Shona McDonald and Vic McKinney want society's 'invisible' people to be seen.

For two Capetonians, using their passion to take on major personal challenges has transformed both their lives - and potentially the lives of hundreds of thousands of others - and made what seems miraculous the new norm.

The genesis of Shona McDonald's Shonaquip Social Enterprise, which designs and makes international award-winning assistive devices, was the birth of her second daughter, Shelly, who has cerebral palsy. McDonald resisted professional advice to place Shelly, now 42, in a home. Instead, she turned her attention to making their lives as functional as possible.

She built what she claims was the first paediatric electric wheelchair in Africa in her garage, which meant that, at 18 months old, her daughter could move herself around independently, indoors and outdoors.

"In the 1980s, even manual paediatric wheelchairs were unavailable in Africa and certainly not electric-powered ones, let alone any for children with cerebral palsy," McDonald says. "I moved on to building equipment that could be used in rugged rural areas, not just indoors and outdoors or on flat areas."

Today, ShonaquipSE offers a popular array of buggies and wheelchairs that can be adapted to...