The Portable Light is a self sufficient and sustainable source of power that can be easily folded and transported. Designed by KVA MATx, each portable light unit generates about two watts of electricity and about one hundred lumens of white light, enough to read a book or do domestic tasks by. It can even be used as a power supply to charge a cell phone, or used in conjunction with other units to increase its power supply so it can charge medical equipment or laptops. This breakthrough technology is great news for the 2 billion people in the world who live without electricity.

The Portable Light is on display at MoMA Feb 24 – May 12 as part of their Design and the Elastic Mind exhibition.

For additional images and video of Portable Light adapting to a variety of different uses, click here.

To hear Sheila Kennedy at Pop!Tech discussing the inspirations for Portable Light, click here.

Courtesy of KVA matx

Peggy Shea Andrews

Since coming to Pop!Tech in 2005 as a Sun Microsystems Fellow, Neema Mgana has been developing the first project of her Rural Center of Excellence – a hospital, a medical training center, and a secondary school in Ipuli, Tanzania. The project was born out of a collaboration that began at Pop!Tech when Neema was introduced to Cameron Sinclair, co-founder of Architecture for Humanity, and to Larry Smith of Haley & Aldrich.

Sponsored by Haley & Aldrich. Beth Cohen and Michele Bowman from Pop!Tech, Vikki Ott from Haley & Aldrich, and cameraman Bill Megalos recently traveled to visit the project. (Watch the longer version of the video update in our Pop!Cast archive, here.)

Ipuli is a small, rural village in the east Rift Valley of Tanzania, a stunning landscape filled with endless hills and soil that is a deep, rich red. Home to the Wanyiramna tribe for generations, life in Ipuli is simple but challenging: the village has no electricity or running water. A regional school draws students from neighboring villages, but there are no books and only a handful of classrooms have chairs for the nearly 500 students. Medical care is almost non-existent here; the village has no hospital and no doctors.

Photo by Vikki Ott, Haley & Aldrich

Just getting to Ipuli is difficult. The main road there is broken and dusty. By the time we arrived after a two-day journey from Dar es Salaam, we had red dust on our faces and cameras lenses, and our cameraman had something akin to whiplash.

Neema’s parents, Charles and Helena, grew up in Ipuli and the family became committed to this project after hearing the story from a young medical assistant: mothers and fathers were pooling months and months of salary to take sick children to the nearest hospital over 80 km away, sometimes making excruciating decisions as to who would be treated and who would not; pregnant women in labor were being carried over the broken road often by oxcart and bicycle to reach the nearest doctor.

In this region, the major health problem is malaria, followed closely by acute respiratory infection, pneumonia, eye infections and diarrhea. Infant and maternal mortality rates are high, and life expectancy continues to decrease due to HIV/AIDS.

Photo by Vikki Ott, Haley & Aldrich

To build the hospital, men draw water from the pond, and shovel sand from the river, mixing them with cement and then hand-cranking concrete blocks. The bricks then take a day or more to dry in the sun, a process that grinds to a halt during the rainy season. So far the men have made 6500 bricks, and the foundation for this future hospital is slowly becoming a reality.

Neema at Goat Ceremony, Photo by Vikki Ott, Haley & Aldrich

In a small ceremony, the village elders gave Neema two goats, gifts of gratitude and honor. Last week we received an email from Charles who wrote that one of these elders had fallen very sick and was diagnosed with severe malaria and typhoid. Charles found him lying ill at home after he had been released from the local clinic, and so gently tucked him into his car, and drove the 80 kilometers to get him the health care that may keep him alive. Thanks to Haley & Aldrich, Architecture for Humanity, Neema Mgana and other supporters, when the Rural Center of Excellence opens its doors this spring, medical help will no longer be a long and arduous journey, but will be a part of the community and its future.

The Rural Center of Excellence still needs support. If you would like more information on the project, or if you would like to find out how you can help, please email Neema Mgana at nmgana@yahoo.com.

Four Ipuli boys and their future clinic, Photo by Vikki Ott, Haley & Aldrich

Beth Cohen,
Michele Bowman

At Pop!Tech 2007, five-time Grammy award-winner John Legend moved and motivated Pop!Tech participants, weaving stories from his Show Me Campaign—a movement he launched to help eradicate extreme global poverty—in between each soulful song.

