PlayPump: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 19:05, 28 February 2011

About

PlayPump currently allows kids in South Africa to play and simultaneously provides their community with a much needed sustainable water source. It's like killing two birds with one stone. From blood, sweat and tears being shed to obtain water to survive, to the simple act of kids playtime bringing water to the community, PlayPump has greatly reduced stress from the lives of many South African people. Kids spin on a merry- go-round that powers a pump. Water is pumped out of the ground and into a tank for the community. Before the invention of PlayPump, many children in South Africa had never used playground equipment and many people didn't have a sustainable water source nearby.

History

A retired advertising executive by the name of Trevor Fields and came up with the PlayPump system. He came up with the idea after watching mostly females of households in Africa spending long periods of the day collecting and carrying water. They had to hike far to get to boreholes with water and then most of the time they were using contaminated hand-pumps. After they pumped the water, they then had to take strenuous walks through bushes carrying up to 40 gallons of water in a bucket at a time. Fields knew that there had to be a better way of obtaining water that would take less time and energy and if the women of the households had a sustainable waters source nearby them, they would have way more time to accomplish other tasks and spend time with their children. With the PlayPump, not only do the women get more time to spend with their children, but they also get to watch their kids enjoy playing on the merry-go-round, a privilege that they never had before. Fields solved two dilemmas with one solution. Fields' goal was to build thousands of PlayPump systems for people in need of water in South Africa and expand to other countries in Africa.

Costs and Upkeep

One PlayPump system costs about $7,000 to install. In order to pay for the upkeep of the PlayPump systems, advertisements are put on the water towers like billboards. Money from advertisers pays for all the maintenance. Billboard spots are reserved for the national lovelife campaign to help educate children about HIV and AIDS before they become sexually active.

Sources

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/rough/2005/10/south_africa_th.html http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/southernafrica904/flash/pdf/unicef_pp_report.pdf http://www.waterforpeople.org/extras/playpumps/case-foundation-partnership.html http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/stories/peopleplaces/playpumps/ http://blackandwhiteprogram.com/interview/trevor-field-playpumps-international

links

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/kids/green-kids/playpumps-kids.html link to original PlayPump animation location:http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_adU-pJYBj5c/Rgtwjj2BYQI/AAAAAAAAAAM/0PU6sr1m6Ic/s320/animated_illustration2b.gif&imgrefurl=http://confusedramblings.blogspot.com/&usg=__kXyp8nKjENCMA_lQubKg0rdHlMQ=&h=142&w=207&sz=9&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=9lmyR3AE2Z3shM:&tbnh=113&tbnw=165&ei=fl9rTdeaDJC2sAOy5-SoBA&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dplaypump%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D580%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=7486&oei=fl9rTdeaDJC2sAOy5-SoBA&page=1&ndsp=19&ved=1t:429,r:15,s:0&tx=100&ty=7

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 [[File:Animated illustration2b.gif ‎ |thumb|left|This is how a PlayPump system works.]]
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 ==About==
 PlayPump currently allows kids in South Africa to play and simultaneously provides their community with a much needed sustainable water source. It's like killing two birds with one stone. From blood, sweat and tears being shed to obtain water to survive, to the simple act of kids playtime bringing water to the community, PlayPump has greatly reduced stress from the lives of many South African people.