LIMBS FROM LEFTOVERS
Mend - NEPAL
http://www.theworldchallenge.co.uk/limbs.php
There's little in the way of formal support for disabled people in Nepal. Ganga Rayamajh's story is typical. Having lost both her legs as a baby, she had no option but to crawl to school, as her family could not afford to buy expensive imported prosthetics. But at the age of 17, thanks to New Zealand charity MEND, Ganga was finally fitted with artificial legs. Since then she has striven to improve the lives of other disabled people through local charity ASHA. In 2004, ASHA and MEND set out to develop a range of artificial limbs, tools and other mobility devices that would be within the price range of even the poorest Nepalese. They came up with an innovative cost-cutting solution – to use everyday wastes as their raw materials. Moulds for artificial legs, for example, are cast from aluminium cans, while the legs themselves are made, in part, from recycled plastics.
and
COOKING WITHOUT GAS
Foundation for Sustainable Technologies (FoST) - NEPAL
http://www.theworldchallenge.co.uk/cooking.php
In 1995, Sanu Kaji Shrestha ran out of cooking gas. So too did nearly everyone else in Kathmandu, as a countrywide shortage set in. Demand was so great Sanu had to take three days off work to queue up for more fuel. This first-hand experience of his country's dependence on external energy supplies set Sanu thinking. He began to look into sustainable energy technologies for the domestic market, researching existing designs and adapting them for the Nepalese market. In 2001 he retired from his day job to concentrate on bringing low-cost, high-efficiency energy technologies to Nepal's rural and urban poor. Measures developed to date include simple yet ingenious solar cookers and briquette presses to make smokeless fuel from waste materials.
vOTE FOR nepali project!
The voting is at:
http://www.theworldchallenge.co.uk/
Friday, October 26, 2007
4 comments:
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makes sense... happy blogging dear!
ReplyDeleteI have watched videos in youtube about the work of Sanu-solar cookers. There are many people and organizations working in this field in Nepal and Sanu is representative of them. I appreciate their work. So, promote their work by voting then.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, all the 12 finalists are great and doing fantastic work, but we know Sanu Kaji Shrestha, founder of FoST, personally and we have seen his actions.
ReplyDeleteVery important is that FoST is not targeting only one certain group or only one certain problem. They are looking for answers and solutions to stop the vicious circle the rural and urban poor are facing not only in Nepal, but on our whole planet.
With their simple, but highly effective solutions they are fighting important global problems such as:
- POVERTY (by educating and empowering communities, teach them how to save costs, creating opportunities for them to earn extra money and even start their own business)
- POLLUTION (by introducing more sustainable technologies and clean renewable energies such as solar power for daily use)
- WASTE AND GARBAGE (by using waste such as paper, saw dust etc... to make briquettes as fuel)
- DEFORESTATION (by using briquettes made from waste instead of wood)
- DESERTIFICATION / LANDSLIDES (caused by clearing of trees and plants for firewood)
- ILLNESSES CAUSED BY INDOOR AIR POLLUTION such as eye and lung diseases (by introducing more efficient cooking stoves creating less smoke)
- ILLNESSES CAUSED BY CONTAMINATED WATER such as diarrhoea, parasites, cholera... (by introducing simple water purification systems working on solar power)
- ILLNESSES CAUSED BY LACK OF HYGIENE (by introducing simple hygienic solar drying devices - food is longer kept and of better quality)
- HIGH FUEL COSTS FOR COOKING (by teaching people how to make their own fuel briquettes from waste materials, therefor lowering their daily costs of fuel (20% of daily costs). Fuels such as fire wood, kerosene and L.P. gas are becoming more and more expensive)
- OUTCASTS (by empowering and educating orphans, handicapped, blind, deaf, mentally retarded, people suffering from diseases or suffering because of an accident... FoST empowers them by education and teaches them skills enabling them to be independent and important to the community)
- TIME CONSUMING DAILY TASKS such as fetching wood for cooking (by creating more efficient cooking devices - cooking with briquettes and / or solar power)
www.gorpproductions.com
Don't forget to check page 15 in this week's NEWSWEEK - with Mike Bloomberg on the cover (The billion dollar wild card) There's an article about the Nepalese innovator Sanu Kaji Shrestha.
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