Kopernik

Kopernik technologies help small Indonesian businesses

Meet Ibu Nur, a Pekka member who has benefitted from the UB.03-1 biomass stove from the Agents of Technology, Agents of Change project. She and her husband own a food kiosk in Batu Kumbung village in West Lombok and now use the biomass stove to prepare snacks like fried cassava to sell. She also sells the biomass stoves to her neighborsto earn commission as a technology agent.

“This stove helps me save money. I no longer have to buy kerosene, which is hard to come by in this area. It’s much easier here to look for wood or buy it. With a traditional stove, one store-bought bundle of wood would last me only about three days. But with this new stove, I can go for a week without having to buy more wood.”

And she is not the only one. Others have begun using Kopernik technologies for their own businesses, which is a great way to generate interest for the products. The more people see the products' benefits in action, the more they will want to save up and purchase them--that means more commission earnings for our technology agents! To see which other technologies are being used by other members, read Project Officer Cindy Nawilis's blog post here.

A holiday season full of impact

Join others as they celebrate this holiday season by spreading the joy of giving! Select a life-changing technology from Kopernik's Holiday Catalogue and tell someone you care about that the donation has been made on their behalf with a festive gift card. Simple and yet meaningful, it is the ideal way to make a difference this time of year--not to mention an easy to way to get your holiday shopping done!

Tech of the month: Driptech Micro-Irrigation Systems

Driptech brings affordable, high quality, and field-ready drip irrigation systems to small-plot farmers in developing countries. With a price that is at least half of what other commercially available drip-irrigation systems cost, Driptech allows farmers to recoup their initial investment in less than six months while also increasing their yield by up to 90%, not to mention tremendous savings in labor. The benefits are even more meaningful for farmers who traditionally irrigate dry-season crops by hand, like those in Orissa, India to whom Kopernik has distributed the technology.

You can learn more about the product and read blog posts about the installation process on the technology page on our site. 

Bringing technologies to women in a remote island is a long but fulfilling journey

By Lincoln Rajali Sihotang, Kopernik Project Officer

Three weeks after my visit to East Flores, I was back again for the same reason: to introduce a range of simple and handy technologies to women in remote parts of East Flores. Following the success of two tech fairs in Larantuka and Demon Pagong at the beginning of November, Kopernik and our local partner Pekka extended our reach to Kelubagolit and Ile Boleng, two other last mile sub-districts where Pekka has also been operating. Both of these sub-districts are located on Adonara Island in the district of East Flores in the province of Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT). It was an arduous trip to reach these communities, but it is always fulfilling to see that your work means something to other people.

Best of all, these tech fairs drew in the most participants out of all the tech fairs Kopernik has ever conducted. In Kelubagolit, twelve different technologies were presented and demonstrated in front of 202 participants! In Ile Boleng, there were a total of 152 participants.

Current method of fetching water in NTT  | One solution Kopernik offers: the Q Drum

This is just one example of the demonstrations we did at the tech fairs. Check out the other solutions we presented on my blog post here.

Happy New Year from the Kopernik team!

Team photo from our new office opening ceremony

It has been another eventful year for Kopernik, and we can hardly believe that it's soon coming to a close. Thank you always for your continued support, and our team wishes you the happiest of holidays and a wonderful new year!