The Power To Light the Way to Hearing Health

Sarah Cathrine Molema is Co-Founder and Managing Director of Deaftronics in Gaborone, Botswana.

By Sarah Cathrine Molema

Co-founding Deaftronics was never just about launching a product, it was about creating access, dignity, and connection where there was none.

In Botswana and across many developing regions, people with hearing loss face an invisible barrier. Standard hearing aids rely on expensive, hard-to-find batteries. Many go unused. The result? Missed school, lost job opportunities, and silence where there should be sound.

I knew that couldn’t continue.

With a small but mighty team, we developed a solar-rechargeable hearing aid system, an innovation designed to thrive where electricity may be scarce and costs must stay low. It was built not for a market, but for people. People like the young student who could finally follow lessons, or the grandmother who could rejoin lively family conversations.

Leading Deaftronics has been a journey of listening deeply, to stories, to needs, to challenges—and translating them into action. I’ve learned that change doesn’t begin with a perfect plan, but with conviction and creativity.

Today, we’ve reached thousands, and our vision keeps growing. But the heart of it all remains the same: inclusive innovation by and for the communities we serve.

When we remove just one barrier, we create a ripple of opportunity. That’s the power of purpose-driven leadership. That’s how change begins.

Sarah Cathrine Molema is Co-Founder and Managing Director of Deaftronics in Gaborone, Botswana.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-molema-1397871b/?originalSubdomain=bw