Written by Annelise Jeske from MakerBot
I first heard about the Robohand project last October when Ivan reached out to MakerBot to see if we might be interested in donating a Desktop 3D Printer to the cause. Gavin, on our support team, sent Ivan’s email along to me and my colleague Andrew, and we found the story to be incredibly inspiring and worth pursuing. It took us a bit of time to get all the right sign-offs, but eventually we were able to donate two MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printers to Robohand – one was sent to Ivan in Washington State and one was sent to Richard in South Africa. For the next few months we followed the project from our offices in Brooklyn, New York. Checking the Robohand blog and sharing the stories with my coworkers became my favorite part of the day.
As the videographer at MakerBot, I kept coming back to the thought that a video about how Robohand is using their MakerBots would be quite powerful. I presented the idea to my team, got approval, and bought a ticket to Johannesburg.
I didn’t quite know what I was getting myself into when I landed in Jo’burg. I’d been Skyping and emailing with Rich for a while by that time and I knew he’d set up time with some of the children using Robohands. But at that point, the trip was mostly fueled by trust and inspiration. I have to admit – my first morning in South Africa was a bit overwhelming. I’d messed up my rental car reservation, my bank had frozen my account, and driving on the left side of the road is way more challenging than I had expected. But when I finally met up with Rich and his lovely wife Beth, all my troubles melted away. They were incredibly warm and friendly and I knew I was in good hands.
On Friday we met with Liam and his family. I shot footage of Liam getting a larger size Robohand and interviewed his mom Yoldandi. On Saturday Dylan came out to Rich’s for his very first Robohand. Seeing the joy on his face the first time he tried on his new mechanical hand and noticing the tears form in his mother’s eyes gave me chills. It was in that moment that I knew that the Robohand story is as precious as I thought it might be – and that I would have the opportunity to share part of that story with the world. On Monday Waldo came with his mom to get a resized Robohand from Rich, and I got the last of the footage for my shot list.
Rich and Beth stuffed gifts into every pocket of my suitcase to bring back to the team at MakerBot, and waved goodbye. I’m back in the States now and can’t stop telling everyone about the wonderful people I met, and the wonderful project they’re working on. I am so honored to be able to take part in sharing this story with the world, and I can’t wait to see what becomes of it.
Go Robohand!