Now in a February 2 release, John joins ranks with Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas and director Jesse Dylan (son of Bob) in their new celeb-studded music video in support of Barack Obama. The video is a musical performance of Senator Obama’s Yes We Can speech, his “concession” speech following Senator Clinton’s win in the New Hampshire Democratic Primary.

In spite of the fact that we live in controversial times, today’s North American music scene increasingly emphasizes music that’s materialistic, sexually charged or violent, over and above music that’s politically controversial. This moving example of musicians coming together and speaking directly to their audience in order to have a positive influence, is a reversal of that trend, and regardless of one’s politics, this reversal is important.

Check out the video, and read about the backstory here.

John also recently shot and released a music video in Tanzania for the Show Me Campaign to introduce his fans to critical global issues. Watch this story of a young boy overwhelmed by the weight of the world who is asking questions and searching for answers.

The character in the video is inspired by the real life story of two young boys, Yaguine Koita (aged 14) and Fodé Tounkara (aged 15), stowaways who froze to death flying from Guinea to Belgium, on 28 July 1999. The boys were carrying plastic bags with birth certificates, school report cards, photographs and a letter to the world asking for solidarity and kindness in providing relief to Africa. Check out their letter on John’s site under the “music video & explanation” tab here.

While talk of AIDS has become nothing but white noise for many, Zinhle Thabethe, a counselor working on the frontlines of the South African HIV epidemic, is taking action. Through home visits, working with AIDS orphans, educating nurses and doctors, and singing in the internationally acclaimed HIV-positive Sinikithemba Choir, Zinny’s goal is to fight stigma by raising awareness, and to ensure that people with HIV get plugged into treatment and stay on treatment – all in one of the most resource-constrained environments in the world.

Now, National Geographic is recognizing Zinny’s extraordinary contributions by naming her one of the 2008 class of Emerging Explorers – individuals who represent the next generation of world-changing talent from many different fields.

We continue to work with Zinny and her colleague, Dr. Krista Dong of iTeach, on Project Masiluleke, a Pop!Tech Accelerator project focused on using mobile devices to improve HIV care in South Africa and beyond. And we join in congratulating Zinny on her National Geographic nomination.

In today’s program, Andrew Zolli, announced the Pop!Tech Carbon Initiative. This initiative is the second iteration of our commitment to being “carbon negative”. This is not your parent’s carbon neutrality. The idea of being carbon negative means that you are offsetting in excess of your carbon emissions.

Representatives of each benefiting project in Pop!Tech’s listings are participating in this year’s Pop!Tech conference as “Pop!Tech Carbon Fellows.” Fellows include:

* Robert Freling, the Executive Director of The Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF), an organization dedicated to helping rural communities in the developing world power a brighter future through innovative uses of solar energy. SELF is bringing solar powered irrigation to Benin’s Kalale District in West Africa where over 80% of the villages do not have a source of surface water. The villages are provided with a source of clean renewable energy, eliminating the need for diesel & gas powered pumps.

* Dr. Sarah Otterstrom, the Executive Director of Paso Pacífico, a non-profit organization seeking to build wildlife corridors along the Pacific slope of Central America by supporting private landowners and small-scale farmers in sustainable land use and conservation activities. She is currently working on the restoration and conservation of endangered forest ecosystems in the Rivas Province of Nicaragua. This project also reduces the vulnerability of local communities to extreme climate events while improving ecosystem services and the viability of endangered species.

* Stefano Merlin, the Director of Ecologica Network and President of Instituto Ecologica, which coordinates several socio-environmental programs including the Bandeira Switching Non-Renewable Biomass Project in the North of Brazil. This project addresses the problem of deforestation and reduces the quantity of biomass decaying which, in turn, cuts down on green house gas emissions.

When you visit the Pop!Tech Carbon Initiative website, you can input some information to get your annual carbon footprint. The average American’s carbon footprint is 9.44 tons of CO2. Mine was 14 tons and to offset that amount towards Paso Pacifico would work out to be only about $77 dollars)

How do you compare to that average?

Also, Mark Anderson of Wired Magazine just wrote a story about the program as a part of Wired coverage of the event.

