With massive income inequality on both a community-to-community and country-to-country level, the quality of education differs substantially between wealthier and lower-income communities. Bridging this cap is incredibly difficult without proper funding. However, access to the internet and portable technology is helping change this. For rural parts of developing countries, especially such communities in Africa, educational resources are severely underfunded. This severely handicaps the quality of the education received by students at these schools. Different groups are working to narrow the gap on education quality. These groups are doing this by investing in technology that would provide schools in these areas access to the internet. With the internet, the students are then able to take advantage of educational resources that they otherwise would not have access to. Several studies have been published on this, pointing to how technology can help boost student learning in these rural or other disadvantaged area.

Some technologies that have helped bridge the education gap for these communities include satellites, durable laptops, and many other electronics. For example, in Ghana the Valley Foundation and Dubai Cares are working with the Ghanaian Ministry of Education to provide several schools with projectors, satellite dishes, solar-powered computers, modern electronic blackboards, and many other electronics. In Kenya, Ushahidi and Crowdmap have developed a robust laptop called the BRCK. The BRCK is designed with limited electricity and internet connection in mind.

While these technologies will help provide a better education to students in rural or otherwise disadvantaged areas, these technologies also provide governments with reasons to restrict additional funding to these schools. In order to completely address the educational gap, both government funding and technology are likely needed to ensure students everywhere can get access to a quality education.

Source:

Livingston, Steven. “Classroom technologies narrow education gap in developing countries”. Brookings. 2016 Aug. 23, https://www.brookings.edu/blog/techtank/2016/08/23/classroom-technologies-narrow-education-gap-in-developing-countries/

Besides housing, what technology do Corvallis homeless people need?
Water?
Warmth?
Healthier food?

Corvallis Housing First
Corvallis homeless camp moving forward 2021
Corvallis resources for hungry and homeless 2021
Benton County Housing and Homelessness

Companies like Medline, Philips, and Siemens Healthineers have all begun to market refurbished medical devices which both makes devices less expensive and reduces the medical industry’s enormous impact on the environment. The environmental impacts of many industries have been shown to disproportionately affect people living in poverty, and the medical device industry is no exception. From the sourcing of raw materials to pollution generated throughout manufacturing processes, the environmental damage wrought by the production of single-use medical devices should be addressed. Medgadget provides a more comprehensive report on the economics of refurbished medical equipment.

The Lifestraw is a product that enables a user 99.999999% bacteria-free and 99.999% parasite-free water for around $20. The design is essentially a filtered straw that can be put directly into a body of water and filter hazards immediately. The device works as advertised for at least 1000l liters. The product may come across as a perfect solution to hazardous water in developing countries, however it is not. The straw cannot filter viruses which are prevalent in bodies of water in many developing countries.

Also consider the access problems many face to any water at all. The organization Water For Africa recognizes not only is hazardous water a problem, but bodies of any water are may be located far away and typically women are tasked with the responsibility of retrieving it everyday. The task of delivering this water is incredibly laborsome, for a reward that is ultimately dangerous. The Lifestraw cannot rid this water of viruses, nor can it reduce the labor of moving water.

This is not to say the Lifestraw is a poor product, but it may just be a better solution for poverty within the United States or other countries that are less likely to have viruses in bodies of water. A Lifestraw is also a great tool for a hiking or an emergency kit. There are other filtration systems that are able to filter out viruses, but part of the appeal of the Lifestraw is the $20 price tag. Other filtration systems, though relatively as portable and more cost effective, have the barrier of a high up front cost.

Sources:

SnarkyNomad (2014). “The one problem no Lifestraw review ever mentions”. SnarkyNomad. https://snarkynomad.com/the-one-problem-no-lifestraw-review-ever-mentions/

“Benefits of Clean Water”. WaterForAfrica. https://www.waterforafrica.org.uk/benefits-of-water/

Getting remote health advice via mobile phone can improve the health outcomes of people that don’t have access to healthcare resources. One example is in “Mobile phones bring health to the poor’, in which the Ghana project targets women with messages from a cell phone who do not typically seek information from local health facilities about pregnancy or giving birth. This project is testing this solution on about 4,000 pregnant women in Ghana.