We are sharing some of the many inspiring stories from our global community. They show how robotics and WRO® have helped shape the lives of students, coaches, and mentors. This is one of them: A story about a former participant who wanted to give other kids the experience she had.

While most of her classmates packed bags for trips to their grandmothers’ villages, 13-year-old Karabo Rithuri stayed in Pretoria for a very different kind of holiday. She was one of ten students chosen for a pilot robotics programme.
“In just one month, we had to learn how to build a robot from scratch,” she recalls. “But we found strength in one another and carried each other through the process.”

A change of perspective
The project transformed her from an average student to consistently high grades in maths. It also qualified her team for the national championship – and then, unexpectedly, for the World Robot Olympiad™ International Final in Malaysia. It was her first time on a plane, her first time outside South Africa. And being very shy, it was a first stepping out of her shell.
“I was forced to put my shyness in the corner,” she remembers with a smile. “I started conversations. I built relationships. The WRO trip to Malaysia changed how I look at life. It showed me that life doesn’t begin and end in South Africa.”

The team didn’t win in Malaysia. But the bigger shock for Karabo came a few years later: her school would no longer offer robotics. There was no demand, and no equipment: “That made me sad. I wanted other students to learn what I had learnt.”

So she used her newfound confidence to ask local sponsors for equipment – the kind of support that had once opened a new world for her. They said yes. Soon she was running a robotics club at her old school, no longer a competitor but a coach.
“When children join the robotics club, they say: ‘We want to be like you.’ That keeps me going.”

Three years ago, her township team made it to nationals.
“Everything was new for them, so I thought the team might give up. But they looked at me and said: ‘We got this.’ That’s when I realised my words and my journey make a difference.”

Chain of opportunity
When Karabo talks you can sense the shyness in her. But the change of perspective she found in Malaysia has shaped her journey ever since. She now holds degrees in Finance and IT. She judges WRO competitions. And she still makes time to spark that confidence in township learners that robotics once sparked in her.

“WRO has helped me be heard, to be brave enough to speak up and challenge the norm. To say: ‘What can we do to make things better?’”

Karabo Rithuri profile:
Age: 25
Role in WRO: Mentor in schools, judge at WRO events, and liaison for the Township Robotics Programme.
Current Work: Intern at HandsOnTech.
Fun Fact: One of the region’s top 5000 m track & field athletes – known for sprinting between robotics tables just as fast as on the track.