Young World Inventors
Young World Inventors is a mini-doc video series working to make invention contagious through the stories of innovators in Africa. These are personal, serial, character-driven stories about the triumphs and heartaches of young inventors who solve everyday problems of scarcity &emdash; in water, agriculture, income generation, energy, art and information. YWI began building relationships and documenting creative problem solvers in East Africa in 2011.
In 2014, the YWI team is ramping up to reveal deeper story detail in six new startups we began to shoot last winter. Inventors include Payan ole-MoiYoi, a half-Maasai engineer, educated in the U.S., who came home to combat lung disease with his original cookstove design. Another is Cyrus Kabiru, a self-taught artist who gives trash a second chance and whose family thinks art is no different from witchcraft. Bernard Kiwia, a bike repairman-turned-international inventor, who just trained 135 poor village women be inventors. They devised their own solutions to back breaking domestic work. Jodie Wu, an American social entrepreneur has improved the lot of hundreds of “rafiki” sales reps in villages, who sell affordable energy products to those who need them most and pay the least.
This fall YWI will produce again, with African crews, the alchemy of ambition, business sense and social commitment these inventors show day to day, and the cultural conflicts they face. We seek new female talent to follow and will expand our sustainable media and distribution partnerships.
