On Tuesday, students from Ridley College in Canada and Jacaranda School for Orphans in Chigumula, Blantyre, unified for one purpose: Assembling prosthetic hands.
After assembling, the hands are sent to countries, where they are given to children that have lost their hands through, among other incidents, wars.
In their quest to assemble the artificial hands, the students used their talent to draw artworks on the bags in which the artificial hands are placed.
They crafted the artworks to show love to children that will benefit from the prosthetic hands.
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Among other things, the students drew flowers and other drawings on the bags as a way of expressing love to would-be recipients of the artificial hands.
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Students from Ridley College have been coming to Jacaranda School for Orphans for activities in art and science.
Rob Burke from Ridley College, who has been coming to Jacaranda School for Orphans for years, said, apart from embarking on other activities, students from the two schools decided to assemble artificial hands as one way of bringing about positive change to the society.
“In Canada, we have a company known as Odyssey Teams that puts together build-a-hand kits. These kits come with all the parts that one needs to assemble and one simply has to follow instructions,” Burke said.
He said once assembled, the artificial hands are sent back to the company to do a quality check before being dispatched to hospitals and other places where they are needed.
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“And, so, in the process, the students also draw artworks on the bags and the idea is to show their creativity but also send messages of love to children that will receive the artificial hands,” he said.
River Wolfe from Ridley said she was happy to work with fellow students from Jacaranda School for Orphans.
“It is quite a process to assemble the artificial hands but, through teamwork and by following instructions, we did it,” Wolfe said.
Alinafe Mawindo, who is in form four, said, through the assignment, they have learnt that they can partake in projects that can change the world for the better.
“We have also learned that one can assemble these artificial hands easily and this is part of science and, then, we also had drawings. This shows that art and science move together,” Mawindo said.
Marie Da Silva, who is the founder of Jacaranda School for Orphans, hailed Ridley College for bringing such a project to Malawi.
“The students have learned that they can do more to help change the world and this is one of the things they can do to change the world. This has also challenged us to do something to create things that can bring about change. The students have also been encouraged to pursue science and art subjects,” she said.
