This is Randi Hacker with another Postcard from Abroad from the KU Centers for East Asian Studies and The Kansas African Studies Center.

Here in South Africa, informal settlements are dense communities of people living in self-constructed shacks on land they do not formally own. Here in South Africa, informal settlements are also fire hazards. Fires are quick and deadly. Traditional smoke detectors are of no use: They would pick up smoke from cooking or heating and constantly send a false alarm. And so, Francois Petousis, a Cape Town engineering student invented Lumkani, a device that reacts to rapid changes in heat instead of smoke. Because Lumkani can network with other devices, if it detects a fire in one dwelling, the alarm is quickly spread to all the surrounding dwellings giving residents time to get out. The low-cost alarm has already been used in several informal settlements. How’s this for a slogan? What can protect you from fire? Lumkani kan.

With thanks to Mackenzie Jones for this text, from the KU Center for East Asian Studies, this is Randi Hacker. Wish you were here.

Sources:

http://allafrica.com/stories/201411191438.html

http://lumkani.com/#home