Design that Matters is a non-profit that promotes new economies through well-designed and affordable products. Their Kinkajou Microfilm Projector is a low-cost teaching tool designed to improve and expand access to education by transforming night-time learning environments in rural, non-electrified settings. What’s more, the projector is a combination of efficient LED lights, reclaimed lenses from Fisher-Price ViewMaster toys, and durable, inexpensive microfilm.

Each reel of 10,000 pages of material cost just $6, the entire unit costing $150. With 75% of rural West Africa unable to read, Kinkajou is a tool to improve literacy and therefore increase community prosperity: enabling mothers to read expiration dates on medicine bottles; assisting farmers with reading application instructions on chemical packaging; and increasing the likelihood that women participate in the political process.

In 2004, with funding from USAID, World Education implemented Kinkajou Projectors in literacy centers in 45 Malian villages. After two years of use, over 3,000 adults have learned to read using these projectors. Although the Kinkajou was designed for a distinct set of environmental, social and cultural conditions, there is compelling evidence that its benefit is universal. DtM has received inquiries about the Kinkajou from 30 countries including Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Honduras.

+ Kinkajou Microfilm Projector
+ Design that Matters

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 8th, 2007 at 3:36 am and is filed under Global Education, Non-Profits & Organizations, Energy, Products. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.