Tinashe is a ten year old boy from Zimbabwe. He is one of three sons whose family was recently interviewed by TechZim. The family was being interviewed about their experiences starting a non-profit organization named Global Aid Missions. The company focus is on medical relief, health, education, empowerment, and advocacy and part of the company’s success lies in creating a free clinic for Zimbabweans with albinism. At this clinic, they also have free sunscreen and other essentials for people with albinism.
Interestingly enough, the couple actually started working with the albinism community several months before having their own children. Their middle child, the ten year Tinashe, casually mentioned during the interview that he is determined to build interactive video games. What a specific career choice for someone so young!
The interviewee stopped the interview to find out more and even captured a video of the interaction.
In the video you can see Tinashe’s calm and focused demeanor. Tinashe already is aware of the many different aspects of video games and is thinking of ways to combine those different aspects. He interacts with his brother on the camera like any other ten-year-old boy.
The interviewer asks him several questions about his creative process and marvels about how important it is for African’s to take on a different mindset. Instead of just being a consumer of technology, the interviewer believes it is vital that people create and build technology because this is what is valuable and marketable in today’s society.
At the end of the original article, the interviewer and writer of the original article has a special message to share with his reader.
He says if people tell the story of the young Tinashe, to let it be because he is a smart ten year old with a dream of becoming an interactive video game builder. What someone can also see by looking at the video of Tinashe is that he too has albinism. His parents started their nonprofit organization for people with albinism several months before he was born, and therefore before even knowing he could benefit from it.
But his albinism, the writer says, is not important. The writer is also affected by the condition and as someone with albinism, achievements can often be overshadowed by his “condition.” Every achievement he makes is morphed into looking at how he ‘overcame the odds.’ What odds, he asks? But the truth, for this writer at least, is that these well intended complements actually become condescending. Let the story be about Tinashe as a person.
If you are interested in supporting the family, send an email to [email protected].
Read the original article here.
