Altona North’s Beatrice is always smiling, with her mother Eleanor saying she is the happiest two-and-a-half year old you will ever meet.
However, she has had a difficult start to her life, being diagnosed with Rett syndrome, a severe condition of the nervous system which affects body movement and muscle tone.
Her mother Eleanor said Beatrice has also been biting the fleshy part of her left hand between her thumb and forefinger, which has been breaking down her skin.
She said Beatrice also has apraxia, a neurological disorder which affects the brain’s pathways in performing learned movements and started to regress in terms of learned behaviours and tasks.
“She lost the ability to self-feed,” Mrs Smith said.
“Now, it’s just trying to make progress.”
Beatrice would be one of a number of ‘need-knowers’ connected to a ‘maker’ through the Tikkun Olam Makers [TOM] movement, which creates and disseminates affordable solutions to the challenges of people living with disabilities, the elderly and the poor.
The TOM Makeathon event on Saturday, September 17 and Sunday, September 18 would involve the ‘makers’ meeting their ‘need-knower’, putting their theories designs into action and then presenting a prototype.
Yarraville ‘maker’ Desiree Riny said she had been involved with TOM since 2019.
“I started as a maker because I wanted to use my skills as an industrial designer to simply make a difference,” she said.
“This allowed me as an industrial designer to use my skills to make a micro difference in an ecosystem that needs innovative healthcare solutions for everyday people with needs.”
Details: www.tommelbourne.org
Matthew Sims
