CLEVELAND — Eleven Cleveland Metropolitan School District students are counting down the hours until they travel to the Dominican Republic to give prosthetic devices they made themselves to children in need.
The group leaves Thursday morning for Santo Domingo, where they will work in an area hospital helping to translate for patients, transport supplies, and assist in the orthotics and prosthetics unit.
"We'll be at the hospital until the last person is seen and making sure that … they're all good, and hopefully fitting a few with prosthetics," 17-year-old Yariselle Andujar said.
This is the second overseas service trip for Andujar, a senior at Davis Aerospace & Maritime High School. Last year, she and another CMSD student traveled to Ecuador with IMAHelps, a nonprofit that runs humanitarian medical missions around the world.
"There was a little girl who we helped out and we gave her a prosthetic hand, and she was just making hearts all day (with her hand and the device) when we gave it to her," Andujar shared. "Eventually, she walked away with her uncle when she was done, and she was holding her uncle's hand with the prosthetic that we gave her."
Andujar learned how to build prosthetics after first building robots with her high school robotics team. It was all part of the Great Lakes Science Center Robotics Initiative that has a goal of increasing the number of underrepresented young people in high school robotics competitions.
"It's never been about building robots," JonDarr Bradshaw, the leader of the program, explained. "It's always been about building better people."
Bradshaw challenged his students to use the skills they learned building robots to build a better world. Andujar's robotics team responded, showing that they could utilize the same 3D printers they use to make robots to make prosthetics to fit children for less than $100.
"A prosthetic arm here in the United States costs tens of thousands of dollars," Bradshaw added. "But with a 3D printer, we could make one for about $50 or $60."
Students design the prosthetic online, then send the design to a 3D printer that creates the materials. Once the materials are done, students assemble the pieces to make the device.
"Putting them together is pretty easy," Yandel Ocasio, a 16-year-old whom Andujar recruited to the school's robotics team, said. "It’s just a great experience for me, and I just want to help others."
Andujar’s mom, Aileen Roman, was inspired by the stories from Ecuador, and is traveling to Santo Domingo with her daughter and the team to support and to serve as an interpreter.
"I was super excited for her when she went (to Ecuador)," Roman said. "(It's) double the excitement now for me to get to experience the same thing."
Sponsors fund the group. According to the Great Lakes Science Center, students will take 20 prosthetic devices they've already made with them to Santo Domingo, along with two 3D printers and additional materials to make up to 20 more prosthetics while they are in the Dominican Republic.