Worldwide, one in 10 children has
some type of disability, according to the United Nations Children's Fund
(UNICEF). As adults, this condition is related to a higher probability of
experiencing worse socioeconomic conditions than the rest of the population, as
a consequence of the lack of labor insertion or the higher cost of living.
One of those minors with motor
disabilities is Facu, who was born with a degenerative disease called spinal
muscular atrophy that prevents him from walking and standing. Since everyone
must stand for at least one hour a day to avoid muscle shortening and other
health problems, Facu needs a standing frame to enable him to stand upright on
a daily basis. The little boy is the son of a teacher of Argentine biomedical
engineer Alejandro Bisi (33) at the Faculty of Engineering of the National
University of Entre Rios. As a student, Bisi built the boy a device that made
him stand upright, but "it generated a lot of stress for the family
because it forced him to stay in a corner holding his ankles, knees, hips and
chest without understanding why," says the young engineer.
Subsequently, he made Facu a
motorized standing frame that, with a joystick, allows the user to move in an
upright position without external help, providing him with independence in his
daily life. Thus GiveMove was born, a company whose goal is to promote the
inclusion and autonomy of people with motor disabilities around the world. Bisi
clarifies, "I seek to stimulate standing from an early age. If there is no
habit of standing up daily since childhood, problems arise that end up in the
operating room." For this creation, the young man has become one of MIT
Technology Review's Innovators under 35 Latin America 2023 in Spanish.
For the biomedical engineer,
improving the quality of life of children with disabilities is the main
motivation behind GiveMove. The company has a plant in Argentina that produces
standing frames for childhood, adolescence and adulthood, with and without
motor. It has also created standing frames that can be transformed into beds
and kits to motorize wheelchairs. It currently markets its products in
Argentina and is in the process of homologating them in Mexico and the United
States. Future plans include expansion into Europe and Asia, as well as the
expansion of the variety of technologies it offers to continue contributing to
enhance the independence of people with mobility problems.
