Following our fund-and-deliver Hippo Roller trip to South Africa, the new San Francisco chapter of Project H is taking the reins and re-designing the Hippo Roller for improved shipping efficiency for wider distribution and a lower price point. In partnership with the Appropriate Technologies Design Team/Engineers Without Borders, we’ll work with Hippo Roller to find design and engineering opportunities that will make the Hippo Roller more widely manufacturable, less expensive, and potentially more functional with additional attachments.

If you’re interested in joining the Project H San Francisco chapter, we want your design expertise! Come to our next meeting July 21st at 7pm. Please email Ryan Duke, SF Chapter Head, for details: ryan@projecthdesign.com.

What we’re funding and who will benefit:
100 (or more!) Lifestraw Family systems at $25 each. Lifestraw Family is an amazing point-of-use water filtration device designed and manufactured by Vestergaard Frandsen that eliminates 99.999% of waterborne disease bacteria, parasites, and viruses, bringing clean drinking water quickly and reliably, and preventing life-threatening disease from spreading through unclean water. The family system (an extension of the personal Lifestraw seen above) we’re funding filters up to 15,000 liters of water (about 2 years’ worth). See below for all the technical details.

In August 2008, Project H will travel to Mumbai, India, in partnership with Berkeley-based organization Haath Mein Sehat (Health In Hand). Haath Mein Sehat pairs technology and education to implement point-of-use household water treatment for urban slums, and educates Mumbai slum communities on unsafe water and disease prevention issues.

$25 sponsors one Lifestraw family system,- DONATE A LIFESTRAW SYSTEM NOW! (all donations are tax-deductible)

Details on the Lifestraw Family system:

THE NEED:
Currently, more than a billion people lack access to safe drinking water and five million people die each year from water-related diarrheal disease. The need for safe and clean water is especially acute for people living with HIV and AIDs. Chronic diarrhea is a leading cause of death for people with AIDs, and it affects up to 90% of HIV patients. Further, diarrhea is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality among HIV-infected children. Thankfully, products like LifeStraw® Family can make a huge difference. In a study among HIV-infected persons in Uganda, for example, the use of safe drinking water decreased diarrhea illness by 36%.

THE SOLUTION:
LifeStraw® Familyt is a point-of-use product designed to allow consumers in the developing world to create safe and healthy homemade drinking water.

LifeStraw® Family is an instant microbiological water purifier that can provide, at an average, at least 10 liters of purified water an hour and more than 10,000 liters over the product’s lifecycle-enough to provide a typical family with 1.5 years worth of clean and safe water.

When used properly, it removes at least 99.9999% of all bacteria, 99.99% of all viruses, and 99.9% of parasites. It also removes dirt from water.

LifeStraw® Family builds upon the success of LifeStraw® Personal, a portable water filtration device developed two years ago by Vestergaard Frandsen and designed to be used outside of the home. Like its predecessor, LifeStraw® Family does not require electricity or batteries, making it ideal for use in difficult environments.

HOW IT WORKS:

Hit “Read More” for additional information about Vestergaard Frandsen and the Lifestraw personal device.

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Project H is happy to report that thanks to your generosity throughout the H is for Hippo campaign, we have delivered our batch of Hippo Rollers to Kgautswane, South Africa! The handover and community visit came together perfectly thanks to Grant Gibbs, the man behind the Hippo Roller, Clara Masinga, Kgautswane’s community leader, and all the amazing people I met in Kgautswane, who were so grateful, warm, and inspiring.

Here’s the full report- and read on for all the pictures that tell this story so much better than I ever could….

I arrived in Johannesburg on March 24th, greeted by Grant Gibbs, and welcomed into his family’s home just outside the city. After visiting the manufacturer and learning about the rotational molding and material processes behind the rollers’ production (which was fascinating!), we loaded up the trailer and headed out to Kgautswane, a rural community of upwards of 130,000, 5 hours drive from Johannesburg in the overwhelmingly picturesque Mpumalanga area of northeastern South Africa.

On March 26th, we handed over the rollers to households selected by Clara Masinga, Kgautswane’s community leader- an amazing woman who really has been a voice and an inspiration to the whole community. On a side note, I gave Clara one of Project H’s “designcanchangetheworld” t-shirts, which she wore from sunrise to sunset on Thursday.

I spent the following 2 days with Grant and Clara, interviewing community members about the Hippo Roller (thousands of which are currently in use throughout Kgautswane), particularly regarding the way it enables families and quite simply, makes life easier. As we drove down the dusty roads around dusk, children rolled their Hippo Rollers home, and waved and smiled every time we passed.

In the grand scheme of things, our small quantity of donated rollers probably made only a small mark, but I like to think Project H (and design in general) is all about providing tools to enable lives, and creating an impact beyond the immediate function. I would hope that the rollers aren’t just about transporting water, but that they bring some inspiration to do more.

Stay tuned for the next Fund this Product initiative (Lifestraws for Mumbai!) and updates on the Project H: Design for Education summer studio at the California College of Arts.

Hit “read more” for additional photos….

