Alexander Lopez

I am currently an HCD Connect Scholar for ThinkImpact’s 2012 Innovation Institute.   I am currently stationed in the village of Gottenburg in Mpumalanga, South Africa. I live and work fulltime in the community from June 20th through August 12th which is South Africa’s winter.

This story chronicles a brief segment of the life of the current reigning Induna of Gottenburg. This exemplifies the necessity of the Hear phase of the HCD toolkit. It also shows how valuable the documenting of a story can be when learning about and immersing oneself in a community of dynamic leaders and thinkers.

We are currently in the Inspiration phase of ThinkImpact's Innovation Institute. Right now we are collaborating on teams with community members who we have chosen based on their skills and assetts. Through these "Design Teams" we hope to inspire and collaborate to create a sustainable innovation, development, product or service the community. :)

We are fast approaching the end of the Institute and we have finally selected an idea! We are creating soapy water dispenser out of two-liter bottles to aid us in effectively introducing new sustainable hygienic practices. We are so excited that we have made it to this point in the institute and I am so proud of all the hard work my design team has done. I can't wait to follow up with them after we leave to see what amazing new innovations they create! 

Now that we are approaching the end of the institute we are getting closer and closer to finalizing our project. We have had many great ideas ranging from the creation of libraries to the creation of safer roads using the rubbish that currently liters them. However, this update is about our most recent realization. The culmination of our work has led us to one thing; health. We have realized that preventing sickness is what we want to focus on. We want to give be a chance to affordably and sustainably clean their bodies and their hands in a way that actually kills germs. We are so excited to bring this update to you and we hope that you have enjoyed the story of our teams progress together.