The tremendous effort being made by Nigeria’s Crystal Chigbu to assist children with severed limbs has caught the attention of CNN African Voices Changemakers as the programme will this weekend feature the prosthetics maker as its special guest.
African Voices is sponsored by digital solutions provider, Globacom, and will this weekend also feature Tendekayi Katsiga, a Zimbabwean electronics technician who was the first to make a solar-powered hearing aid with battery chargers for children with hearing defects.
The Nigerian, Chigbu, attended the University of Lagos where he studied Biochemistry. She says of her passion, “seeing other children and families go through the same process without a clear view on how to adapt to the challenges of living with limb loss gave vent to the creation of Irede Foundation which has, since inception, restored hope to children living with loss of limbs by giving them prosthetics”.
Katsiga, who had a chance encounter with a 15-year-old boy who could not afford a functional hearing aid, was motivated to establish Deaftronics from a workshop in Botswana from where he manufactured the world’s first solar-powered hearing device complete with battery charger called ‘Solar Ear’.
African Voices Changemakers airs on CNN on DSTV channel 401 on Saturday at 9.30 a.m. Repeats of the engaging edition will be broadcast on Sunday at 4.30 a.m., 7.30 a.m., 12.30 p.m. and 7.30 p.m. Another repeat comes up on Monday at 4.00 a.m., while a two-part, fifteen-minute repeat will be shown on Tuesday and Wednesday at 6.45 p.m.
