Small changes can often make a huge difference.  They don’t have to be expensive or require special technologies.  Take for instance the Big Boda Load-Carrying Bike, designed by WorldBike. Used in Kenya, it basically reinforces the frame of the bike and lengthens the back seat so that it can carry more weight.  That means a farmer can take two or three extra loads of goods to the market and double or triple their earning capacity. 

In Nigeria, Mohammed Bah Abba designed a simple method of preserving goods using commonly used, readily available ceramic pots. It basically consists of a small pot placed inside a larger pot, with the space in between filled with water and sand.  The crops, vegetables, fruits, are kept in the inner pot and as the water evaporates, it pulls heat from the interior of the inner pot and keeps its contents cool.  Tomatoes can be kept for twenty-one days instead of two or three.  Goods can then be stored longer, and sold on demand.  Freeing time for things before thought unimaginable, like going to school.

In Bangladesh I met a group of former slum dwellers who were given the opportunity, through a micro-credit program and training in income-generating activities, to own their homes.  Without the daily fear of their homes being torn down, they were able to concentrate on long term solutions to their financial problems.  They had a much better sense of self- worth.  They no longer agreed to working all day for a farmer who wanted to pay them 10 taka (10 cents) for what would take a entire days work.  There were now many more other opportunities open to them, they were no longer so desperate that they had to take the first job that came along.  Hopefully the farmer will learn he needs to pay a fare wage if he wants to get the work done.

Sometimes given the opportunity to close your eyes for a few minutes, take a deep breath and daydream of new possibilities makes all the difference in the world.

For more information on inexpensive designs that make big differences in the lives of the poor, check out Design for the Other 90%, Published by the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Smithsonian Museum http://other90.cooperhewitt.org/.