Industrial engineer Guillermo Martinez purchased his first 3D printer for $172 in 2017, and them promptly started watching YouTube tutorials that showed how to build robots and other devices for fun. One day, he stumbled upon a tutorial for a prosthetic hand, and that video changed his life forever. “I started making many 3D-printed hand prostheses for fun…then I thought to myself, ‘what if this can actually help someone?’ I had already prepared my trip to Kenya and I contacted the NGO Bamba Project, as well as one of the orphanages that operates in Kenya. I didn’t think I was going to find anyone,” said Martinez. Read more for a video and additional information.
“The initiative develops collapsible devices that allow you to grasp and hold objects up to 10 kilograms in weight. One of its major advantages is they only costs $50 each. The devices are made of plastic and their mechanism consists of high-tension wires and rubber bands — this combination, when a person’s natural joint is rotated, creates a prehensile movement in the fingers of the prosthesis,” reports Business Insider.
