I stopped by the Wilmington, NC world headquarters of The Full Belly Project today to meet the Executive Director Daniel Ling and to see some of their income-generating devices designs for agricultural world communities.
That's Daniel in the photo below.
Here's Daniel again, with the Full Belly Nut Sheller, which I guess you'd call their signature machine.
Pictured below is a foot-powered Nut Sheller and behind that is an electricity-powered version.
Daniel showed me a few other devices, including this foot-powered corn grinder.
Here's another shot of the corn grinder.
This one is a bit different, it's a low water consumption hand washing station.
As you may remember (from yesterday's blog post), the Full Belly Nut Sheller used by one of the BBC World Challenge 10 finalists. That project is in Malawi and is called "In a Nutshell".
Votes for the Malawi In a Nutshell project would be appreciated on the link below:
An organization that's near to my heart is a finalist in the BBC 6th Annual World Challenge 10 - a "a global competition aimed at finding projects or small businesses from around the world that have shown enterprise and innovation at a grassroots level."
The Full Belly Project, based in Wilmington, North Carolina in the U.S. is a non-profit organization whose mission is to "Design and distribute income-generating agricultural devices".
Here's a link to The Full Belly Project.
Their signature device, designed by a local guy, Jock Brandis, is: The Universal Nut Sheller (UNS): The UNS is a hand-powered device made of concrete and simple metal parts that can shell 125 pounds of peanuts per hour. It can also shell a number of other crops, such as coffee, jatropha, shea, and neem nuts. The Universal Nut Sheller costs about $50-75 dollars to make in a developing country, depending on the price of local materials, and can serve the needs of a village of 5,000 people.
So anyway, one of their projects, called "In A Nutshell" which is in progress in Malawi in Africa, is one of the 12 finalists in the World Challenge 10.
So this post is a blatant, but heartfelt request for your vote for "In a Nutshell" in the World Challenge 10.
So, if you'd like to support this fine organization with a great project and technology to encourage and feed people around the world, please go to World Challenge 10 , click on "Vote Now" and go to the bottom of the list of finalists to select "Malawi - In a Nutshell."
