EcoLocalizer

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, so goes the old adage. But in Africa, green innovations by very creative and eco-imaginative minds seem to be turning this adage around, and perhaps we will soon hear of: “All work and play combined sustains a green Africa”.

It all started with the PlayPump, the water system that is a children’s merry-go-round attached to a water pump and storage tank that featured on Ecolocalizer a while ago.

A see-saw that generates electricity when played on by children? Now there is this simple looking see-saw which when played on by children in Africa, generates electricity to help power up their school. It has no name yet but if this trend continues, it looks like Africa will be one very big playground for green play, literally.

You wanna play, somebody?

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Daniel Sheridan, 23, a final year student of Consumer Product Design at Coventry University in the UK came from his volunteering stint in Kenya where he saw the suffering of poor students having to study under the moonlight or tiny kerosene lamps with a better lighted idea.

My thinking is that when he volunteered as a teacher, he probably saw the energy of these African children at play as something that could be put into good use, lighting up their schools easily and without any damage to the environment.

Sheridan recognizes that the current need for electricity in Sub-Saharan Africa is staggering. Without power, development is extremely difficult. The potential market for this product is huge and the design could be of benefit to numerous communities in Africa and beyond.

He is now thinking big: to solve the energy problems in Africa by enlisting the help of children in the playground. His innovation is yet to attain commercial viability but it won Sheridan a Coventry University undergraduate a prize for enterprise, at the college’s Enterprise Festival, an ideas competition launched in 2002 to encourage students to develop commercially viable ideas.

It is expected that this inspiring and cost effective product would be supplied as a central unit to the local community who will have a hand in building part of it and installing it. Not only does it involve local people into the creation, but it also considerably reduces logistical costs.

All this without any expectation of profit. The unique selling point of this product is that it is not intended as a profit-making design. It has genuine potential to improve the quality of life for those studying or working at the school where it is installed. Noble indeed.

Photo credit:
Tyger Lyllie via Flickr

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