[hackerspaces] Hackerspace for South Sudan

[Josh Pritt]

Two projects come to mind. Here at Makers Local 256 we have members in a project that's basically a golf cart battery on a hand truck with a solar panel to keep it charged. It has an electronics box with a small raspberry pi type computer, wifi router and some cellular and/or ham radios.  I'm not familiar with all the details and exact radios but it's job is to quickly and cheaply roll out a mesh network of these nodes to restore Internet connectivity to places of natural or man made devastation or to places that never had the connectivity.

The other project we have been involved in is called Engineers Without Borders which is exactly like doctors without borders only they bring engineering skills to places that need it. Examples are of inexpensive human powered well pumps made from PVC and other off the shelf items.  They've also made simple water purification and filtering systems from materials and parts they already have.

Sent from my iPad

On Jun 25, 2013, at 12:23 PM, "Christopher Douglas" <cwjdouglas at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear Hackerspace.org Community,
>  
> Greetings from Austin, Texas!
>  
> I’m working on some projects in South Sudan, one of those being the start of a Maker/Hackerspace in the capital city of Juba.
>  
> The Maker/Hacker movement is catching on in some African countries as a way to make things they need (e.g. farm implements, repair vehicles), start businesses (e.g. woodworking, solar fruit dryers) and support community development projects (e.g. water purifiers, Raspberry Pi computers for classrooms, alternative cooking/lighting fuels).
>  
> An important step is helping South Sudanese “Makers” connect with their counterparts in the global community, especially those with experience with these kinds of projects and in African countries or post-conflict environments.
>  
> I think this can do some real good, and if anyone has any suggestions or questions, drop me a line.
>  
> Regards,
> Chris D.
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