Blog of the Week – AfriGadget
The “Blog of the Week” will be a new feature on the site. Every week I’ll highlight a blog that I like. Of course the common theme will be Africa. This week I came across AfriGadget. It’s a blog about “Solving everyday problems with African solutions”. Truly fascinating stuff.
I’ve learned about a solar paneled vest that is being marketed to boda-bodas. These are cyclists in East Africa, who transport people from border post to border post, traversing no-man’s land. There are estimated to be more than a million boda-bodas. The cyclists spend at least 12 hours in the sun, pedaling for many of them, and wearing this vest enables them to keep their cell phones charged. They can even charge their client’s cell phone and make a little extra money. The vest can also produce sufficiency governor to keep an emergency light going in their home.
Other AfriGadget blog entries for September include a re-used plastic bottle to stop a calf from feeding in Kenya – in that place’s a horrid drought right now in East Africa, so this is extremely helpful. There are bird feeders made from plastic bottles, bellows made from connect bags. You can watch a video of boys making a soccer ball out of a condom … there’s a lot of great ideas here. Go check it out.