Archive for category: Technology

Information and stories about technology news.

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Allversity: The e-Learning Program for Developing Nations

Allversity
The connection between education and poverty is a well-established one: a lack of resources often leads to deprivation of proper education, and the lack of education further fuels this cycle of poverty. Education does not only form the foundation for a healthier, safer society, but also invariably stimulates the economy by providing more jobs. Education is therefore one of the most potent tools we have today to fight global poverty.

Despite the efforts by the international communities, many regions of the world continue to lag behind in the educational arena. In many developing countries, education is inaccessible to the masses; there is a gap in basic literacy due to socioeconomic or gender status. According to UNESCO’s Education for All Global Monitoring Report that tracks the educational goals of the world, fifty-seven million children worldwide are not receiving an education. The report extrapolates the results to conclude that the world is still far from realizing the goal of universal primary education.

The facts and figures only serve to confirm the unfortunate state of education globally. Many startup companies in the western world have been attempting over the last decade to come up with innovative, technology-based solutions to the issue of illiteracy. In late 2013, a Berlin-based group of technology entrepreneurs introduced their efforts at a solution in the form of Allversity.

Allversity is a non-profit e-learning platform, which links students in the developing world with teachers and community learning centers. According to 2013 UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) report, the world needs as many as 1.6 million additional teachers to ensure universal primary education. The lack of teachers is a major factor in the gap between global educational goals and current situation. The provision of online tutoring is a creative answer to this problem

The program offers a wide variety of subject matters, from prenatal care, to first aid and basic computer skills. The learning community also offers the education of basic entrepreneurial and technology skills. Allversity also has courses for more traditional school-taught subjects, such as math, science and history. The course list is dynamic: new courses and subjects are added as per teachers’ and students’ show of interest or requirement.

The materials of the course are in English at the moment, which makes it difficult for many to benefit from the learning interface. However, plans are already under way to offer translated materials in languages such as Swahili and Arabic to effectively reach more people.

Another problem the initiative faces is the lacking internet accessibility in many remote areas of the world. Many prospective students also might not have access to a computer or electronic device, necessary for Allversity. As internet connectivity increases worldwide, however, the program will undoubtedly become more readily usable.

Moreover, there are already efforts by the program’s developers to design smartphone applications that can be used offline once downloaded. It is estimated that around 40 per cent of the African population will own a smartphone by by 2017. The mobile version of Allversity will thereby increase the enrollment of students manifold.

The program faces a few challenges down the road regarding its objectives of global education, but this remains a laudable effort in the journey towards universal education.

– Atifah Safi

Sources: Venture Village, Allversity, UNESCO
Photo: Online Universities

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Top Mobile Apps Made in Africa

Mobile_AppsMobile apps have been taking the smartphone industry by storm. While many individuals use mobile apps in their free time to play games, check the weather or follow a sports team, Africans have learned to take full advantage of the knowledge available at their fingertips.

Not only do Africans use their smartphones to make calls, send text messages and browse the Internet, but they also use their devices to access mobile money services and locate healthcare facilities.

This list compiles the most popular mobile apps in Africa that are available on either Android or iOS devices.

1. Find-A-Med
This location-based mobile application allows its users to find the closest healthcare facility. The app also provides a place where its users can store their basic healthcare information in case of an emergency. Find-A-Med is available on both Android and Apple devices.

2. PesaCalc
PesaCalc is a free Android app that allows users to streamline access to mobile money services in Kenya. This app is compatible with all three of Kenya’s mobile money services. In addition, the app allows users to prepare the correct amount of cash to send, including fees, to both registered and unregistered users.

3. SnapnSave
SnapnSave is a shopping app that gives its users cash back on their everyday grocery purchases. The app was recently launched in Cape Town, South Africa, and its developers are hoping that it will influence their consumers to make smarter purchases.

4. Wumdrop
Wumdrop is a South African-made app that allows for the delivery or picking up of packages. The user is able to request a courier, track them on a map and receive notification of the pending delivery.

