Opportunities in power crisis

Some South Africans are finding opportunities in the daily power crisis. Marriette Hopely and Cindy Thornhill of Cape Town have developed the Power Cut Emergency Kit. The kit is proving popular with underprivileged communities in Cape and as far afield as Ghana, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and the Philippines. The kit consists of two oil lamps, a cooker, a litre of lamp oil and a litre of cooking gel. The cooker takes about 8 minutes to boil a litre of water. The products are environmentally friendly. The women have recruited unemployed street people to manufacture the products. The idea is to stimulate entrepreneurship among the communities and traine them how to use stoves and lamps.