The Beautiful Struggle |
"There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve:
the fear of failure."
~The Alchemist
|
Since coming to Princeton, I have come to understand that good intentions carry little currency unless coupled with practical action. As such, I have tried to get involved with various projects focusing on issues whether in my local community or on the other side of the world. A lot of these projects are young and I can't pretend that I've gotten close to saving the world. But it is my hope that within the next decade, I will have at least had some sort of positive impact on the world. This page needs updating but I have to go study for my oral exams so bear with me! em[POWER] Energy Group, Inc. em[POWER] seeks to revitalize landfill communities throughout the world using a modular and scalable cooperative development model based on renewable resources. By coordinating and streamlining the waste sorting process of landfill scavengers, the em[POWER] model will improve the sorting efficiency of recyclables, turn organic waste into electricity and high quality compost, and provide the nucleus for a host of community-owned businesses. This will in turn provide community access to electricity, enhance educational opportunities, improve local health, and raise worker wages, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and waste overflow. By having a series of autonomous co-op units around the world, em[POWER], as an umbrella organization can help them access markets which require scale for entry. More information can be found at www.empowerenergygroup.org Solar-Powered Vaccine Transport System Medical treatment in remote regions presents a particular variety of challenges endemic to the surroundings. Rather than setting up static clinics to serve an entire region, many health clinics have found that it is far more effective to implement mobile clinics that travel around the area administering health care. Because of a variety of circumstances (practicality, terrain, infrastructure, cost), these journeys may have to be taken by foot or beast of burden, rather than 4x4. This extends journeys considerably, preventing clinics from bringing little more than dry penicillin with them. Vaccines, which need to be kept around 2-8 °C have little chance of surviving the journey. However, statistics speak for the true need in these communities for vaccines and improved healthcare. The premise of our project was to enable these medical caravans to transport these temperature-sensitive vaccines, many of which have to be kept at temperatures below 8 °C, on long trips to remote communities. We used a small refrigerator, similar to a standard cooler, to hold the medicines. In order to maintain the correct temperature, this refrigerator was connected to a deep-cycle battery that would be charged using solar panels – thus providing a renewable energy source that would ensure constant cooling in regions of abundant sunshine such as sub-Saharan Africa. The battery was chosen with enough reserve capacity to ensure that the unit would remain cold even if there were 2-3 days without sun. All of this was integrated into a saddle that could be fitted onto a typical ‘beast of burden’ – in this case, a camel – for convenient transport. The first generation saddle (March, 2009) was built out of bamboo, specifically for our project to integrate all of these components. The second generation, deployed in March 2010, used flexible solar panels and was designed to fit onto locally-designed camel saddles. Photos of the trip can be found on the Journeys page. International Rescue Committee To learn more about my 2008 efforts with the IRC, please go [here]. You can also check out the offical Princeton University press release. |
 |
"Find something that you're ready to die for... and then live for it." ~ Black Ice
This is a 786 Tongmark Production
|
|