5. Slimtrader
This app was founded in 2009 and is popular in Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa. Slimtrader allows its users to perform e-commerce transactions, such as buying or paying for goods and services. In other terms, the app allows its users to effectively shop by text messages. However, it is only available on Android devices.

6. M-Farm
Launched in 2012, M-Farm is primarily aimed at Kenyan farmers in order to keep them informed of crop prices and other farming-related matters. The app runs on an SMS-based service and is now available to users in five major towns in Kenya. This app is only available on Android devices.

7. Voicemap
Voicemap allows its users to explore places such as Cape Town with the help of its walking tour setting. These audio walking tours are available in voices belonging to expert correspondents, veteran broadcasters and passionate locals. This app is available on both Android and Apple devices.

8. Kids First Aid
The Kids First Aid app gives parents and teachers access to emergency first aid information when they need it. Ideally, this app will be able to give information to parents when they are travelling in a place where they do not speak the local language or when help is not readily available. This app is available only on Apple devices.

9. Suba
Suba is a location-based group photo album that creates a group photo stream. Once the stream is created, users can add pictures and send invites to others. Suba is available on both Android and Apple devices.

10. Safari Tales
Safari Tales was developed in order to eliminate the shortage of books in Kenya. The app is interactive and available in multiple languages. Safari Tales offers African stories that may not be easily found in countries that lack educational books for children. This app is available on Android devices.

– Kerri Szulak

Sources: IT News Africa, Voices of Africa
Photo: Flickr

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Are Drought-Resistant Crops the Solution to World Hunger?

drought-resistantRecently, genetically modified crops have received much criticism in the media. Despite the absence of any concrete scientific data that proves otherwise, opponents remain wary of crops changed by genetic engineering.

However, genetic engineering remains a technique of key significance in food sciences. Researchers have aimed their endeavors towards manipulations of crop genome that could alleviate hunger and malnourishment worldwide. New strains of food crops are being engineered that are better in nutritional value and resistant to environmental disasters.

One of the most significant research areas in this field focuses on making the crops drought-resistant. Drought remains one of the biggest challenges in the provision of food worldwide. Most of the world’s undernourished population is geographically concentrated in the driest areas of the world; this makes their food supply even more susceptible to droughts. The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) reports droughts to be more severe in effect than any other physical hazards. The recent droughts in Kenya and China are proof of the calamitous effects of droughts on food production.

To offer a solution to this problem, many researchers globally are focused on introducing drought-resistant genes into common staple food crops, such as wheat, rice and barley.

In any plant organism, there are multiple genes that interact to form a complexity of arrangement that affects the plant’s response to a stressor, such as drought. One of the most important known plant chemicals that affects a plant’s reaction to the environment is abscisic acid.

Abscisic acid is a plant regulatory hormone that controls a plant’s osmotic responses to external stimuli at a cellular level. As the water level available to the plant drops, abscisic acid regulates the ionic flow through the cellular membranes. This changes the osmotic pressure within the cell, which ultimately leads to closing of stomata — the pores in the leaves of a plant that are responsible for loss of water to the environment. This conserves water within the plant, allowing it to survive in dry conditions.

To enable the plant to survive in dry conditions, the loss of water from the plant body has to be minimized. This can be achieved through abscisic acid dependent regulatory pathways. This is done by increasing the expression of abscicic acid, but only under certain conditions.

Transcription factors in a genome are non-coding parts of the organismal DNA that control the rate of transcription of a particular gene, and therefore the amount of transcribed product—usually a protein—produced. By increasing the amount of osmotic regulators in the plant as a response to environmental stimuli, the plant can conserve water resources and tolerate drought much better. The abscisic acid molecule then regulates the gene expression of other genes within the genome that are induced or repressed to tackle external stress on the plant.

So far, much progress has been made in this field: successful transgenic manipulations have resulted in more drought-resistant lines of wheat and rice. However, as with all genetically engineered products, the progress made is only a fraction of the knowledge that is necessary for reliable products. The genome of any plant is vastly complex: many different genes, transcription factors, and regulators interact simultaneously to generate any desired phenotype, such as drought-resistance. More research efforts are necessary in successfully implementing these crops as an effective solution to hunger.

