Archive for the ‘’ Category
February 27, 2009
Me and Mrs. Arnone, the school Principal
I was able to share about how my teachers at Sacred Heart were the first to encourage my math and science skills. From then on, I searched for a way to use my God-given skills well. I spoke about my faith development throughout my education, including my experience joining the Lay Marianists through the University of Dayton. I explained a bit of what engineering is, and what a solar autoclave is, as well as presented photos from my experiences in Nicaragua. The girls had really great comments and questions for me. What a great audience! I tried to emphasize that faith development and the search for one’s vocation can be a life-long process, and that I am certainly not near the achievement of either, but that I get closer with every day and every new experience. Salud del Sol’s development has been so encouraging to me, and I am so happy that it may serve as similar encouragement to others in their search for their own purpose in life.
February 22, 2009
I recently had the amazing opportunity to meet with the Executive Director of MedWish International, Tish Dahlby. She was kind enough, and excited enough about the solar autoclave, to meet with me for an hour and a half at the MedWish facility in Cleveland. It was a very fruitful conversation, resulting in lots of ideas on the future of Salud del Sol fundraising and grant-seeking. It also served to really re-inspire me in our efforts. Although our team has weekly conference calls, with full agendas and task-lists every week, at times it still feels as though we are wandering. But my conversation with Ms. Dahlby reaffirmed me that our organization is actually on a solid, healthy path toward our mission. It was encouraging to hear, especially when our path seems quite fluid and even muddled at times!
February 12, 2009
Hunger and malnutrition are both major causes of illness and major obstacles to effective treatment of many diseases. Malnutrition weakens immune systems, and greatly increases the likelihood of falling ill with and dying from many common infectious diseases.
During the Physicians for Human Rights Conference, Donna Barry of Partners In Health presented on the topic of Food and Health Safety and how this applies to the health and economic development of developing countries. She explained how Partners In Health is addressing this crisis of malnourished children and families through their work in Haiti, where they are providing food supplements and lunches to the children in the community. While current food programs are providing meals for those in need, the majority of the time the foods provided lack the general nutrition required by malnourished people. Not all food aid delivered to developing countries is good. For example, Haiti has become a food dependent country, where 92% pf the families are in food security programs. The staple to this program is a simple peanut butter like supplement called Nourimil. Now I cannot imagine how appealing it would be to eat peanut butter every meal of the day, however by providing children in Haiti with Nourimil,people in the community have experience dramatic health improvements. While it is a more expensive option, people in Haiti are spending less time in the hospital, which in the long run is saving money for the local health system.
Another benefit of Nourmil, is that it is locally produced. PIH has partnered with local agricultural farms to create a vertical supply chain to produce the Nourimil peanut butter product. In this way, they are providing jobs for local people and stimulating the economy. This is an important aspect of development programs, the ability to work with the local community while addressing crucial issues of health and economic development. Below is a summary of this collaborative project of PIH.
Community-Based Treatment of Severely Malnourished Children
According to UNICEF, almost a quarter of Haiti’s children suffer from chronic malnutrition, as evidenced by their stunted growth. Our nutrition program meets the immediate needs of severely malnourished children through a nutrition treatment which uses two products called Nourimamba and Nourimil – both produced through our Zanmi Agrikol program – given to children identified in our clinics and by our accompagnateurs, or community health workers. In cooperation with Zanmi Agrikol, PIH and ZL treated nearly 3,464 malnourished children in 2007 across Central Haiti and the Artibonite District, and created opportunities for agricultural training and production for over 100 Haitian farmers and families. We are also providing meals to over 9,000 children daily through our school lunch program. Read more
February 12, 2009
Director of Product Research Daniel Hensel took up the lead in entering the Solar Autoclave Design Team into a nation-wide medical invention competition, called the BMEidea. The competition is aimed at new medical innovations that can help the industry somehow. Most interesting, however, is that some mini-business plan is needed as part of the competition! This is where Salud del Sol comes into play. Through a selection process and as a reward for entering early, the Solar Autoclave project received a $500 stipend.
The competition is hosted by NCIIA, National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance. The team (consisting of Lori Hanna, Daniel Hensel, Matt Pittinger, Adam Ryba and Christopher Weiss) must complete a 20-page document detailing the product and its economic viability, then it will be judged by a panel. Winners will be announced June 13th, with first place earning $10,000.
For more information on the competition, please visit http://www.nciia.org/bmeidea/comp/time.html.
