AFRICA GOOD NEWS

Eco Handcarts

Kenneth Guantai — Kenya

HANDCARTS are seen everywhere in Kenya and many informal workers earn a living by using them.

They are loaded with goods at markets and used to carry bags at airports and bus stations. The pushers work hard to transfer the goods they carry, as the loads are often heavy.

They are also seen on Nairobi’s busy streets where they can hold up traffic, prompting a plan to ban them from city roads.

Kenyan innovator Kenneth Guantai came up with a smart solution. He was concerned that many informal workers would lose their living if the carts were banned. His idea was to power the hand carts with batteries that are recharged by the rotation of the carts’ wheels.

The Kenyan government supported the innovation with seed money and now many battery-powered carts are seen on Nairobi’s roads.

The eco carts have several advantages: they’re easier to use, are faster than the manually pushed carts, which makes them better in traffic, and can carry heavier loads. They increase employment opportunities because, thanks to their greater speed, the operator can squeeze in more journeys.

“We want to make the lives of all the hard-working vendors and workers across Kenya – and the world – easier, by using the energy they’re already creating to ease their load,” Guantai said.

The carts were shortlisted for the Royal Academy of Engineering’s 2019 Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation.

Farm In A Box

PAUL MATOVU of Uganda comes from a farming family, but when he moved to the capital city Kampala he had nowhere to plant veggies.

He realised there is a lot of wasted land in cities and came up with the idea of “a farm in a box”, which can be set up on any vacant patch of land, and has its own composting system.

“So many young people don’t know much about farming – and yet struggle to afford healthy food in the cities. We wanted to change that,” Matovu told CGTN News.

The wooden boxes can be used to grow both fruit and vegetables.

“We put the first tray and add soil then place the second tray; we just keep stacking trays together.”

The box farm contains a chamber in the middle where organic fertiliser is applied to boost yields.

He remembers his first months in Kampala.

“The land was very small. Every time we tried growing crops in sacks they would get washed away by the rains and so we started using boxes, playing around with boxes, and that’s when we came up with this kind of box.”

Matovu has sold his box farms to about 65 people in Kampala.

The farm in a box was shortlisted for the Royal Academy of Engineering’s 2019 Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation.

The Bicycle Man

TANZANIAN Bernard Kiwia is a resourceful man. He started off fixing bicycles and became well known locally as being able to sort out anything that might happen to a bike.

Then he started wondering what else he could do. In 2007, he attended the International Development Design Summit in the US where he was inspired by Guatemalan inventor Carlos Marroquin, who invented a device for shelling mielies, powered by bicycle gears.

Kiwia began thinking about how to help rural people in his country by solving problems using locally available materials.

As Global Shakers, a publishing platform that tells the stories of amazing innovators, points out, this approach bike; a solar-powered hot water system using old fluorescent tubes; a fruit-juice blender and a windmill-operated washing machine (he built the machine too). If the wind isn’t blowing, he can pump water from his borehole using a stationary bike.

Of the blender he says: “In the city, you can buy juice in any hotel or restaurant. But in the village, people can’t make juice because there is no electricity. Fruits come from the village, but in the village, they have fruits that they can’t finish in a season. So, the rest of the fruits they throw away.”

Not any longer, thanks to the fact they can now make juice and sell it to the cities.

He’s also working on an idea to use a bike tends to be pretty green.

In an interview, Kiwia said: “When people are in the village, they want to have the same life as people living in the cities.”

But villages are often off the grid, which makes activities like charging a cellphone, running a washing machine or heating water difficult.

But not for Kiwia. He has developed a cellphone charger powered by a to make a machine that plants seeds.

Global Shakers says Kiwia’s innovations not only ensure energy independence in often poor areas but also help start new businesses.

Kiwia co-founded Twende Social Innovation, which identifies local needs and engineers new solutions. He also runs a creative capacity-building workshop.