NASA, USAID, The Department of State, and NIKE joined together to form LAUNCH: Energy Challenge in an effort to identify, showcase and support innovative approaches to global sustainability challenges. LAUNCH searches for visionaries whose world-class ideas, technologies or programs show great promise for making tangible impacts on society in the developed and/or developing worlds.

Ashoka-Lemelson Fellow Howard Weinstein is on a mission.  “250 million people in the world need a hearing aid, yet only 6 million are sold each year, mainly to people who can afford $1,000 - $15,000 US.  This is a huge shortfall, and Howard is trying to do something about it.  His organization, Solar Ear, is making desperately needed hearing aid technology affordable to the world’s poor.

Here is a short video clip narrated by Pieter Henning, P Eng  on the SurePower  communication strategy to deal with the serious  power  blackouts

Given the huge strides in equality in South Africa. A ironic twist is that all walks of life are being impacted by the rotating  power disruptions, in contrast to the past which focused only on poor communities.  The video clip depicts the conesquentual losses that can be reduced if the power Utility work hand-in-hand with participating mobile users to apply the available electricity reserves effectively.

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