AfriGadget is a tech site with a twist, a blog that showcases the creativity of people “bending the little they have to their will.” So founder Hersman was a logical person to call on for a group of designers and techies trying to figuring out if a solar-powered messenger bag could play a useful role in places where electricity is unreliable at best.

Portable Power and Light
Working with the folks behind the Pop!Tech conference, Sheila Kennedy of the Portable Light project, and bag-makers Timbuk2, the do-gooding blogger is spending a few weeks taking 10 prototype FLAP — Flexible Light and Power — bags around the three African countries and investigating whether they would be a) “useful, usable, and… adaptable to everyday life in Africa” and b) possible to replicate from locally available materials.

The messenger bags, which have a removable flap with a solar panel that charges a built-in LED light and USB connection, are so far drawing fairly positive response from the locals Hersman talks to, a process he’s documenting with video interviews and blog entries on his site.

HIT FROM: Treehugger.com