During its vacation week, the Nice Premium team is pleased to offer you a compilation of its best articles. For this last day, you’ll find a selection of five articles by the editorial team.
Petra and Rudy are Germans but are based in Nice. Simple, talkative, sometimes sarcastic about French economic and political customs, they both work to improve the daily lives of Africans. A concept: light to read. “In African villages, it gets dark from 6 pm. Without light, you can almost do nothing.” This is Rudy Forstmair’s observation. Electricity is not as common as in France. The big cities have it, but the villages do not. Electricity has a cost. It is not affordable for all budgets. Far from large French companies providing electricity through major contracts, Rudy and his association Agropark06 develop boxes that transform solar energy into light. A system adapted for those who are forgotten. The autonomy is three hours, ideal for lying in bed and reading. They replace lanterns running on kerosene, which are polluting, smelly, and do not allow for isolation and privacy.
Another observation made by Petra and Rudy: too often, one of the fundamental principles of existence is removed from Africans, which is self-management. Equipment is provided without explaining how it works, how to repair it. Petra and Rudy designed a box with a simple operation and explained it. Thus, at the slightest breakdown, an inhabitant is capable of repairing it. Without creating historical controversy, it’s somewhat the antithesis of the colonial spirit.
Other projects are underway with different techniques. The most revolutionary one, designed by Harvard researchers, consists of transforming the gnawing of organic waste by bacteria into energy. A project they are trying to develop while reducing costs, preserving their philosophy, and therefore limiting political aid. An adventure that Nice-Premium will follow.
