This series features projects or small businesses from around the world that have shown enterprise and innovation at a grassroots level.
World Challenge is about championing bright ideas which really make a difference.
Episode One: “A Bright Idea” (Sri Lanka), “Emission Control” (UK) and “Off Grid Aid” (Palestine)
- A bright Idea
One man’s mission to stop the horrific, and totally avoidable, injuries caused by unsafe kerosene lamps in Sri Lanka.
Despite an electrification programme, over 6 million people in Sri Lanka, nearly one third of the population, don’t have power. Many families rely on improvised lamps made from bottles to light their homes at night, but these can often spill and cause horrific injuries – figures suggest 300,000 people around the world die from accidental kerosene burns every year. Dr Wijaya Godakumbura, a surgeon who witnessed the terrible results of these accidents has designed a safe Lamp that can’t roll over and cause a fire. To date, his small foundation has handed out about 775 thousand of the safe lamps.
- Emission Control
Our global addiction to meat is now influencing the climate, yet in Wales a new feed technology could help lead to a more sustainable meat industry.
“It’s simple, it’s scalable, it’s sustainable – so that’s why we believe Mootral is is a winner.” Michael Mathres, Mootral
The escalating world demand for meat and livestock products is contributing to potentially catastrophic climate change, especially in the fast-growing beef industry. The figures are not exact, depending on car usage, but it seems that a cow produces roughly the same amount of harmful greenhouse gases as an average car user – surprising when one considers there are twice as many cows in the world as cars. Now researchers in Cardiff have turned to nature, and the magical health properties of the humble garlic bulb, to develop a new feed additive that cuts the methane gas produced by the animals in half.
- Off Grid Aid
The contrast in income and lifestyles between the Israeli and Palestinian communities of the West Bank is stark. Now two enterprising Israeli scientists are reaching out to bridge the gap, by providing electricity to Palestinians settlements, one village at a time. Elad Orian and Noam Dotan are physicists dedicated to using science and technology to safeguard the environment and improve relations with the Palestinians communities.
Episode Two: “Fungi Town” (USA), “Old School Thai” (Thailand) and “Afghan Hands” (Afghanistan)
- Fungi Town
These are tough times for San Francisco. The state of California is officially bankrupt, the economy is still reeling from the global financial downturn and unemployment is now over 11%. But two graduates here are bucking the trend by building a business based on waste. They created a mushroom farm is an empty warehouse in a depressed part of San Francisco. And they on’t grow any old mushrooms, but gourmet oyster mushrooms much in demand in restaurants throughout the city.
- Old School Thai
Thailand is one-of the world’s most popular tourist destinations attracting five million visitors a year. Most head for the beaches, where the development of mass tourism is changing the way of life forever.
The North Andaman region of Thailand Is attracting a new kind of tourist keen to experience the culture before package tourism…. and just as keen to leave it that way.
- Afghan Hands
Recent images of Kabul, capital of Afghanistan are unlikely to have shown women poring over fashion magazines and stitching embroidery on panels for high fashion blouses.
New York celebrity make-up artist, Matin Maulizawada has arrived from the US bearing designs commissioned by a niche-market fashion house. Afghan women who work here are about to embroider avant-garde pieces for New York Fashion Week.
Episode Three: “No Beating about the Bush” (Namibia), “Love-n-Haiti” and “Solar Sisters” (India)
- No Beating about the Bush
The Cheetah is the worlds fastest land animal, with a top speed of more than 110 kilometres per hour, but this most speedy of the big cats could be heading for extinction. The biggest threat to its survival is loss of habitat. In Namibia where a fifth of the worlds Cheetahs live, Thorn bushes are taking over, suffocating the open plains that these fleet footed cats need to gather speed to hunt. Laurie Marker of the Cheetah conservation fund has a possible answer.
- Love-n-Haiti
Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere, and its capital city is one of the most dangerous in the world. In the absence of law and order, a recycling project is helping turn this community around.
- Solar Sisters
In Rajasthan in India, high-tech circuits for solar electricity systems are being made by village women, most of whom have barely had an education. One in 3 Indians is illiterate. The Barefoot College in the village of Tilonia, Rajasthan caters specially for them. To be accepted you need NO formal qualifications, just a commitment to helping your village. The college teaches its students hands on engineering – it is practical stuff, passing on know-how to make their families’ lives better.
Episode Four: “Nothing Wasted” (Indonesia), “Fuel Cell” (Kenya) and “Jiko Rescue” (Democratic Republic of Congo)
- Nothing Wasted
Traditional markets like this one in Indonesia provide over 12 million people with a livelihood. But the markets are declining and part of that decline is down to poor hygiene caused by rotting waste.
Now, in this market in Bantul in Java the tonnes of waste produced everyday are being turned into high-grade fertilizer.
- Fuel Cell
Biogas as an alternative source of energy… Meru prison in Kenya holds 9 times more prisoners than it was designed for. It is cramped, dirty and full of smoke from cooking fires. According to The World Health Organisation smoke from stoves and fires in homes causes around 1.6 million deaths per year worldwide. But a new biogas project, which uses the prisoners waste to power cooking and heating, has helped fix this problem – and it’s not just the prison inmates who are benefitting from this technology. Wherever there is a dense population of humans such as in, say a school or a hospital, biogas becomes economic. Skylink Innovators is a Kenyan company with big ambitions to stop the resource going to waste and saving, in the bargain, Kenya’s remaining woodland.
- Jiko Rescue
The endangered Mountain Gorilla population is getting a helping hand from a fuel-efficient ‘Jiko’ stove. There are only 380 the Mountain Gorillas left in Central Africa, and their habitat is shrinking fast: one of their last refuges is Virunga National Park, but the Park and surrounding areas are rapidly losing their forest cover. The wood is used to supply towns like Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo - swelled by a refugee population - with charcoal for cooking. To lessen the demand for charcoal, fuel efficient stoves are being manufactured locally and given to the people. It’s all part of a new approach to conservation which aims to show that conservation can benefit the poor as much as wildlife.
Continent(s):
Europe / Africa / Middle East / Asia Pacific / North America / Central America / South America /