– Atifah Safi

Sources: National Center for Biotechnology Information 1, SpringerLink, National Center for Biotechnology Information 2, Oxford Journals – Journal of Experimental Botany
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

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#Donate

#Donate
#Donate: If the single most characteristic feature of the 21st century was chosen, social media would definitely be among the forerunners for the title. In the past decade especially, the advent of social media has taken over our lives. From MySpace to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram et cetera, the world of social media has become grown exceptionally.

The takeover by social networking sites and apps is generally taken in a negative context. There is always a never-ending stream of criticisms directed at the virtual world. The critics often propagate the notion of social media desensitizing people to the real world problems. These arguments, while not entirely untrue, completely disregard social media’s potential for positive impact, if used wisely.

Recently, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge campaign received much media frenzy. It was also successful in raising awareness as well as donations for its cause. The “tagging” process, such as #Donate, through social media websites led to a massive campaign, which also involved many celebrities.

Popular Facebook page “Humans of New York” managed to raise $1.2 million in a campaign for an inner-city school. The catalyst-a viral photograph of an inspiring middle school boy.

A photograph of a Filipino boy doing his homework under the light of a McDonald’s restaurant posted on Facebook went viral, as it was shared almost 7,000 times. The significant number of people interested in contributing to the boy’s education led to the establishment of an online fundraising campaign. The campaign generated enough funds to cover nine-year old Daniel up till college.

These stories, and many more like these, establish the significance of social media in modern world activism. The creation of social media websites has enabled an unprecedented platform to create awareness for the issues in the world. Pages like GoFundMe or Network For Good allow for anyone and everyone to start fundraising campaigns for a cause they hold near and dear.

In the fast world of social media however, fundraising can sometimes become a challenge as well. The campaigns like the ALS fundraiser require the donor to go to a separate website and then donate. As easy as it is to type a web address and make a few simple clicks, it is still somewhat of a hassle for social media users. Mostly attuned to “liking” or commenting on statuses, the process of redirecting to other websites can be annoying for the users.

This has given rise to “slacktivism”—where “activists” on social networking websites become slackers in actual donation process. In the ALS campaign, for example, the donors were far outnumbered by the people who shared the videos.

To assist the users in donating quickly and efficiently, a Washington DC-based startup Good World has come up with an innovative idea. They partner with a network of nonprofit charities. Users need a one-time signup for Good World to contribute to any charity of their choice within their network. To donate, the users simply need a hashtag of donation and their choice of amount of contribution typed into the comments section.

The system of commenting also simplifies the process of further promoting the campaign. Instead of having to “share” their donation through separate websites, the comment can be directly viewed by the user’s friends. This also gives them a faster way to make a contribution by simply commenting on the thread. The web service also forwards tax-deductible receipts to the registered email address.

The service has certain caveats: almost five percent of the donated amount is automatically deducted to fund the technology itself. There is also a 2.2 percent processing fee associated with the service. The additional charges may serve to distance some users.

In spite of the challenges, Good World is a valuable innovation in ensuring our technology remains up to speed with our generosity.

– Atifah Safi

Sources: Good World, Wall Street Journal, Daily Mail, PBS, Washington Business Journal
Photo: The Guardian

The New Three-Minute Diagnosis of HIV/AIDS

HIV/AIDSThe World Health Organization lists HIV/AIDs as one of the major health issues to plague the world today. The disease so far has claimed over 39 million casualties and approximately the same number of affected patients.

The viral infection has been notoriously associated with poverty; 70% of the cases arise from the Sub-Saharan African region, which remains one of the poorest areas in the world to date. The issue in its particular prevalence in the poorer regions is not a direct socioeconomic correlation. Rather, it is a manifestation of the lack of access to diagnostic and therapeutic facilities.

