Kopernik

Clean cookstoves reach Merapi volcano victims

Alongside partner Inotek, an Indonesian technology incubator, Kopernik project officer Dedy Haning recently spent a few days distributing almost 1000 biomass fuel-efficient cookstoves to communities in mount Merapi, Yogyakarta.

In October last year, Mount Merapi erupted and spilt over a thousand tones of ash, sand and hot lava, forcing around 283,000 people into exile. Now, six months later, a significant number of displaced people remain living in temporary shelters. Most of them lost their houses, jobs, valuable assets and some even lost their beloved families.

The stoves were extremely well received and most women expressed their excitement as scrap wood is easy to find after the volcano eruption destroyed a massive area of forest. In particular Dedy met one recipient of the stove who immediately moved her kettle from her traditional stove to her new stove. She and her two daughters were very happy to find that the stove produced no smoke and consumed only a small amount of wood.

An impressed audience at the demonstration of the biomass stove

Mr. Nurhuda, the inventor of the biomass stove also joined in with the second day of the distribution and demonstrated how to use the stove to an amazed and pleased audience.

For more information please click here.

Wine into water  –  the NYC edition

On 5th of May, Kopernik New York hosted a “Turn Wine into Water” fundraising event at Le Vigne, a boutique wine store in the West Village.

Guests enjoying good wine at Le Vigne while supporting Kopernik's water projects

 For a small donation, guests were treated to a tasting of twelve Italian and French wines provided by AI Selections, including a delicious Doyard Cuvée Vendémiaire Brut champagne and several whites and reds. Some of Kopernik’s technologies were on display, including the LifeStraw water purifier, the Tulip Water Filter and the D.Light portable solar lamp.

A big thank-you to all donors as well as Le Vigne and AI selections! The donations raised will go to funding Kopernik’s water projects.

Meet the team: A Q&A with Dominic Saunders

In a nutshell: I'm originally from Derby in the UK but left the nest to study an Economics degree at Cambridge University. Not yet ready to enter the real world, I then took a year out to backpack around South East Asia and to teach English, learn Spanish and travel around South America, during which time I acquired a taste for experiencing new cultures and meeting new people. Still not ready, I then studied law at Nottingham Law School for two years before finally entering the real world, training as a solicitor at Allen & Overy in London before transferring to the Tokyo office to work as an Associate in the Finance team. I am currently on a client secondment working in the legal department of Sumitomo Corporation advising on a wide array of international business projects.
 
How did Kopernik enter your life? Before arriving in Japan, I had always been involved in a wide range of charity work, from projects such as travelling to Latvia as a student to help renovate an orphanage, to a weekly advisory role at a pro bono legal clinic in London. But for the first couple of years in Tokyo, and for a number of reasons including work pressures..... read more

Kopernik partners with Invent for Humanity

Kopernik has entered into a new partnership with Invent for Humanity, a charitable organisation that has a similar mission and ambitions to facilitate the delivery of life-saving technology to the developing world.
 

Invent for Humanity works to facilitate the transfer of life-changing Appropriate Technology by creating an "Ecosystem for Impact", which includes organizations like Kopernik, Powered by Action, the Certified Licensing Professionals, Inc. (CLP), LESI, and Global Access to Technology for Development.
 
Invent for Humanity extends Kopernik's online campaign presence and its supporting community. There are a lot of great technologies out there, but the challenge is in getting them to people in the developing world. Together with Invent for Humanity, Kopernik can fill this gap and get more technologies to those who need them most.
 
For more details please click here.

Tech of the month: Q-Drum

The Q-Drum is a rollable water container capable of holding 50 litres of water, and was one of the first few pieces of technology to be showcased on the Kopernik website. The unique longitudinal shaft or doughnut hole permits the drum to be pulled across long distances using a rope run through the hole. There are no removable or breakable handles or axles and the rope can be replaced by means available everywhere. It is a seamless container made of linear low density polyethylene through rotational moulding.

Millions of people all over the world live many kilometers from a reliable source of clean water, leaving them vulnerable to cholera, dysentery and other water-borne diseases. In addition we've all seen pictures of women and children in developing countries carrying heavy containers of water mostly on their heads invariably causing many neck and spine injuries. Clean water is one of the simple necessities of life and the idea of the Q Drum originated in response to the needs of rural people for clean and potable water and easing the burden of conveying it.
 
To view details of current projects involving this technology please click here.

Crowdfunding pioneers

Kopernik has recently been featured in the New York Times in an article titled “On the web, a revolution in giving”. The article discusses the ways in which crowdfunding offers donors new ways to get more involvement and impact for their donation. Kopernik is named, amongst others, as a pioneer in online crowdfunding enabling it to effectively deliver high-tech products to the developing world.

 
Please click here to view the full article.

Kopernik in action

Have you seen the Kopernik photo and video gallery? Most Kopernik projects around the world are captured in someway in pictures or on film – to view Kopernik in action please click here.
 

Help us get more technology to those in need

Check out the campaigns currently in need of your support on the Kopernik website.
 
We're just $1899 short of fully funding a project to get solar lanterns to light up rural Kenyan households and schools - can you help us reach our target?