Do you think your life is tough?

 

Name: Kelvin Doe

Nick Name: Dj Focus

Age: 18 and half years, born on October 26, 1996

Location: Freetown, Sierra Leone

Occupation: Inventor

Kelvin Doe was born in October 26, 1996 and he was raised by his mother alone… but let us go back a while. Before Kelvin was born, his mom, Ajua Daniel, traveled with her husband and four children to Liberia to work . However, the Liberian war broke out and all of them had to escape. Ajua and her children made it back to Siera Leane but her husband didn’t make it. Ajua, then met Kelvin’s dad and lived with him until she got pregnant. Kelvin’s dad asked her for abortion and once she refused, he abandoned her.

So again, Kelvin was raised by a his mom along with his 4 other siblings in one of the poorest countries in the world, Seirra Leone. I don’t know if you think your life is tough, but I think we can safely agree that Kelvin’s life as an infant and a teenager wasn’t easy at all.

So Who is Kelvin Doe?

Kelvin Doe is a young inventor from Sierra Leone. At the age of 11, he started scavenging for scrap electronics parts from dump sites. He was incredibly curious about every piece of electronics he laid his hands on, so he started breaking these devices down and trying to understand how it works. With his curiosity, he taught himself how to repair radios and how to reverse-engineer and build electronic and electrical devices needed by his community.

• In 2007, at the age of 11, Kelvin started repairing his community’s radios for free.S
• Soon after that, he moved on to build a 3 Channel mixer, a sound amplifier, and a microphone receiver which was all he needed to become a DJ. So he became his community’s DJ and he called himself DJ Focus (because he is able to think, focus and create 🙂 )
• In 2010, at the age of 14, he created his own FM transmitter and used it as his community’s first radio station (keep in mind that during that time, in rural areas in Siera Leone, the radio is still the main source of entertainment).
• In 2012, at the age of 16, Kelvin, was awarded one of the top prizes in Global Minimum’s Innovate Salone 2012 and was selected to travel to the U.S. to speak at the “Meet the Young Makers” panel at the World Maker Faire 2012 in New York.
• Kelvin officially became the youngest ever “visiting practitioner” with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) International Development Initiative.. He has also lectured to undergraduate engineering students at Harvard College.

We can all agree, that Kelvin is a prodigy who defied all odds and succeeded despite poverty and abandonment. Kelvin is presently continuing his high school education at Prince of Wales secondary school in Sierra Leone.

All the information about Kelvin Doe was collected from the videos within this post.