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MIT D-Lab promotes rural community innovations in Guatemala with Soluciones Comunitarias

Nancy Adams

October 10, 2014 |

MIT News |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: Guatemala, Santa Maria Nebaj, El Quiché

MIT's D-Lab is supporting individuals in impoverished, rural areas invent low-cost technologies to address the needs of their communities. In 2009, the D-Lab paired with SolCom, a Guatemalan community organizing enterprise, and an international development fund to bring this model to the isolated area of Nebaj, assisting locals in creating a Makerspace for microentrepreneurs. The collaboration has fostered an environment for sustainable grassroots change, in which the social and intellectual capital needed to create the needed innovations and inventions originates in the community itself.

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Even rural America can have good public transportation

Ben Adler

July 23, 2014 |

Grist |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Aspen, Colorado

Rural areas are known for requiring tourists to rent a car in order to move around, which can be a significant added expense. But Aspen has developed a bus system that can bring residents or tourists from Aspen to suburban areas and back, and the area is also well geared to bicycle use.

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Refurbished Wind Turbines to Power the Developing World at a Profit

Mary Mazzoni

January 30, 2014 |

Triple Pundit |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi, Emirate of Abu Dhabi

The commercially-based Wind for Prosperity initiative may have devised a solution to meet growing demands for electricity in developing economies, where fossil fuels are expensive, difficult to access, and take a toll on environmental and human health. The venture works to refurbish wind turbines from Europe and re-deploy them in the developing world, providing clean and affordable power where it’s needed most.

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Bill Gates Can't Build a Toilet

Jason Kass

November 18, 2013 |

The New York Times |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: Peru

Ecological toilets that use natural composting to break down waste are simple to construct, waterless and are easy to fix. But as philanthropists are finding, getting these to those that need it most is harder than anticipated.

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When entrepreneurship is only way forward

Laura Baverman

July 21, 2013 |

USA Today |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: Guatemala, Antigua

Development work is evolving beyond short-term mission trips and one-off donations into a more comprehensive, in-depth model that addresses long-term sustainability of a solution paired with empowerment of those being served. MicroConsignment is a unique branch of micro-enterprise being implemented by non-profit SolCom in Guatemala that provides individuals in rural villages the skills and resources needed to start sustainable businesses.

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Making Adult Literacy Learning Sustainable in Rural Communities

Sarah Hasaba

May 08, 2013 |

United Nations University |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Kenya

Many of the issues facing underdeveloped rural communities stem from low rates of literacy. Researchers have found that cooperation between "formal and non-formal education systems" is an effective method in strengthening literacy programs in countries such as Kenya, Vietnam and Uganda. Collaboration between government and NGOs has led to increased and sustainable literacy progress in many rural communities where international development agencies, such as UNESCO, have intervened.

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India's rice revolution

John Vidal

February 16, 2013 |

The Guardian |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: India, Bihar

The System of Root Intensification (SRI) method resulted in dramatically high yields from one Indian village. The system centers on a "less is more" approach and results in higher yields—without the use of GMOs. The idea has faced barriers in spreading, as scientists are wary of it, even as villagers embrace the empirically successful approach.

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What a Little Land Can Do

Tina Rosenberg

November 21, 2012 |

The New York Times |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: India, Kolkata, West Bengal

In many parts of the world, not owning one's own land is more directly correlated to poverty than other factors such as illiteracy, but land reform is controversial, difficult, and expensive. A new program called Landesa is having success in India through a non-confiscatory model that gives families tennis-court size plots.

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Haiti's road to recovery

Jacob Kushner

June 28, 2012 |

Public Radio International (PRI) |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Haiti

An essential roadway in Haiti is being rebuilt in the kind of aid Haitians say is vital to economic recovery after the catastrophic earthquake of 2010. National Route 7 is an important highway for farmers and other merchants who transport their goods for sale to Haiti's capital of Port-au-Prince. The current dangerous conditions of the road lead to deadly accidents as well as car troubles which prevent farmers from selling their harvest. Other much larger reconstruction projects in Haiti are often more expensive, yet not as vital in bringing actual change or long-lasting benefits to Haitians.

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Nepal sees end in sight for trachoma

Amy Yee

June 23, 2012 |

The Lancet |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Nepal, Kathmandu

In Nepal, specialty eye hospitals are training staff to travel to remote areas of the country to provide eye care to rural communities. This initiative is aimed to prevent and treat trachoma, a degenerative eye disease, with the goal of ultimately eradicating blindness caused by trachoma.

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