Beverly Bizeki
It is one thing to talk about digitalization and another to bring meaningful inventions to the people but 18 year old Zimuto High School leaner who is also Child Vice President Theophelus Beans has defied the odds to actually walk the talk on the much talked about topic by bringing an invention which is likely to allay the challenges of people with visual impairments and the deaf too.
Moving in line with the theme of digitalization in the junior parliament, Beans who also doubles as child Minister of Health and Child Care has invented a digitalized walking stick to help children with disabilities.
Speaking to TellZim News Beans said the walking stick was now available but lacked funding for mass production to be able to cater for more children with visual impairments in the country.
“I went to conduct a health survey at Copota School for the blind and some of the issues that I picked from our discussion was that there was need for walking canes, the general stick. In the junior parliament we are working on the theme of digitalization so I decided to digitalize the walking stick.
“I looked for resources for the walking stick and found them in Bulawayo and started to work on the project from scratch with funding from my school and the Ministry of Youth with a Bulawayo based company.
“The walking stick is now present and functional and ready to be deployed but the challenge now is on the lack of funding for mass production because currently we have only one stick,” said Beans.
He said the walking stick which is custom made assists the visually impaired in navigating spaces where they walk as it is able to sense the objects on the surroundings as well as water.
“The stick is programmed to sense objects at one meter so it makes it easier for the user to navigate their surroundings without hitting objects or people, it also has a water sensor to help users avoid walking into pools of water.
“The walking stick is also unique as it beeps in different sounds when it senses an object closer by or water, it also has different vibrations for deaf people. The beeping sounds also alert people around as well,” said Beans.
Beans further said digitalizing the stick helps in increasing its durability as it depreciates at a slower rate because it has lower chances of hitting objects.
Beans is a lower six student at Zimuto High School in Masvingo studying Mathematics, Physics and Computers and was selected into the junior parliament recently.
