Glo-Sponsored African Voices Spotlights Nigerian Prosthetics, Zimbabwean Hearing Aid Makers
This week’s edition of the Globacom-sponsored television magazine program, CNN African Voices Changemakers, will be spotlighting a Nigerian prosthetics maker, Crystal Chigbu, who established a foundation that cares for children with severed limbs due to health challenges. She will feature alongside a Zimbabwean electronics technician, Tendekayi Katsiga, who fabricated a solar-powered hearing aid with battery chargers for children with hearing defects.
Crystal Chigbu set up her Irede Foundation, following her experience caring for a child born with a congenital limb deformity. According to her, “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 the loss of limbs by giving them prosthetics”. She is a 2002 graduate of Biochemistry from the University of Lagos.
Katsiga, was inspired to create Deaftronics in Botswana following an encounter with a 15-year-old boy who could not afford a functional hearing aid. He manufactured the world’s first solar-powered hearing device complete with a battery charger called ‘Solar Ear’.
They will be 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.
