FLAP Bag Update: Mozambique, Kenya, and Haiti

Author: Cordelia Newlin de Rojas
Posted: 11/17/09 23:11 UTC
Info: Bio
Tags: Sheila, Kennedy, Flexible, WECARE, Maison de Naissance, Laura, Stachel, flap, poptech, light, power, solar, timbuk2

Editor’s note: PopTech staff Coco Rojas gives an update on the FLAP (Flexible Light And Power) solar bag project and who is helping us test it right now below—FLAP is a collaborative effort from PopTech, Timbuk2, and Portable Light Project. You can find out more about the project’s history and field work on the FLAP FAQ page (including how to order the bag) and join the FLAP project on our community site, the Hub.

FLAP received a tremendous response at the PopTech 2009 conference, and we are incredibly grateful to all the PopTech’ers who offered to help field test the bag. (Let us know in the comments or tweet @poptech if you would like to help too.)

You may have read Linda Raftree’s post last week on her FLAP testing in Mozambique. We were thrilled to hear yesterday that her FLAP bag helped her finish Bryan Mealer’s latest: (See tweet below.)

@meowtree tweet

Our partners at Timbuk2 were instrumental in getting FLAPs to Daraja Academy, the first free secondary school in East Africa.

Thanks to Laura Stachel from WECARE Solar for connecting us with Maison de Naissance a birthing home in Haiti. This week six FLAPs made their way to Haiti to be tested by mobile healthcare workers.

We will continue to post findings and footage on this blog and on our Web site. For those of you would like to get more involved in the project, you can visit PopTech’s FLAP project page on the PopTech Hub, our social network and collaboration space.

I’ll see you there!