Thanking Our Designers

A special thanks to the global designers and innovators that helped to bring the following to market:

• Infant Warmer - - Around 19 million low-birth-weight babies are born every year in developing countries. Unable to regulate their body temperatures, many die. The Embrace helps to warm vulnerable infants (a special pouch slips into the back of the bag to provide hours of safe hear) while allowing for nursing and cudding. More information available at www.embraceglobal.org.


• Purifying Straw - - Some 900 million people lack access to safe drinking water. Sipping through the LifeStraw filters surface water on-site, reducing the transmission of bacteria and viruses. Thousands of ten-inch Life Straws were donated to Haiti after this year's earthquake. Each filters about 160 gallons; a new, shorter model, nearly 265. More information at www.lifestraw.com.


• Sugarcane Charcoal - - Burning wood and dung, the main fuel sources for many in the developing world, has contributed to deforestation and respiratory ailments. Not only do briquettes made from crushed stalks make use of an abundant local resource, they burn more cleanly and allow residents to start a charcoal business for less than $50. More information at http://stuff.mit.edu/afs/athena/course/other/d-lab/DlabIII06/sugarcane-charcoal.pdf.


• Portable Clay Cooler - - Building upon an ancient food-storage technique, the pot-in-pot system uses evaporation from a layer of wet sand between two nesting pots to help extend the life of farmers' goods. Tomatoes can last weeks instead of just days, meaning more fresh produce at the market and more income for farmers.


• Chill Grinder - - Ethiopian women have for centuries crushed chili peppers by hand - - a time consuming, painful way to add value to a staple spice. The Pepper Eater mills chilies four times faster, creating uniform flakes and sparing hands from chili-oil burns. More information at www.thepeppereater.org.