HIV, or Human Immunodeficiency virus, is a retrovirus that is the causative agent for AIDs: Acquired Immune Deficiency syndrome. The disease is infectious, that is it spread from person to person through contact with blood serum. As of yet, the disease remains untreatable. The only effective course of action as of yet is antiretroviral therapy, which slows the spread of the virus.

To maximize the rate of success in treatment, as well as implement effective preventative measures for the infection, timely diagnosis of the disease is vital. The diagnosis involves a test that screens the blood of the patient. In response to the virus in the bloodstream, antibodies are created against the foreign viral DNA in the body. These antibodies are then analyzed through enzymatic assays.

The process of diagnosis can be inaccessible in some areas, as well as time-consuming. In many developing countries, the most effective means of diagnosis and testing is Point of Care testing. Point of Care testing provides for faster diagnostic techniques, which can be administered anywhere. These tests are also generally less invasive and expensive.

Recently, a Canadian company MedMira has utilized these useful aspects of Point of Care testing to introduce a diagnostic tool for HIV/AIDS. The device, called Reveal G4 Rapid HIV-1 Antibody Test, is currently in the process of premarket approval by the Food and Drug Administration for sales in the United States.

The device uses the Rapid Vertical Flow Technology platform to detect the HIV-type 1 virus. Unlike traditional lab tests, however, it can detect the exposure to the HIV virus within three minutes. The test involves mixing the sample from the patient—typically a blood drop taken with the auto-pipette provided—with a provided buffer solution.

The resulting solution is then poured on the provided “cartridge.” The cartridge contains a membrane, which is composed of peptide chains specifically designed to bind with HIV antibodies. A colloidal solution of gold and proteins then helps to visualize the presence or absence of the antibodies.

The effectiveness of the test is made more significant due to the fact that the test results are simplified. The results of the assay do not require special training to interpret. In the event of positive exposure to the HIV virus, the test cartridge shoes a red line and a parallel dot. In the event of negative results, only the vertical line is visible. The test is also useful in its versatility of viable samples: it can test whole blood, plasma, as well as serum.

The product is estimated to be cost-efficient as well to make it more accessible for developing countries, and favorable for Western consumers. The method of Point of Care testing here, as with other such techniques, has the issue of providing adequate technical assistance to healthcare providers. However, it is important to note that no rapid screening test provides delivers 100% sensitivity and specificity.

The Reveal G4 Rapid HIV-1 Antibody Test remains a promising new tool in the provision of diagnostic—and consequentially preventative—healthcare facilities for HIV/AIDS.

– Atifah Safi

Sources: WHO, The Chronicle Herald, MedMira 1, MedMira 2, Lab Tests Online
Photo: Sense & Sustainability

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Mobile Technology Poised to Generate Land Ownership for 4 Billion People

land_ownership
For the world’s poorest and most vulnerable populations, land ownership is an economic resource and critical determinant of social and cultural identity. But for the 4 billion people who live without registered land, landlessness can mean economic insecurity, no personal address with which to vote or receive aid, and a constant state of disputation and residential impermanence.

One implication of massive concentrations of unregistered land is the loss of wealth that they have the potential to generate. But perhaps more importantly, the absence of established land title systems means that property ownership is not guaranteed. As Devex development reporter Naki Mendoza notes, this has serious consequences for developing countries.

“Farmers cannot legally pass down ancestral lands to their children. Families cannot secure a mortgage or use property as collateral for a loan,” he writes. “And local communities are shut out from negotiations with extractive companies. For governments, it represents a sizable loss of tax revenues or, crucially, a foreign direct investment that will never be made because of uncertainty over property rights.”

Data accumulation mechanisms are poised to remedy these problems by streamlining land registration and giving local communities the ability to monitor and enforce their rights to their land. Data and analytics company Thomson Reuters has created a proprietary land information system that digitizes and archives land deeds in government databases, a practice that safeguards against the loss or damage of paper deeds.