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Thanks to all your support, we have funded 75 Hippo Rollers for Kgautswane in South Africa! Our initial target was 50, which we met in less than two weeks. Project H will be on the ground to hand deliver the rollers on March 26-29th, and will report back with photos, details, and more.

STAY TUNED THIS SUMMER FOR OUR NEXT “FUND THIS PRODUCT” INITIATIVE

If you’d still like to donate, it’s not too late! Any additional donations made via the Paypal link below will go directly to Hippo Roller (not Project H) and will not be included in this batch of 75 rollers. But any additional support is greatly appreciated and will go towards future roller deliveries throughout Africa.

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PC Magazine’s blog, GearLog, has posted a video of Project H Design’s founder, Emily Pilloton, talking about the organization and some of the products it supports. The video comes from last weekend’s Greener Gadgets Conference in New York, which was a great showcase of innovative design, technology, and projects. View the whole video and article here>>>

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On February 1st in New York City, Project H Design will be representing a few great product designs that benefit the greater good and serve global citizens. At the Greener Gadgets Conference, sponsored by Inhabitat and Marc Alt + Partners, Project H will have an exhibit space showing the BOGO light, One Laptop Per Child, creations from Natalie Jeremijenko, and more. Be sure to come by the McGraw-Hill Convention center, or register for the whole conference here >>>

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Good design is only as good as those who benefit from it. If your community or a community your organization serves is in need of assistance in the form of products shown on this website or more in-depth community collaboration to design specific solutions to local problems, we are now accepting applications for Case Studies- you tell us what you need, we’ll get it for you.

100 XO Laptops for your school? 500 Lifestraws for your town? 20 Big Boda bicycles for your neighborhood? Want to work with designers to implement a water reclamation system?

Apply now, and Project H Design will work with you to define your needs and design a community-based solution, raise the money to purchase the products, and deliver them to you.

Here’s how to apply:

- Send your name, organization (if applicable), location, and contact info, along with a short statement describing the products you need and/or community issue in need of design assistance, to info@projecthdesign.com.
- Be sure to include a description of the demographic, who will be using the products, who will benefit, and how it will improve Humanity, Habitats, Health, and/or Happiness.
- Please contact Emily Pilloton with questions.

We will try to accommodate all applications, but please understand we will select the most urgent cases for consideration first. We look forward to hearing from you!

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From the makers of the Lifestraw, PermaNet is a highly-engineered insecticide-impregnated polyester bed net that protects against malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Vestergaard-Frandsen’s design integrates “scale and science” to deliver life-saving and scalable netting systems to individuals and communities. Unlike your typical mosquito net, PermaNet has an embedded controlled release system, where the insecticide slowly migrates to secure efficacy throughout the lifetime of the net.

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The Antivirus cap designed by Hân Pham protects against needle infections using the ubiquitous coke can. An estimated 50% of injections administered in developing countries are unsafe, and one in two needle stick injuries occurs during the segregation, disposal or transportation of used needles. The cap is mounted on readily available beverage cans for segregation and isolation of used needles which are secured inside the permanently sealed can, preventing re-use of needles.

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Spanish Designer Nacho Martí is helping underprivileged people see more clearly. A recent Top Nominee of the Index Awards, Marti’s Stenop correcting glasses bring 20/20 vision to poor people around the world who can’t afford expensive crystal glasses. Glasses are replaced by rows of small holes using the concept of stenopeic vision. Stenop glasses can reduce 80% of myopia, hyperopia and presbyopia. The glasses are plastic made in one single piece and mass produced.

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An exceptional example of humanitarian product design, the $100 Laptop (One Laptop Per Child) is going BOGO! The “Buy one give one” program starts Monday November 12th and runs for 2 weeks only- just $399 buys one laptop for your little one and one for a child in a developing nation. The Fuseproject-designed gadget is a great example of design with a conscience that combines social priorities with great, sexy design.

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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.

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With 10% of the world population living with a disabling hearing impairment, and 80% of them live in developing countries, a big challenge is the battery, which is often expensive to keep charged and replace. The SolarAid solar-powered hearing-aid battery recharger, developed in Botswana by Godisa Technologies, helps those with hearing disabilities afford to continue in school and participate in economy activity without worrying about their hearing aid battery. There are already more than 7,000 units in use in South America, Central America, Africa, and Asia.

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Kickstart, an organization promoting tools and technologies to end poverty, has found a great product that solves immediate problems and stimulates potential local economies. It’s called the MoneyMaker Micro-Irrigation Pump, available as the Original design or the new Super pump, and it allows rural small-scale farmers to pull water from underground to more efficiently irrigate their farms. Many thousands of entrepreneurial farmers are now irrigating with Kickstart’s manual MoneyMaker irrigation pumps and changing their small subsistence farms into vibrant new commercial enterprises. With irrigation they can grow and sell as many as three to four high value vegetable crops every year, and ensure that the crop is ready for market when the price is high. The pump is currently being distributed throughout Africa, Asia, and Latin America. See exactly how it works here.

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