Bamboo bicycles

While Jono is working out all the details of driving across Europe, I'm working on what engineering change really can mean. Heard about a great example: Bamboo Bicycles in Ghana. It's quite inspiring......putting together the elements that result in a new innovation that can transform a way of being in the world.

Lots of examples - small and large - and our goal is to find some good stories to tell, as Jono makes his way from Spain to Mongolia.

What technologies?

So we're framing the research as collecting stories about local adaptations of global technologies to address human issues. Which technologies?

A few areas of technology come to mind.

HOUSING:
The current issue of the Sunday New York Times magazine has an article about architects and refugee camps. In "The Exigent City" Jim Lewis writes about the challenges of these long term camps - how to design them so they work. He says, " There are almost a billion people worldwide who live in makeshift housing or unplanned communities, off the grid, off the economy, and off the map. Almost everyone I spoke to agreed that whatever solutions there may be will have to start with local knowledge, focusing and magnifying the ingenuity of individual communities rather than applying an architectural fiat from above."
Check out Open Architecture for ideas and designs.

PUBLIC HEALTH:
How will lifestraw help provide cheap water filtration around the world?



And how can medical personnel help individuals prevent malaria with more access to mosquito netting, or help provide drugs for diseases that are used correctly by poor people? US donors are swarming to help get nets world wide; are their resources really used well. The website medgadgets documents hundreds of new technologies that will assist in many areas of medicine - but are these accessible, affordable, and aligned with local ways?

ENERGY
Some stories, but dense, in Friends of the Earth International.
And from Ashoka, there's a competition regarding innovations in creating sources of renewable energy!

Next - need to get specific!

International or local NGO's

There are a number of NGO's working on environmental issues in the counties of the former Soviet Union - finding them is a challenge. If you look at ISAR you can get a sense of how various international NGO's are getting involved in local issues.

We need to decide what story to tell about engineering change:
1) Are we wanting to highlight the unsung heroes who find creative ways to address local environmental issues?
2) Do we want to interview the groups that are already connected to global initiatives - like ISAR - and find out what is helpful and what is not?
3) Do we just want to happen upon groups that people in the area think are doing a good job and let their stories unfold - and figure oiut the themes when enough stories have surfaced?

One way or another, we need to find the groups. So here are some other groups to check in with, in addition to the Ashoka approach.
Eurasianet
Environmental groups in the Czech Republic (but I can't tell how old this site is)
WINGS has a very cool list of groups that track philanthropy, social problems and the like.

More research ahead!

Hungary

Again from Ashoka:
Melitta Ferkovics - working in Komoro, Hungary to help the poor get back on their feet, providing them with clothes, and school lunches, eventually to encourage small scale agriculture in post-industrial areas
Pal Gera - established the Foundation for Otters to protect otters and wetlands in Hungary and Eastern Europe

Another Ashoka Fellow - France

Roberto Epple - established the European Rivers Network in the early 1990's to save the River Loire. 2007 Ashoka Fellow, Epple lives in Le Puy and helps the ERN support sustainable river management by opposing pollution and exploitation.
Solagro is a non-profit working with resource management, particularly renewable energy and biogas. Based out of Toulouse this would also be on our route.

More General Approach

Looking from the other side at collections of social entrepreneurs and seeing what they are doing in each country of destination is another way to tackle the list-making process.

From Ashoka: Antonio Garcia Allut at the University of La Coruna, Galicia, Spain - working to help fishermen work sustainably in rural areas; changing them from "fish gatherers" to efficient resource managers that practice methods that will allow fishing to continue for generations.

Another approach would be from the Fast Company list of 45 social entrepreneurs for 2008

Social Edge is a tool by the Skoll Foundation to provide a resource for practicioners of the social sector to communicate and share resources.

inspired by a post on the world changing blog

Switzerland

MyClimate - a non-profit that sells carbon offsets. They invest 80% of money into projects, including a biomass gasification power plant in India. Found via Carbon Catalog.

Barcelona and Pamplona

Pamplona has an initiative to put solar panels on the tops of every school with interactive displays to teach students about renewable energy sources. A few web pages mention an Environmental Education Museum in Pamplona, called Museu de Educacion Ambiental San Pedro.
Near Barcelona there is an Environmental Education Center, Ecoima, located in Badalona.

Spain

Biogas in Spain seems to be supported by the European Commission, meaning they are giving money to large corporations to do research into it. This is not the non-profit world, but does make up a large portion of alternative energy work in the world:

Biogas Plan in Spain - Madrid gives corporation a contract to establish biogas to be pumped through pipes - this is big company stuff.

Case Study on Biogas in Bilbao - written by Energie-Cites, an "association of European local authorities promoting local sustainable energy policy"

Potential

What does this project offer?
Not only is the goal to open a dialogue with international non-profits, but it will produce photos, footage, and relationships with people, rather than just compiling mission statements and simple written responses to questions. As someone interested in learning from other people's experiences, the opportunity to personally interview them and uncover their personal stories and discoveries provides a completely different insight into the philanthropic world.

While this is partly to motivate myself, I will finish with the stories of where the non-profits are based, how many secretaries they have, whether or not there are security guards out front, and the comfort of their chairs. Every encounter will shed light on each organization and the work being done in different areas of the world.

Country Guide

A rough guide for the twenty organizations to be interviewed:
Europe: 3

Central/Eastern Europe: 4

Post-Soviet States: 2

Russia: 2

Mongolia: 1

China: 4

India: 4