Like mobile banking or online healthcare, digitization can reduce the opportunity cost of land registration from a multiday journey to a local registrar to a minutes-long mobile upload. The digital platform is also linked to satellite mapping systems, which provide updated property lines and can be used to mediate disputes between families, communities or even multinational extraction companies.

As Mendoza points out, these digital platforms have yielded concrete results. In Cape Town, South Africa, 915,148 properties were reported on its tax roll last year, up 66% since 2000. In Jamaica, it now takes only two days to register new property, down from 45 days in 2005. In the Philippines, nearly 60,000 urban land titles are issued each year, compared to just a few thousand as of five years ago.

With increasingly large and accessible quantities of land management data, a number of global institutions have commenced programs to secure land rights for the world’s 4 billion landless people. Earlier this month, at the Third International Conference on Financing and Development in Addis Ababa, the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the World Bank signed a Declaration of Intent to establish a Network of Excellence on Land Governance in Africa (NELGA) to establish a widespread system of land registration and land rights. NELGA will complement the existing Land Policy Initiative, whose stated purpose is “to enable the use of land to lend impetus to the process of African development.”

“Secure access to land and other natural resources is of vital importance for the people in rural areas of Africa,” said German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Dr. Gerd Müller. “It will be an important contribution for food security and growth in the agricultural sectors, especially for smallholders.”

The demand for online land management services marks an opportunity for American companies looking to apply data and analytic systems to relieve people living in states of extreme poverty. It would also help millions of people establish a state of permanency for themselves and their families, which precedes activities like consumption and local investment. As land registration becomes more accessible for those living in extreme poverty, demand for modern information systems will become more widespread, and the door will continue to open for American technology companies and mobile developers in developing regions.

– Zach VeShancey

Sources: Devex, Leadership, Rural Poverty Portal
Photo: Devex

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E-Library Program to Improve Literacy in South Africa

e-library
For centuries libraries have functioned as centers of knowledge and learning. Today, with information and communication technology (ICT) developments and ever-growing Internet access, people are turning to e-libraries as the next literacy-promotion frontier.

In partnership, Vodacom, Huawei Technologies, the Department of Basic Education and the Nelson Mandela Foundation have created an e-libraries program that will span 61 Vodacom ICT resource centers across South Africa.

This program will provide 400 tablets, courtesy of Huawei Technologies, loaded with content spanning a variety of subjects, including business and entrepreneurship, African literature and history, in addition to fictional e-books. The vast array of reading material will be available in all 11 official languages of South Africa, ensuring unbiased access.

Each resource center will be equipped with at least six tablets preloaded with e-book content that are also Web-accessible, enabling users to download materials from the Internet. Vodacom promises to supply Wi-Fi to students and members of the communities serviced by the e-library tablets.

The e-libraries initiative offers an efficient means of keeping learning materials up-to-date, as Vodacom’s Mthobeli Thengimfene explained: “We are able to continuously update the content remotely without having to go to the centers and people will be able to download the books they are interested in.”

Although South Africa ranks higher than Sub-Saharan countries for simple literacy, some 5 million South African adults’ education does not even extend to completion of the seventh grade.

In order to ensure that South Africa’s population achieves true literacy, including the ability to comprehend the meaning of written material, supplemental instruction and resources become important factors. Unfortunately, there is a shortage of these resources.

“Access to reading material is a major challenge in South Africa,” said Vodacom Group CEO, Shameel Joosub. A large number of the country’s students are unable to utilize traditional library resources or reading material, Joosub went on to explain.

However, many South Africans have access to smartphones and the savvy to engage with ICT devices. The e-library program seeks to build on this affinity to engage more people in literacy programs.

“We want to encourage learning. It’s not only about the books but it is also about forming reading clubs around each of the centers,” Thengimfene said.

The e-libraries initiative is just a small part of Vodacom’s Mobile Education Program, a seven-aspect plan that focuses on teacher-development. However, the solid partnership behind the e-libraries initiative gives it an extra edge. It is clear that all the organizations are passionate about literacy and the new equity they hope it will promote.

