It is commonly argued that only through the use of high-end technology that we can provide for the needs of the masses. This is not true as much of the third world, in particular, is still stuck with these fundamental problems like clean water and infant mortality rate. We don’t need high-tech equipment to save people from these perennial problems but raw innovation and hard work. So, here are some simply genius inventions that are helping the impoverished areas overcoming their basic problems that have dogged them for centuries:
1. Q Drum
One of the basic problems is the availability of water. There are only a few pumps, tube well units, and filtration units that people have to wait hours in a queue to get their hands on the water and then they have to transport it to their homes on their own backs in big jerry cans and other containers. A WHO report shows how people are doing that from a very young age, and this contributes to severe back and spine related problems especially in old age. Q drum is a simple, yet such an amazing invention that you will applaud the creativity of the person behind it. It allows a person to fill water in the container and then take it to the desired place via rolling action instead of carrying. Hats off Q drum creators! You changed the world for good!
2. Menstrual Cup
In many countries where the use of pads is a taboo, or an expensive luxury one can’t afford, women face considerable problems during their periods, and it results in many hygienic problems as well. This simple menstrual cup solves the problem as it is inserted into the vagina and collects the menstrual fluid for a few days. Once it is full, it can be removed and washed clean for reuse. It is made from surgical grade silicone so it is safe and easy to use and an alternative for pads as well.
3. The Penguin
Tens of thousands of infants and newborns die each year just because of blocked air passages. This is a problem reported worldwide and has proved difficult to control. Some midwives in the heavily affected areas have started using “Penguin” which is a bird-shaped device that can free the airways immediately after birth. It will reportedly cut infant mortality to extremely low levels on its own.
4. Gravity Light
More than 1.3 billion people don’t have access to mains electricity and mostly survive on organic light to survive include burning of fat or oil lamps. This gravity light offers a safer, yet simpler alternative to their lighting problems. It generates light energy from the slow utilization of gravitational potential energy that allows a particular weight to drop slowly, while generating light in between. It will be commercially available by the end of 2015.
5. Cheap Uterine Balloon Tamponade
Postpartum Hemorrhage occurs just after childbirth and results in countless maternity-related deaths in the world. The internal bleeding caused after the umbilical cord has been cut leads to this, and the solution already exists in the form of Uterine Balloon Tamponades. But, it costs around 400$, and it is only present in the medical centers that much of the third world deliveries can’t get to in time. Massachusetts Division of Global Health and Human Rights has created a 5 $ alternative that can help us save the stricken mother. It is made up of a condom tied to a catheter and remain inflated with the help of water from a syringe and a one-way valve.
6. Clean Cooking Stoves
Carbon mono-oxide and fumes from wood and dung-based stoves result in countless deaths, injuries, and even community mishaps throughout the world believed to be around 4 million. The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves has been after this problem for some time and believe solving this problem will also lead us to solve other gender-related problems as well. The ACE 1 in the video below is a stove that burns fuel very efficiently with lower emissions. There are others like K2 cookstove and EcoZoom’s Zoom jet that are very well-engineered stoves as well.
7. SOCCKET
It is one of those things that promote healthy activity and energy benefit at the same time. Perhaps the only high-tech invention in this category, the Unchartered Play’s SOCCKET ball is football that stores energy from constant kicking inside to later on power three small LEDs on its surface. This encourages healthy activity in children to get free energy., It is a brilliant concept. The SOCCKET is available on retail, and the company is providing access to its energy-generating projects in an open way.
[Source: Mashable]
