KickStart Inc.; Inventions for the Developing World

I spent some time at the Walker Art Center today, where one exhibit was "Design for the other 90%." Great stuff; definitely check it out if you are in Minneapolis.

The inventions at the Design for the Other 90% exhibit that most impressed me are both made by Kick Start, Inc. They have a brick making device that seems to require less cement that we think of going into a brick, and perhaps no heat. We'd need to talk to them about durability. They also have a little irrigation device that would be great for the garden.

Both can be purchased and either picked up in Kenya, or perhaps sent from Kenya to Sudan. I'm going to let the building committee explore these devices further; the company seems like they are easy to communicate with via email.

http://www.kickstart.org/purchase/index.html

They also have a great chapter in the design for the other 90% catalog that Ron purchased and that I currently have. They encourage, actually insist on, thinking in an entrepreneurial way, just as we have been wondering--how can we help people in Duk Payuel make a living? Perhaps we can start to think about an orphan center that strives to be self-sustaining via things like grinding grains, making bricks, growing and selling food. Perhaps we can develop an entrepreneurial curriculum for our students.