Kelvin Doe was only 13
when he was spotted in the limelight 3 years ago by MIT due to his inventions.
Hailing from Sierra Leone, Africa he became the youngest person invited to the
MIT’s “Visiting Practitioner’s Program’ after he built batteries and a
generator using just materials that he picked up from the trash bins along his
neighborhood.
Image above: Kelvin Doe a 'child prodigy'
Thanks to ’Innovate
Salone’ a national high school innovation challenge held in Sierra Leone by an
international organization called Global Minimum. That was when Doctoral student,
David Sengeh recognized his skills right away. Sengeh’s find gave Doe a chance
to be seated on a “Meet the Young Makers” with 4 American inventors during a
World Maker Faire in New York.
David Sengeh, says
unless there are a host of young people who can think, at any given point that
here’s a challenge, here’s a problem and it is an opportunity to solve it,
there won’t be a steep growth in national level.
His invention
When Kelvin realized
that he could not afford the money to purchase batteries, he had to create
them. While kids around the world were playing with electronic gadgets, Kelvin from
the same age group had to plunder from the trash bins. He needed to make his
own batteries from materials picked from rubbish to realize his ambition to
power his own home radio station project. Kelvin however did not have the
privilege to do the project in a school environment. He was more than compelled
to act out of necessity and pure joy of solving practical problems.
His own radio station
as ‘DJ Focus’
Doe, being a
self-taught engineer, has his own fully-staffed community radio station in
Sierra Leone where he broadcasts news and plays music under the nickname ‘DJ
Focus’. The generator that powers his radio station was created from a
deteriorating voltage stabilizer found in the trash. As for the transmission,
it was done with a simple antenna and the whole neighborhood can listen to it.
Light for the entire
neighborhood
Doe made a battery
with the combination of soda, acid & metal all wrapped up together by tape.
The battery that he created lights up the homes in his neighborhood. “The lights
will come on once in a week, and the rest of the month, dark” he said propelling
his desire to overcome the situation with his own genre battery.
Motto of Kelvin?
Kelvin Doe says that they
call me DJ Focus because, ‘I believe if you focus you can do an invention
perfectly.’
I hope this story will
inspire the young ones out there to fully work hard in achieving their dreams. There
are many people in the third world countries with all sorts of difficulties. But
that does not necessarily inspire everyone to invent things though there are
some cases worthy of mentions. This boy certainly has in him some qualities
that with proper training and education can do more wonders and he certainly
can excel to greater heights. It is hoped that there will be some kind souls
out there who are willing to sponsor his education to a higher level.
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