CAMBRIDGE, MA /UCWE/ - Design that Matters (DtM), a MIT startup nonprofit and recent recipient of the 2005 San Jose Tech Museum Tech Laureate Award, is returning to Mali in December to expand access to education for illiterate women. The trip comes one year after DtM and NGO partner World Education introduced the Kinkajou Portable Library and Projector System in 45 villages in Mali.

Optimized for night-time use in classrooms without electricity, the Kinkajou can project an image or a page of text from microfilm up to three meters across onto practically any flat surface. Up to 10,000 pages can fit on a single spool of microfilm for US$12—easily accommodating an entire reference library. The design requires no tools more complicated than pocket change for maintenance, and includes a battery, charge controller and solar panel.

DtM developed the Kinkajou with support from the U.S. Agency for International to help adult literacy classes meeting at night in dark classrooms across rural Mali. Most of these classes do not have enough books and rely on light from one or two oil lamps shared by 30 students. “We waste much time waiting for our turn to get the lamp for reading,” a mother from the village of Sébéninkoro, Mali, told DtM. Now, an estimated 2,000 students are learning to read and write as the Kinkajou projects images large enough for everyone to see.

DtM was launched in 2000 at the MIT Media Lab to build a worldwide system that enables social enterprise, academia and industry to jointly innovate for social change. The result is innovative tools that enable social enterprises to scale their capacity to impact the lives of millions of rural poor in developing countries.

On Thurs., Dec. 1, at 10 AM EST DtM and World Ed are holding a press conference to highlight progress made in expanding access to education since the introduction of the Kinkajou.

Thurs., Dec. 1
10 a.m. to 11 a.m. EST
Cambridge Innovation Center
One Broadway, 14th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02142
Interested parties should RSVP.
Contacts: Neil Cantor, CEO, DtM - 877-820-8479
Brian Purchia, DtM Media - 202-253-4330
Jeff Chatellier, DtM

Learn more by visiting: www.designthatmatters.org

Additional Kinkajou Info
At the press conference there will be a Kinkajou demonstration and a video from Mali will be screened, copies of it will be available for the press.

DtM also will discuss its initiative to help empower 500,000 illiterate women with the ability to read, starting with a larger effort in Mali and moving on to India and Bangladesh.
Recent DtM clients include Malian educators seeking better teaching tools for rural classrooms and Bangladeshi doctors seeking improved medical devices for cholera treatment.
Why expanding access to education for women in developing countries matters?

Educating women is one of the most potent, proven tools for mitigating the devastating effects of poverty and fostering development. According to the UN Millennium Project:
-Educated mothers immunize their children 50% more often then mothers who are not educated
-AIDS spreads twice as quickly among uneducated girls than among ones that have even some schooling
-The children of women with five years of primary school education have a survival rate 40% higher than children of woman with no education

Who is World Education?
Founded in 1951 to meet the needs of the educationally disadvantaged, World Education is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of the poor through economic and social development programs. World Education contributes to individual growth, strengthens the capacity of local partner institutions, and catalyzes community and national development. It is known for its work in education in the workplace, microenterprise development, and integrated literacy and health programs, including HIV/AIDS education, prevention and care. World Education has worked in over 50 countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, as well as in the United States. To learn more, visit www.worlded.org.