A young and ambitious engineer, Norah Magero, co-founder of Drop Access, an organization in Kenya that supports communities in need of sustainable solutions, was approached by dairy farmers in her village to create something that will keep their produce fresh while they venture to the market. Their biggest struggle was not being able to take their farm milk to the local markets, as the time it gets there it has already spoiled from the sun. The design she therefore created was not only able to be powered by the sun with a USB, but is small enough for it to be portable on a bike or motorcycle. In midst of the Corona pandemic, Magero realized that with such a portable and useful design, it can also carry other helpful tools throughout rural communities that are in desperate need of vaccinations and other medicines. With this, sparked the idea of how to support areas in Kenya that otherwise don’t have access to electricity grids which prevents them from storing needed medical supplies. Within a few months, Magero was able to evolve her product, now called Vaccibox, and has been nominated by the Royal Academy of Engineering for their Africa Prize, and is currently being used to dispense vaccines to rural areas in Kenya. Norah Magero’s mission to design and produce sustainable products that support communities in need, is an example that reflects the global research needed in urgently solving climate change.
Photo by: Tortensimon
