Meet Guled Adan Abdi, a talented boy from Somali whose passion for making electronic toys has made him famous in his country.

Guled taught himself how to make plastic
toys from bits of discarded objects. Credits:
The BBC
A 13-year-old boy taught himself how to
make plastic toys from bits of discarded
objects.
“I started making toys when I was younger. I
used to play with them without any motor.
But later I said to myself: ‘Why don’t you
make them into a moving machine?’
“So I looked at the cars in the town and
invented my toys with the same design,” he
said.
Guled has already constructed four electronic
toys, including a truck and a plane, and a
fan that can be used as a light at night. All
toys were mainly made of plastic from old
cooking oil containers.
All toys are mainly made of plastic from old
cooking oil containers. Credits: The BBC
The BBC reports that Guled lives at home
with his mother, older brother and sister. His
father disappeared in 2002 and is presumed
dead.
The boy goes to a school in Buhodle but has
missed a lot of his education and is only in
the third year at primary school.
Although his mother is working hard and
struggling to support the family, sometimes
they do not have enough money for living
and the family has to stay with relatives in a
remote area where Guled cannot go to
school.
After school, the boy dedicates hours to his
inventions working on his cars from noon to
late in the evening.
“I have never seen anyone make such things
and I was not trained by anyone. I
investigated and found out for example how
a car’s tyres turn,” he said.
Guled has constructed four electronic toys,
including a truck and a plane. Credits: The
BBC
At first, Guled’s toys did not move, but soon
he decided to connect them to a battery-
powered control box, which is marked with a
plus and minus sign.
“If it is switched to minus, the car will move
backwards, if you move the switch to the
plus it will go forwards,” he said.
The toys are made from rubbish, so the only
things he has to pay for are the batteries.
Asha Ahmed Omar, Guled’s teacher, has
always encouraged the pupil to continue
with his experimenting and bought him the
first batteries.
As his reputation has grown, many people
visit the boy to give him encouragement and
watch him at work.
A few years ago, the boy’s Maryan Hassan
was not keen on his obsession and
sometimes even threw away out his model
cars. But now she is proud of her talented
son and believes he is a genius.
Guled’ fame has spread beyond Buhodle after
his teacher told the local authorities about
her pupil.
Earlier this month, the boy travelled to
Garowe, the main town of Somalia’s semi-
autonomous Puntland region, where he met
President Abdiweli Mohamed Ali at state
house and showed him the toys. The
president was impressed by Guled’s talent
and promised him that the government
would fund his education.