World Challenge 09 - (bbc World News And Newsweek, In Association With Shell)

Devinda_Z · October 6, 2009

I wasn't too sure whether or not to open a new thread for this, but given that I open threads for all kinda random comparatively unimportant things figured you'll wouldn't mind

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Now in its fifth year, World Challenge 09 is a global competition aimed at finding projects or small businesses from around the world that have shown enterprise and innovation at a grass roots level. World Challenge 09 is brought to you by BBC World News and Newsweek, in association with Shell, and is about championing and rewarding projects and business which really make a difference.

http://www.theworldchallenge.co.uk/index.php

Please take a look at the link which shows the Sri Lankan "Safe bottle lamp" idea - -http://www.theworldchallenge.co.uk/2009-finalists-project10.php

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Safe Bottle Lamp Project
One man’s mission to stop the horrific, and totally avoidable, injuries caused by unsafe kerosene lamps in Sri Lanka.

“If I win the World Challenge I can make and distribute 40,000 of these lamps, protecting over 80,000 people from these horrific burn injuries” Dr Wijaya Godakumbura, Safe Bottle Lamp Project

Despite an electrification programme, over 6 million people in Sri Lanka, nearly one third of the population, don’t have power. Many families rely on improvised lamps made from bottles to light their homes at night, but these can often spill and cause horrific injuries – figures suggest 300,000 people around the world die from accidental kerosene burns every year. Dr Wijaya Godakumbura, a surgeon who witnessed the terrible results of these accidents has designed a safe Lamp that can't roll over and cause a fire. To date, his small foundation has handed out about 775 thousand of the safe lamps.

Part of the battle in terms of being recognized as a finalist as already been won - its your votes that can ensure that this local philanthropist can win the competition itself - there is a substantial benefit that can be reaped by the rural population should our action of a few clicks on-line pay dividend.

Do spread the word if you feel this initiative should be supported - even i picked this up from a friends status message on FB a few minutes ago, so thats one effective way of getting the message out!

Sri Lanka has been recognized once before as well for the Elephant Dung Paper project : http://www.theworldchallenge.co.uk/2006-winner.php