“Between 2015 and 2030 we do not only speak about quality education,” said Enver Surty, Deputy Minister of Basic Education, “but about quality education that is a human right and that is a public good and a public interest.”

– Emma-Claire LaSaine

Sources: IT News Africa, IT Web Africa
Photo: E-book Creators

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The Silver Standard for Eradicating Malaria

eradicating_malariaEvery minute, a child dies from malaria. 90 percent of the deaths from malaria occur in the poorest African countries. Malaria is a preventable, treatable disease, yet more than half of the world’s population continues to be at risk.

Malaria has long been established as a poverty-related disease. Poverty is both a cause and effect of this potentially lethal disease: poorer people can often not afford preventive measures, and the contraction of disease leads to further economic loss. Consequentially, a substantial investment of time and resources into finding a solution is necessary to interrupt this vicious cycle.

The most successful method to combat the problem has been vector control- that is, to eradicate the mosquito transfer agent. Traditionally, the efforts have been to implement better preventative measures, primarily through insecticides, which are both expensive as well as environmentally harmful.

A more modern approach to the problem is to employ biotechnology to eliminate the mosquito vector more economically and effectively. This encompasses targeting the mosquito at a subcellular level by using a cytotoxic agent- that is a chemical that disrupts the mosquito’s cellular machinery.

Of these methods, the use of silver nanoparticles is becoming increasingly popular as nanotechnology advances. Silver nanoparticles are miniscule, nanoscale pieces of silver, which is highly toxic at cellular levels. This toxicity is being explored in its usages as antimicrobial and pesticidal agent.

Silver nanoparticles are traditionally synthesized using laboratory-grade reagents, which tend to be expensive and not readily available. Many researchers are now looking to phytosynthesis as an answer. The process of phyto-synthesis manipulates the ability of plants to carry out reactions to use in chemical synthesis. For instance, the phytosynthesis reaction of plants can be alternatively used to reduce silver ions to silver atoms.

Recent endeavors to utilize the phytosynthesis capabilities of plants have centered on the use of plant waste products to maximize productivity and minimize cost. In a recent study, researchers used the husk of coconut plant- abundant in the tropical regions plagued by malaria. They used the husk of coconut, which is a waste product from the fruit, to synthesize silver nanoparticles from silver nitrate. The synthesis eliminated the use of a synthetic reagent, and achieved successful results.

The nanoparticles produced were then used by the researchers to treat larval Culex quinquefasciatus, a species of mosquitos found in sub-tropical regions which is similar to the malaria mosquito in its transmission mechanism. The nanoparticles were observed to have significant larvicidal effect on the mosquito.

The study indicates the great potential of phytosynthetic methods to produce cheap and effective insecticides. By using plants indigenous to the tropical areas where malaria is most prevalent, the insecticidal measures of prevention can be made more accessible to the people. The use of waste products of coconut in the process is considerably cost-effective and eco-friendly.

Although the implementation of these innovative techniques may be some way in the future, ingenuity in research offers promising new horizons for a better, healthier world. To borrow Einstein’s words, it is time our technology caught up with our humanity.

– Atifah Safi

Sources: WHO 1, WHO 2, Science Direct
Photo: Flickr

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E-Voucher Program in Zambia to Bolster Agriculture

E-VoucherFaced with corruption, Zambia turns to mobile phones. Within the next two to three months, the country will launch a system of e-vouchers operating through mobile phone networks that will cut out the middleman and allow farmers to choose which agro-dealers they would like to purchase from directly.

The e-voucher program, just recently approved by the Zambian government, will cover seeds, fertilizers and herbicides, offering subsidized agricultural products to small-scale farmers. Access to farming products and services, it is hoped, will also become more speedy and efficient through use of the new system.

The Zambian government and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) jointly facilitate the e-voucher project. The system will also benefit from US $6.5 million and US $9.7 million in funding from the Norwegian government and European Union respectively.

Functioning on a mobile phone network, the e-voucher initiative is an update on previous paper voucher systems. The digital nature of the e-voucher platform makes the process more secure and expedites trade through automatic payments to suppliers upon successful e-voucher redemption, keeping with the rising trend of mobile phone banking throughout Africa.

