Kelvin Doe

Kelvin Doe and Radio Engineering

“ You cannot plan innovation. You cannot plan invention”. This quote was written by Eric Schmidt in relation to the engineering world. He was giving a speech on the importance of young leaders and pointed out Kelvin Doe’s hunger for knowledge and his prowess in engineering. Kelvin Doe is a young person that everyone should all take inspiration from.

Kelvin Doe is currently nineteen years old, but started his career of activism at the early age of fourteen. This young leader was born on October 26, 1996 in Freetown. He is a Sierra Leonean engineer who is mainly known for teaching himself how to engineer at the age of thirteen and building his own radio station where he played his own music under the name of DJ Focus. Doe was also one of the finalists in a competition where he built a generator from scrap metals, according to a CNN news report. His modus operandi was building transmitters, batteries and or generators from scrap pieces. Kelvin’s knack for inventing came from his desire to fix issues that his community faced.

Kelvin Doe’s activism first started when he was selected to travel to the United States and speak at the “Meet The Young Makers” panel at the World maker Faire in New York(TedxTeen). After speaking at the fair, he noticed that he wanted to keep engineering, but mainly wanted to speak to other accomplished youth about the path that they were going down and ow it could lead to so many opportunities. This is really when he started speaking to youth regularly all over the world. Encouraging them to follow their dreams, and they too could benefit to their communities. Kelvin is not apart of solely one organization or movement. But he alone has made a huge impact on the world just with his speaking to youth and his design.

Kelvin Doe mostly identified with the principle of sarvodaya. Sarvodaya is the uplift of all, and Doe was really attempting to uplift all. He was attempting to be an inspiration. That qualifies him for this principle. Uplifting all doesn't necessarily have to be direct uplifting. An individual could uplift with positive vibes, action, words; it doesn't really matter. Kelvin’s dream isn't only to become a top notch engineer. He also wanted to be a role model for those youth that were not sure what to do about the issues in their communities. He wanted to help the community help itself. During the process of doing this, he did a lot of things that were sarvodaya like. He also fits into the principle of Swadeshi. Swadeshi means local economy. Kelvin fits into this category because he was using materials from his community that were available to build something that would essentially. Help the economic state of Sierra Leone at that time. Doe attempted to raise the local economy through innovation. By building something extraordinary and being one of the very few that did so, He attracted the attention of the U.S’s programs for young leaders. This ultimately put eyes on Sierra Leone.

There is a little something called the Sharp’s Methods, and they are just 198 ways that anyone can and/or should lead nonviolently. Some a solutions to problems and others are ways to be influential. The only category that Kelvin Doe could fall into is the category of formal statements. This category mainly includes public speeches and group petitions and things of that nature. Kelvin mainly focused on public speaking and empowering children through his voice. He may not have been in the streets protesting and canvassing because those don't get people's’ attention as much as speaking to a person on an intellectual level does.

This work is important because the youth really are the future of the world. As individuals or an organization, people can do all the activist work to change the opinions and ways of adults and people of power, but are you preparing the world for the youth or are you equipping the youth with the skills they need to prosper. This is a concept that needs to be thought about really often. Uplifting the youth can be so much more than just telling them the world is messed up and teaching them ways to loop around the system. It can be taken a step further by youth conducting youth summits. It could be better by helping the children understand what they need to do.

“I believe through innovation, we can build our nation Sierra Leone. kelvin Doe gave this quote at an event while talking to children. He was attempting to convey that youth using their minds to build and create products or structures could potentially give Sierra Leonean youth and other citizens the resources to not only keep innovating, but to also build their community. The resources to build better homes, to have better sewage systems and ultimately better their country. Youth need this type of inspiration to realize issues and overcome them.


Work Cited

Kelvin Doe, TedxTeen ,http://www.tedxteen.com/speakers/kevin-doe, 2017

Kelvin Doe, Huffington Post,https://search.huffingtonpost.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&p=kelvin+doe&fr=huffpost_desktop-s, 2017, Dec 21, 2018

Schmidt,Eric, quotewise.com, Dec 21, 2018