Zoe Kusnierz's Blog (18)

Due to the huge earthquake risk that exists here in Hayward, the most obvious disaster that could happen almost anytime would be this. In this situation the main things that would need to be tracked would be the severity of the earthquake and how high it was on the Richter scale. Secondly data on exactly what areas it hit and how far the damage spread around this area, but also how many deaths and injuries had been recorded since the time of the disaster. Then people would need to know about… Continue

I imagine that with the help of the program I chose to educate and empower women that in the future women would gain more respect in society and have more knowledge in general. Today in India women have significantly less rights and value, but also are very uneducated due to young mothers not being able to go to school. If more women were able to learn about contraception then there would be more time for them to get an education. If women were more respected then men would be able to take care… Continue

I donated $10 to a program that educates and empowers over 500 women in India by teaching them life skills and sex education to adolescent girls to improve their quality of life. I think this is an important issue as many young girls are not taught about contraception in less developed countries as the amenities are less easy to find and generally not well discussed. I also posted on Facebook for people in my friends list to make donations and support this program as I think it should be voiced… Continue

I investigated a news story on the rise of women becoming more educated in less developed countries which stated that this issue would not only improve individuals but society in general. It focused on a campaign called ‘Better life, Better future’ which promotes education for girls and women and is founded by the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. Various stories online discussed how more women in third world countries were able to get a fair education and rights were… Continue

The economic transaction I made was donating £5 to the Kiva micro-loan company that enables people in other countries to receive small amounts from people to start businesses or establishments on their own. I thought this was an interesting idea as it allows people from poorer backgrounds to become sponsored and fulfil ideas for success that they would not have been able to achieve without the help from others. However, I did read about the corruption in India after I had donated the money… Continue

An alternative way to use currency in the future which I thought was interesting was connecting the use of mobile phones to paying for things in shops or online. Today with phones being so popular and widely used in the world it could be successful to also use them as a form of currency.

My event idea for World Water Day 2020 would be a competition to see how much rain water people could collect in a week all around the world and there would be an event in various cities. There would be demonstrations on how much water people could save by doing small tasks and how people could live off the rainwater they have saved.

The water visionary I have connected with is a cafe in the UK who also donates a large amount of profit to charity and the homeless but also focuses on ways to save the environment. Last year they saved 140,000 litres of water by installing water hippos in their establishments around the country. I have already previously advertised their efforts in saving the environment by sending letters to various supermarket chains asking them if they would consider doing the same to save huge amounts of… Continue

The water project I enjoyed and thought was inspiring was the work that the Water 1st International is doing in India where they are building wells and toilets in homes all over India. Not only this but they are also educating every household they provide on how to be hygienic themselves and keep their water and sanitation clean. I have been to India and experienced the need for this type of knowledge as they are generally less hygienic than western countries and live very differently.

In 2020 the holiday I would like to celebrate would be New Years Eve, but all the lights used (and the previous lights used for Christmas) would have been powered by solar energy and have been reserved especially for this day. Everybody would get together at midnight to see lights outside and instead of fireworks which are bad for the environment everybody would light Chinese lanterns and set them free.

My idea for designing a new way to power something I use each day would be solar powered mobile phones and IPods. These are two items that I use every day without fail and for them to not have to be charged using electricity would save a significant amount of power. They would just have to be left in the sun for a couple of hours a day and then I could use them for the rest.

The person I chose that is working on a project based on electricity or sustainable energy is the Chief Executive Officer of Nuru Light, Sameer Hajee. He is part of a company called Nuru Energy that focuses on providing low power electricity and lighting solutions to the 2 billion people in developing countries that have little or no access to the electricity grid.

In 2020 I would like to imagine that I would be eating something for dinner that I had helped grow myself or it would be at least grown locally by farmers. My parents live in the countryside so I am used to eating fruits and vegetables that have been organically grown and sold locally, and hope to live there in the future. By then I hope to not eat as much meat so would ideally be cooking a vegetable stew with lots of pulps in it to make sure it had the correct balance of nutrients and was… Continue

I went shopping and bought a home growing kit for tomatoes and peas which I gave to one of my friends as he wanted to grow his own vegetables. This will help him to practice being resourceful and hopefully in the future he will use these skills.

In my home country in the UK of course there is not as much poverty and hunger as in third world countries, however it still does exist. Near my community in London a lot of hunger is with homeless people that cannot afford to buy food and sleep on the streets. One good campaign running is through a Cafe chain called ‘Pret A Manger’. It owns electricity powered vans that are used to donate leftover food to homeless shelters around London at the end of the day for free. This is the only company… Continue

In ten years time I would like to imagine that I will be comfortable financially and be able to help out others, especially family members that will need extra help. I will be in a good job that allows me to give something creative and positive to the public. I hope to have a purpose in my career and to be able to travel and see the world as part of my job.

As my hero for this Act1, I chose to follow Jason Aramburu from the Pop Tech Social Innovators website. I added this person on facebook and hope to follow his developments in helping create low cost technologies that fight climate change. This is a serious issue and it is people like this that will help make a change for our future.

My favourite secret of innovation was the idea of living on £2 a day to see if you could cope. This would really engage people in the serious issue of poverty and make people understand how hard it is to survive. In the world today people can be very ignorant to their surroundings when they are comfortable in their own lives, so it is important to be active instead of just talking about things.