The Appropriate Technology Collaborative

6 Things You Missed if You Don’t Check the AIDG Blog

(1) Installation of a Ram Pump in Guatemala

Guatemala Ram Pump Install

Ram Pumps are ingenious inventions. Early designs date back hundreds of years. The essence of a ramp pump is to use shockwave pressure, imagine slamming shut a faucet, the water behind the faucet has a momentary large increase in pressure. The shock pressure forces a small amount of water uphill. A simple self running system can be set up where valves open and close on their own. As long as water is supplied to the pump it works.

Check out: Guatemala Ram Pump Install

(2) San Diego Pollution Solution

San Diego aims to fix a pollution problem by helping a Tijuana slum from Christian Science Monitor:

When it rains in Tijuana, it pours in San Diego. Runoff crosses the international border in gushes of floodwater, clogging everything in its path with dirt and debris.

A river, a wildlife-filled estuary, and the sea [plus nearby beaches] are all victims of this rainy-season menace, the product of a sprawling Mexican city where the poor often live without paved streets, running water, or sanitation.

Now, a cross-border team hopes to stem the tide of US-Mexican tensions and turn a Tijuana slum into an example of environmental activism. Their goal: Convince the community to devote its own time and effort to pave the roads in San Bernardo, a bustling neighborhood that becomes a bleak, muddy lake during heavy rains.

The story also includes a nice short audio segment.

Check out: San Diego Solution to Cross Border Pollution

(3) Don’t Wait For The Rain

YouTube Video Link

A rap in Swahili about how life can be better using the Kickstart Money Maker pump. In my opinion the Kickstart pump is one of the best inventions of the past 50 years.

Lyrics (they sound better with the music and in Swahili):

Hello Uncle!

“How can we go on farming if we can no longer depend on the rains?”
“Stop using old methods and buy a MoneyMaker pump.”

Refrain:
Don’t wait for the rain.
There’ pump called MoneyMaker.
It’s the best tool to end poverty.
(repeat)

Stop complaining about rain shortages every day.
Nowadays the rains are no longer reliable.
Why wait for the rain when your crops are drying up.

It is better if we become smart and start irrigating.
Use MoneyMaker and you can live a better life.
MoneyMaker Pump is the best I can tell you
For pumping water from wells, rivers, and ponds.

It’s easy to use and it’s affordable.
It’s easy to carry and easy to repair.
It doesn’t need electricity or fuel.

There is no more poverty with Money Maker pumps.
Use MoneyMaker for farming, irrigation and gardens.
Use MoneyMaker for car washing.

Even pump water to fill reservoir tanks.
For watering and washing livestock.
Water pressure is enough to pump a long distance.

If you own a MoneyMaker pump what else do you need?
You will plant and harvest all year round.
Your poverty will end. You will be able to
Educate and feed your children,
and even save some money.

refrain (bis)

It’s such a good pump that other’s try to copy it.
So take care when you buy one.
Make sure it has a serial number and
it comes with a one year guarantee.

etc. etc.

Check Out: Don’t Wait For The Rain

(4) San Diego aims to fix a pollution problem by helping a Tijuana slum

from Christian Science Monitor:

When it rains in Tijuana, it pours in San Diego. Runoff crosses the international border in gushes of floodwater, clogging everything in its path with dirt and debris.

A river, a wildlife-filled estuary, and the sea [plus nearby beaches] are all victims of this rainy-season menace, the product of a sprawling Mexican city where the poor often live without paved streets, running water, or sanitation.

Now, a cross-border team hopes to stem the tide of US-Mexican tensions and turn a Tijuana slum into an example of environmental activism. Their goal: Convince the community to devote its own time and effort to pave the roads in San Bernardo, a bustling neighborhood that becomes a bleak, muddy lake during heavy rains.

The story also includes a nice short audio segment.

Check Out: San Diego Pollution Solution

(5,6) Two Books By/For/About Social Entrepreneurs

A few good books by/for/about social entrepreneurs:

The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets That Change the World by John Elkington and Pamela Hartigan

Economist Review:

The gist of the book is that established businesses should carefully watch—and be ready to invest in—various forms of social entrepreneurship, which tend to be good at spotting profitable opportunities in unlikely places, not least amongst poorer consumers at the so-called “bottom of the pyramid”. Mr Yunus has showed that even the poorest borrowers can be good customers, and as a result huge amounts of profit-seeking capital have flowed into the microfinance industry all over the world. Ms Hartigan and Mr Elkington reckon that social entrepreneurs will uncover other profitable new industries…..

In the early days, social entrepreneurs saw themselves as an alternative to business or government. Today, they want to be partners, seeing business and government as assets to be leveraged. This is probably a good thing, provided it does not dull their creativity or cause them to be more reasonable.

 

Paul Polak’s Out of Poverty:

From Publisher’s Page:

In this hard-hitting new book, Paul Polak tells why traditional poverty eradication programs have fallen so short, and how he and his organization developed an alternative approach that has succeeded in lifting 17 million people out of poverty.

Based on his 25 years of experience, Polak explodes what he calls the “Three Great Poverty Eradication Myths”: that we can donate people out of poverty, that national economic growth will end poverty, and that Big Business, operating as it does now, will end poverty. Polak shows that programs based on these ideas have utterly failed—in fact, in sub-Saharan Africa poverty rates have actually gone up.

These failed top-down efforts contrast sharply with the grassroots approach Polak and IDE have championed: helping the dollar-a-day poor earn more money through their own efforts. Amazingly enough, unexploited market opportunities do exist for the desperately poor. Polak describes how he and others have identified these opportunities and have developed innovative, low-cost tools that have helped impoverished rural farmers use the market to improve their lives.

There are dozens of other recent posts that are a must read. Check out: AIDG Blog