The Wonderbag is being called a genius innovation by Time.com and is listed among 50 of the worlds most incredible companies. Yay South Africa!
Wonderbag, a South-African based startup founded by social entrepreneur Sarah Collins, has developed a simple yet pioneering cooking tool that continues to cook food which has been brought to boil by conventional methods. It was created to combat the risks of open fire cooking in South Africa and Africa as a whole.
The Wonderbag is a non-electric portable slow-cooker that requires less fuel and reduces exposure to active fires. Thus reducing the risk of shack fires and general smoke inhalation. More than one million Wonderbags have been distributed around the world since its launch in 2008.
Sarah Collins was inspired to create the bag during the 2008 loadshedding crisis in South Africa and teamed up with poverty activist, Moshy Mathe. Together they created a bag that not only lowers carbon emissions but also combats deforestation and reduces the cost of electricity by up to 30% a month.
Time.com listed that bag among 49 other innovative and genius businesses such as Airbnb, Apple, Disney, Netflix and SpaceX to name a few. So how does a humble project from KwaZulu-Natal end up listed with some of the most powerful companies in the world?
It works to solve a global problem in the simplist way possible! According to Time.com, Wonderbag has helped increase the income of over 500,000 women across 20 countries. These women either sell or make the bag, or use it as part of their own catering businesses.
“Women selling food at markets, having more time for micro-agriculture and more girls in schools – these are just some of the incredible shifts we have seen with the introduction of the tool when women are able to spend less time gathering water and fuel and standing over open fires.”
With more time on their hands, these women are able to seek out education and business opportunities, empowering them to grow within the community as well as grow the community in the process. Previously, Sarah had teamed up with Pfizer Vaccines and now she teamed up with the Red Cross to provide the bags to families in refugee camps across Uganda and Rwanda.
You can watch how this genius innovation works below.
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