Jamaicans.Biz

Tens of thousands of amputees in the developing world wear an inexpensive prosthetic called the Jaipur Foot. However, poor patients who lose a knee joint have very few options: a titanium replacement can cost US$10,000, and crude models don’t work very well. Well, in 2009, along came Joel Sadler, a 25 year old Jamaican, who along with his Stanford University teammate, Eric Thorsell, designed the JaipurKnee, a dirt cheap US$20 solution that mimics the human joint’s natural movements. Time Magazine recently listed the JaipurKnee at #18 on their list of the Top 50 best inventions for 2009.

The JaipurKnee is made of self-lubricating, oil-filled nylon, and is both flexible and stable, even on irregular terrain. It comprises five pieces of plastic, and four nuts and bolts. It requires no special tools and takes just a few hours to manufacture. It is currently being tested in India.

But what about Sadler? Though he currently resides in California (where he attends Stanford University), USA, and has no immediate plans of returning to Jamaica, Sadler, a former Wolmer’s Preparatory and Campion College student, has said that he will continue to design products that would help Jamaica and other developing countries.

Kudos to yet another Jamaican making a valuable contribution to the world.

Danielle Brown, a Jamaican-born senior at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, was recently named a fellow of the newly opened Madeleine Korbel Albright Institute for Global Affairs. The Albright Institute will combine the expertise of the Wellesley faculty, researchers and leading public policy practitioners to educate young women for positions of global leadership.

Brown, a graduate of Montego Bay High School, will begin an intensive course this month (January 2010), taking lessons from various international relations and public policy experts, including Madeleine Albright herself (a former US secretary of state and a member of the Wellesley College class of 1959).

Brown is one of just 40 students selected to participate in the Institute’s inaugural year, and later this summer she will participate in a Wellesley-funded internship in the United States or abroad – with the goal being to apply what she has learned in a real-life setting. She is currently a political science and Spanish double major, with a strong interest in serving in the Jamaican diplomatic corps one day.

Through the Institute, she hopes that she will be able to delve deeper into issues such as gender equality, international development and poverty eradication – all perennial concerns for developing countries such as her homeland, Jamaica.

Kudos to Danielle Brown, a Jamaican star shining brightly now and for the future.