Today each group presented their ideas and prototypes. Every group has a great idea to improve quality of life in Gatunga.
From this point until the end of the semester, the teams will take the feedback they got from their presentations and develop their ideas further, hopefully presenting a finished product.
An overview of each team’s idea:
Team Jamii (Community in Swahili)
The main idea: Find a way for clay to be useful
Clay is a resource which is abundant in the area, but the process of firing clay to make it stable is something the community does not have access to.
The other issue is that making things with clay uses a lot of water, which is a resource hard to come by in the area.
The team’s goal is to find a way to fire the clay and glaze it in some way so that community members can use it for refrigeration pots, beads, storage, and cookware.
One of their ideas is to use the existing saltwater well for clay, because the water isn’t used for drinking.
Once the process is perfected, members of the community could use the skills to create items to use themselves or to sell in the market, creating an income.
The main idea: Educate women about the process of making products from honey and beeswax.
The goal of this project is to provide the women of Gatunga with the skills and resources to create products like lip balm, antiseptics, and bug repellent with honey and beeswax.
Members of the community have their own beehives, so they can use the honey and wax they harvest at the maker’s space to create products they would like to sell at the market.
The main focus at this point is on lip balm. The process of making it is simple, doesn’t create a lot of waste, and doesn’t take very much time.
The women can create these products and hopefully see a return on their investment when they sell their products at market.
The main idea: to create a single family home water filtration system that uses materials found in Gatunga
The challenge for this group is to create a water filter that can clean out some of the main problems in the water supply. Right now, many people are using water that is black with mud.
Although the simple fabric filtration system the team has come up with will not filter out viruses or other potential harmful things, it does make the water cleaner and better for uses like washing clothes or dishes.
The system is very simple, requiring only a container, muslin fabric, and a rope to secure the fabric
The water comes out looking much clearer, and would definitely be an improvement compared to the muddy water.
The main idea: providing an entrepreneurial platform for the women of Gatunga.
This team has created a way for the women of Gatunga to sell the beautiful items they create, like kiondo bags and colorful fabrics.
They have the idea to create a look book, which tells Aniceta’s story and also shows inspiration for the products the women create. This book will hopefully be sold as a fundraiser to support the website and project itself.
The website will be called merry go strong, a play on the idea of the merry go round in the village, where people lend things and give things to each other, creating a support system.
The main idea: providing light to extend the period of time that can be used for school and other work.
Because of the lack of electrical infrastructure in the area, providing light to families is more complicated than installing light fixture and a switch.
When people have access to light, they have more time to read and do homework, are safer, and in the end have a better economic bottom line.
The goal of the team is to provide a simple system that can provide some light in small homes or in the maker’s space.
One of their ideas is to create a kind of hollow flashlight, where the difference of temperature between the ends creates a differential allowing for the creation of electricity.
Another idea they have is shining light through water, which reflects and magnifies the area illuminated.
The main idea: provide a system for creating biomass briquettes to be used as fuel.
The creation of biomass briquettes from existing waste materials can provide an alternative fuel for members of the community.
The briquettes are easy to make. They are made from waste materials such as banana leaves, paper, and other organic material. The mixture is made into a slush, then packed into a small puck shape and pressed. Once the puck is formed, it is set out to dry in the sun.
The group has a few ideas for systems to make the process easier. The first is a lever for pressing the briquettes, and the second is a chair in which the legs are filled with the slush. The chair would be double duty- provides a place for someone to sit, and also is creating fuel to burn while the person sits on it.
The main goal: provide a space where women in Gatunga can come and create things to sell at market as well as a place where women can be educated.
This team is working on the space where all of the other teams’ projects will most likely be implemented.
The space is currently an empty building with no electricity, so the challenge is to create a space that is comfortable for learning and creating.
The team is working on ways to make this space useable, and then all of the other projects can be placed in the space for use by community members!
