From: Yona Maro

Kelvin Doe found that batteries were too expensive for a project he was working on in 2009. He used acid, soda, and metal parts that he found in trash bins in his neighborhood to build his own battery. Doe, then a 13-year-old from Sierra Leone, constructed a generator to light his home and operate an FM radio station that he built. He now employs his friends at the radio station.

Doe’s inventions caught the attention of David Sengeh, a doctoral candidate at MIT Media Lab. Doe participated in a solutions challenge Sengeh launched in 2012 asking “students to invent solutions to problems that they saw in their daily lives.”

Sengeh, also a Sierra Leonean, wanted to enable youth in developing countries to find solutions to local problems. Sengeh arranged for Doe, one of three winners, to become a resident practitioner at the MIT Media Lab.

It is the very shift in values and access to technology that is empowering millions of youth like Doe and Sengeh to overcome present challenges. The idea of success is changing as youths work tirelessly for their collective future. Young people are bound to invent a brighter future!
Link:
http://blogs.worldbank.org/youthink/young-people-will-invent-their-future

Yona Fares Maro
Institut d’études de sécurité – SA