who carried it — these are the years.
Mid-1980s – 2003 · The founder
Wali Nawabi — the long road back to Kabul
In the mid-eighties, war forced Abdul Wali Nawabi to leave his homeland. In Germany he trained as an orthopaedic technician and practised the craft for many years — until the fall of the Taliban regime, when he chose to return and help rebuild his country. In the spring of 2003 he opened his own workshop in Kabul: one man with improvised tools, making by hand what would normally demand a fully equipped European facility, so that people wounded by war or living with disability could find a new perspective on life. Everything this house does today began with that decision.
2004 – 2005 · Empor
Friends in Germany
To put his workshop on a lasting footing, Wali joined a circle of supporters in Germany — among them Rudolf Jaerschky, who founded Empor (registered 2007, NGO #995, Ministry of Economy) and spent the last twenty years of his life gathering machines, materials and donations for Kabul. Sylvia Glaser had travelled to Kabul as early as 2004, in the earliest days of the journey; a year later Rudolf and his wife came to see Wali's work with their own eyes. What Kabul needed, these friends went out and found.
Since 2004 · Munich
The Munich lifeline
From the Coming Home office of Munich's Sozialreferat, Sylvia Glaser keeps our German side moving: she holds the relationships, collects the donated goods, runs the warehouse and arranges each container from Munich to Kabul — for two decades now.
Year after year
A warehouse full of second lives
Wheelchairs and walkers by the row, crutches by the bundle, machines from German partners — Ottobock, Streifeneder and Kurtze among them — strapped to pallets: in the Munich warehouse every donation is sorted, counted and packed. Nothing is wasted; everything is destined for a patient in Afghanistan.
Every two years
Loading day
Then comes the morning the container stands at the gate. Pallet by pallet, Sylvia's colleagues load twenty feet of hope — as they have done, faithfully, all these years. To every one of them: thank you.
Kabul
And Kabul receives
Weeks later, the doors open again — in Kabul. German machines are unwrapped and bolted to our benches; boxes become shelves of parts; patients find us. Out of these containers Wali has trained more than thirty specialists of our own and built the reputation we hold today: German quality with genuine humanitarian care.
An Afghan first
We were the first orthopedic workshop in Afghanistan to fit prosthetics with silicone liners — when almost no one in the country yet knew what they were.
With gratitude
To Rudolf Jaerschky, to Sylvia Glaser, and to every colleague who has loaded a container across all these years — this workshop stands because you carried it.
03 — Field projects
Care that travels beyond the workshop.
Alongside our day-to-day work in Kabul, Empor has delivered focused projects with respected international partners — reaching patients far from the capital.
04 — What we stand for
Principles we build by.
Precision
German materials and technique, measured tolerances and rigorous fitting — every time.
Dignity
Patients are partners. We listen, explain and respect every person's goals.
Self-reliance
Orthotic supports made in-house from raw materials, building toward full independence.
Accessibility
Outreach, referrals and follow-up so distance is never the barrier to care.
Prosthetic limbs fitted
Orthotic patients served
Years of service
Specialists & technicians
05 — Recognition
Known beyond Kabul.
More than two decades of exhibitions, international visitors and German-equipped workshops — quiet proof that the work holds up.
06 — Partners
Built with trusted partners.
We work alongside partners in Germany and the United Nations to bring world-class care to Afghanistan.
ACAP III partner (2015)
Munich · Office for Return Assistance
reintegration@muenchen.deSupporters & sponsors
Companies and organisations that back Empor e.V. with donated goods and funds — in alphabetical order.
Funded training for female technicians (2005)
NGO providing medical care and education for Afghan children
Grant funded the workshop in Kunduz
Designed the Empor logo
Cash donations for workshop equipment
Orthopaedic aids for the donation transports
Transport-cost subsidy for the aid shipments
Has supported the collection of donated goods since 2005
Orthopaedic aids for the donation transports
Works closely with Empor and organises the annual aid transports
Orthopaedic aids for the donation transports
Foundation funds care for disabled children and young mine victims
Large-scale materials for the annual transports since 2005
Several pallets of donated goods every year
Helps collect donated goods for the annual transports
Come and meet the team.
Visit our Taimani workshop for an assessment, or reach out with any question about prosthetics, orthotics or rehabilitation.