Making toys and rebuilding lives
Workshop helps people with disabilities move from charity-dependent roles to market-driven employment
Enter the 3D printer
Her way back to normal life was enabled by a strange gadget: a 3D printer.
Earlier this year, Cao visited Warm Home — a local community service center for residents with disabilities — and noticed the 3D printer. It had been donated as part of a technology empowerment initiative.
"I thought 3D printing was very high-tech, not for someone like me," she said. But with some training from CFDP-Leye, which had donated the machine, she began to learn the basics. "I realized it wasn't as difficult as I'd imagined."
Li Changsen, a technical trainer from CFDP-Leye who now works with Cao's team, said people with disabilities show exceptional focus when it comes to learning. "What I noticed is that they concentrate," he said. "They don't give up after just two days, like some able-bodied people might."
Cao had an idea which she shared with the Sanlitun subdistrict disabled persons' federation. Its chairperson, Zhang Xuechao, gave her the green light. A workshop was born this March.
Its core team comprises Cao; Wang Jing, a Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts graduate and mother of two; and Shen Liang, a programmer-turned-entrepreneur who volunteers as the workshop's technology strategist. Li Changsen provides technical support.