Thank you for your support, and wish us luck!
February 11, 2009
March 27-29, 2009 Daniel Hensel will be presenting at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Student Professional Development Conference at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. The presentation titled “Solar Autoclaves in Rural Nicaragua” will be a technical overview of the Solar Autoclave research.
See the below link for more information on this ASME conference.
http://districts.asme.org/SPDC/OH/Index.htm
February 5, 2009
This past semester, in Cornell University’s Engineers for a Sustainable World class, there was a Solar Oven Team that worked on problems presented by Grupo Fenix. Led by Tim Bond, the team advisor, Cornell students have worked alongside Las Mujeres Solares and Grupo Fenix in much the same way that University of Dayton students have. Similar to our Design and Manufacturing Clinic class, their Engineers for a Sustainable World class allows students the opportunity to work on appropriate technology issues while still in the university setting.
Their most recent report on their work, from December 2008, provides much valuable knowledge, much of wish I would like to share with you.
First, the team did an investigation into the best ways to prep the solar cooker before painting it, such that the paint does not chip off. This is important for aesthetic purposes, for the women would like to sell the solar cookers (and eventually autoclaves). The team found that sanding and phosphoric acid treatment are significantly better metal preparation methods than soap, vinegar, or no preparation.
The team also did an investigation into the possibilities of cooking more food with a larger oven. They built a new cooker 50% larger by volume than the original, with one dimension (the width) increased. It was found that the scale up did not affect how well or quickly the oven cooked the food. Along with this conclusion, the team also provided valuable construction suggestions and effective testing procedures in their report. They also found that the amount of water heated is more important to cooking time than the number of pots.
Finally, the Solar Oven Team did an energy and carbon cost analysis on the solar ovens. They compared the costs of the solar ovens with costs of traditional cooking methods in order to prove that the solar ovens are an effective way to decrease energy consumption and carbon emissions. The team concluded that a solar cooker “pays off” its production carbon and energy costs in just 41 days. Because solar cookers last many years, they are obviously effective. Assuming a two year lifetime, each solar cooker offsets over 8000 MJ of energy. Especially important to this is that Las Mujeres Solares use recycled newspaper printing aluminum for the inside of their cookers. Of course, the team points out that many assumptions had to be made in order to reach these conclusions, and transportation costs of the raw materials were neglected. But even after taking this into consideration, solar cookers still are quite effective at reducing energy use and carbon costs.
I would like to congratulate the team on a job well done, and the administrators for the success of their program thus far. The reflections offered by the students at the end of the report illustrate the value of the class to them and to Grupo Fenix. The students learned a lot about engineering and appropriate technology through their experience, as well as gained exposure to development issues unlike those encountered in many engineering courses. Their reflections were inspiring, and I was greatly impressed by their approach to working with the women. They showed respect for the women’s needs and opinions, which I have learned is so important to work like ours.
February 3, 2009
This past weekend, I had the opportunity to learn about issues in international healthcare, network with med students and other healthcare professionals at the Physicians for Human Rights Conference at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) CEO, Frank Donaghue, described the conference as a way of learning from other students and professionals dedicated to the availability of healthcare for all who need it and how to move from “rhetoric to reality” through the collective effort of the conference participants.
Key note speakers at the event included, Stephen Lewis, Co-Director of AIDS-Free World and former UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa and Julio Frenk, current dean of Harvard School of Public Health and former Minister of Health for Mexico. Stephen Lewis set the tone for the conference with his speech addressing the over arching issues that are contributing to the healthcare violations in developing countries. Lewis talked about U2 singer Bono, who asked why is it possible for the US and other nations to find $700 billion in 3 months to help bail out Wall St. but not $250 million over 3 years for the agreed upon Millenium Development Goals from the 2000 UN Summit.
Julio Frenk spoke about the ethical framework in which he used to guide the development and implementation of a national health insurance reform during his tenure as Minister of Health in Mexico. Frenk strongly stated that health is a second generation human right, meaning it transcends citizenship. This implies that it is unethical to limits healthcare services for immigrants in the United States.
Along with the keynote speakers, there were sessions that developed skills in advocacy and also sessions that covered topics in the cross section of human rights and health, custody, and conflict. Out of the 40 sessions available, conference participants only had the opportunity to attend 4 different sessions. Tough decision! I tried to vary the topics of the sessions I was attending. The following are brief summaries of the different sessions I attended, Read more
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