Zivanai Masango, who shared his unique sound at the conference back in 2005, has just released a new album titled DUTU-STORM. Zivanai is a guitarist, performer, and teacher of Zimbabwean music and culture. His style is a lively mix of traditional South African sounds with Funk, Rock to R & B, Reggae, Soul and Jazz. Of the album, Zivanai writes, “DUTU-STORM is a result of my being a ‘world-citizen’, and not forgetting that I am Zimbabwean at my very core!”

The album is currently available for purchased as a hard copy or as downloads from his website www.zivimusic.com.

Preview tracks at Zivanai’s myspace page www.myspace.com/zivanai.

The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City will be opening a new exhibit that explores designs made for individuals and communities of the Global South. “Design For The Other 90%” runs from May 4th to September 23rd 2007.

One of the designs that will be featured is the much-discussed “Life Straw” and other products that were featured at Pop!Tech 2006.
The exhibit will focus on water, shelter, health and sanitation, education, energy and transportation.

While at the museum, you can also check out the Design Triennial where the design for the Ipuli Medical Center is featured. (See previous Pop!Tech blog entry here)

The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum
2 East 91st Street
New York , NY 10128

Last month, at the Design Indaba conference in Cape Town, South Africa, there seemed to be a veritable Pop!Tech reunion. Brian Eno was one of the speakers at the design conference and had personally invited Reggie Watts to perform at the closing of the conference.

Watch Reggie try his hand at some traditional African dancing and some “not-so-traditional” moves.

Brian Eno Enjoys South Africa on Vimeo

Reggie recently sent over a video clip of his gallivanting about town with Eno (who is holding up a video camera and in yet another sharp suit) and in the background you can see Alex Steffen and Cameron Sinclair, other Pop!Tech alums.

Watching this clip never fails to make me smile.

And don’t forget to check out Reggie’s Pop!Cast of his amazing performance at Pop!Tech 2006 and a bevy of other Pop!Tech presentations from 2006 and 2005..

AND don’t for get to check out the recording, ANTIBABEL, that Reggie Watts and Yungchen Lhamo made exclusively for Pop!Tech and to promote sustainability in rural Tibet via the Machik organization. You can purchase the CD HERE.

On Thursday evening, Pop!Tech hosted a dinner in New York City’s Harvard Club to benefit 2006 Speaker and AIDS Activist Zinhle “Zinny” Thabethe and the Siphithemba Choir (formerly Sinikithemba Choir).

But the evening was more than just a charity dinner, it was a call for action. We invited 40 senior level executives and change agent from varied fields to put our minds together for three discrete projects. The Choir, comprising of HIV + men and women from Durban, South Africa, have become independent of the McCord Hospital and are in the process of being a legally incorporated entity. Pop!Tech is helping them to achieve this as well as to secure studio recording time to produce another album, increase the Choir’s international visibility and to help them develop a self-sustaining business model.

Zinny presented her compelling story to the guests and even surprised everyone with a moving musical performance in Zulu. Copies of Keefe Murren’s documentary film iThemba | Hope were also distributed to help spread the amazing story of the Siphithemba Choir.

The dinner is the first step Pop!Tech’s growing mission to amplify the signal of inspiring projects like the Choirs and the work of Partners, the AIDS treatment program in rural South Africa where Zinny works with Dr. Krista Dong.

Check back for more developments on this project and we would also like to extend the ask to everyone on the blogosphere who would like to learn more about the Choir and help to bring awareness to their work by contacting me at june (at)poptech.org.

photos by Joshua Bright.

Great news! The installation of the solar panels in Benin, made possible by the Carbon Negative initiative from Pop!Tech 2006, will commence in the next few months.

Robert Freling, Executive Director of The Solar Electric Light Fund, has sent us some wonderful pictures from Benin, where 44 villages that are currently off the grid will receive clean, renewable energy to homes, schools, health care clinics thanks to the partnership between SELF, Lexus, and Pop!Tech.

The first image is of Bona Kida Setamou, the mother of Mamoudou Setamou, the person who first introduced Freling to the Benin Project opportunity. Note that she is holding a soon to be obsolute kerosene lantern.

Below the pictures is the original letter from Mamoudou. It’s a wonderful account of how SELF first got involved and it is always so rewarding to see the faces of those who are directly benefiting from these types of initiatives.

Dear Friend of SELF,

Mamoudou Setamou, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Citrus Entomology
Texas A&M University – Kingsville