Many have high hopes for the e-voucher program, believing that it will empower farmers, whose crops make up 12 percent of Zambia’s exports.

“It gives farmers a choice in where they want to spend their money,” stated Zambia’s FAO representative, Noureddin Mona. “A farmer can use their voucher at any participating agro-dealer.”

Roger Phiri, president of the National Association for Peasant and Small-Scale Farmers, also holds this belief, stating that the use of e-vouchers will serve to prevent monopolies by agro-distributors.

It is important to note, however, that the e-voucher system will only empower farmers so far as their suppliers are in the system as well. In order for farmers to buy from a diverse range of suppliers, said range of agro-dealers must be e-voucher network members.

“The e-voucher system will only be appropriate if the voucher pack provides for diversity of inputs and services for a farmer to choose from,” said Agnes Yawe of Participatory Ecological Land Use Management. Yawe added that, while strong urban networks of major agro-dealers exist, rural networks remain subpar.

After initial tests in twelve districts yielded promising results, Zambia recently decided to expand its e-voucher system through a 28-district follow up test. The program also builds on successes of similar e-voucher initiatives in Rwanda, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

The partners hope to attract participants by offering farmers who register pre-paid e-vouchers worth US$53. Ideally, the e-voucher system will not only expedite agricultural deals, but also empower small-scale farmers.

– Emma-Claire LaSaine

Sources: Sci Dev Net, IT Web Africa, World Trade Organization
Photo: PxHere

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WakaWaka is “Sharing the Sun”

WakaWaka
The Personal Solar Power Station is energizing Haiti with a mission to bring the 1.3 billion people in the world without electricity the basic right to energy.

Energy poverty’s progress has been regressing in over a quarter of the world’s population. According to the WakaWaka site, hundreds of millions face regular blackouts, and, even if they have access to kerosene lamps, they are extremely inefficient, dangerous and expensive, and also pose risks to health and the environment.

WakaWaka, which translates to “Shine Bright” in Swahili, works to create and market advanced solar-powered lamps and chargers at affordable costs. WakaWaka works to replace kerosene lamps with safer, cheaper and more sustainable energy sources, and their off-grid solar powered products do just that.

Intivation, a mobile solar products manufacturer, partners with WakaWaka Light to patent and distribute the most efficient models for solar technology.

The self-proclaimed impact-driven social venture fights to abolish energy poverty throughout the world with its original lamps. Currently, WakaWaka Power produces the “most compact power station in the world.”

What began as a kickstarter via crowd funding developed from a “buy one, give one campaign” to a full-blown sustainable enterprise and benefit corporation.

Maurits Groen and Camille van Gestel launched WakaWaka in 2010. They looked to revolutionize the energy market in South Africa by designing “an ultra-efficient LED lamp.” The award-winning model took first place in an international competition for emission-reduction ideas. WakaWaka’s bright future developed in its vision for bringing South Africans living off the electricity grid the chance to try solar-powered lamps.

Five years running, WakaWaka found partners around the world, from NGOs to national and local companies. WakaWaka lamps are charged by nothing but the sun. As of 2013, more than 12,000 LED lamps were provided to Haitian communities without electricity. WakaWaka also provides its lamps to Syrian refugees and those hit by typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.

Mali, Liberia and Indonesia have also been impacted by WakaWaka’s off-grid lighting solutions. So far, WakaWaka has been established in more than 200 aid, crisis, and relief projects among developing nations.

The business model follows that all proceeds made from Western purchase go toward making them freely available to off-grid areas around the world at much lower prices.

As if WakaWaka was not doing enough, every WakaWaka product sold in the United States donates a WakaWaka Light to The International Rescue Committee, one of the world’s leading humanitarian aid organizations that has helped deliver tens of thousands of WakaWakas in regions that need them most.

– Lin Sabones

Sources: Waka-Waka, Kickstarter
Photo: Kickstarter