News
CTI's Solar Dehydrator work in Liberia highlighted UMCOR Partner Newsletter
July, 2010, West Africa
CTI's recent work building solar food dehydrators and processing the nutritious moringa leaf in Liberia and Ghana is featured in Mozart in Mission, a newsletter written by UMCOR partner, Mozart Adevu.
CTI's Pearl Millet Technology featured in Mechanical Engineering Magazine
June, 2010, New York, NYThe development of CTI's Pearl Millet-Thresher winnower is covered in Mechanical Engineering Magazine's June article "Tuning In: Cross-cultural design puts a new spin on human-factors engineering".
CTI featured in Feed My Starving Children's Internal Newsletter
June 2010, St. Paul, MN
In recent months, CTI has developed a partnership with the food aid nonprofit, Feed My Starving Children (FMSC). FMSC and CTI know that while safety nets like food aid can be vital, an end to hunger and poverty will ultimately depend on sustainable development. To learn more about CTI's work with FMSC, you can read the article here. More information about FMSC can be found at www.fmsc.org.
CTI Volunteer Dan Grewe is featured on "Radio Sustain" Podcast
May 10, 2010, St. Paul, MN
An interview with Dan Grewe, CTI's Marketing Committee Vice Chair, is featured in "Radio Sustain" the Podcast of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. Listen to the interview here.
Seedquest website posts story on CTI's Bangladesh Ag-Waste Project
April 17, 2010, Wilmington, DE
CTI's project to convert rice hull rice hull waste into fuel logs in Bangladesh is detailed on the seed industry website, Seequest.
Volunteers in Haiti Blog about CTI's Grinders
April 4, 2010, La Baie des Moustiques, Haiti
Volunteers with Northwest Haiti Christian Mission have written a blog entry about how CTI's grinders are improving lives in the town they work out of in Haiti.
CTI Volunteer Sam Usem is Interviewed on MPR's All Things Considered
March 10, 2010, St. Paul, MN
Sam Usem, a volunteer with St. Paul-based Compatible Technology International, provides rural Haitian villages with hand grinders. Listen to the interview on MPR.
CTI is a Semi-Finalist for the Buckminster Fuller Challenge
February 17, 2010, New York, NY
"The Buckminster Fuller Institute is proud to announce that thirty outstanding entries to the Buckminster Fuller Challenge have been advanced to the final stage of review." CTI is one of the Semi-Finalists. (See list of Finalists or the Buckminster Fuller Press Release)
CTI profiled in St. Paul Finance and Commerce article
"Helping feed the world, from Saint Paul"
February 8, 2009, St. Paul, MN
The work of Compatible Technology International is profiled in an article (login required) from Saint Paul's Finance and Commerce Paper.
Compatible Technology International Partners with Students and Cargill Employees to Build Grinders
February 5, 2010, Minneapolis, MN
"Teens joined members of the Cargill Ebony Council and other Cargill Employees at the company’s headquarters to participate in a service project celebrating Black History Month. At the event, youth and Cargill employees will compete in combined teams to assemble 24 CTI ginders designed to allow families in developing countries in Africa to process crops to sell in their local markets. CTI staff and volunteers participated in the project." (See Cargill Press Release)
St. Paul Pioneer Press writes
"On threshers, local food, faith, reason and
more ..."
November 13, 2009, St. Paul, MN
"A workshop in St. Paul's Midway area is home to some serious retro tinkering. The shop in the office of Compatible
Technology International is a museum of handcranked,
bicyclepowered
agricultural devices — threshers and
grinders and a model of a crop storage building that needs no electric power." (Read More)
Compatible Technology International Earns Charities Review Council “Meets All Standards” Seal
October 29, 2009, St. Paul, MN
Compatible Technology International has once again been awarded the Charities Review Council “Meets All Standards” Seal indicating that it meets all sixteen of the council’s accountability standards. CTI earned the seal by voluntarily participating in the council’s “Accountability Wizard.” It addressed the organization’s performance in four critical areas: public disclosure, governance, financial activity and fundraising.
“By participating in the Accountability Wizard and receiving the “Meets All Standards” seal from the Charities Review Council, CTI demonstrates responsibility, integrity and transparency to their constituents,” said Rich Cowles, executive director, Charities Review Council.
Full Press Release (PDF)
Link to the Charities Review Council
McKnight Foundation Grant Awarded to Project to Enhance Child Nutrition and Livelihoods of Rural Families in Malawi and Tanzania
Sept. 17, 2009, St. Paul, MN
A McKnight Foundation grant has been awarded to Compatible Technology International (CTI), Tanzania’s Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). The organizations are combining their expertise for a four-year $673,000 research and development grant project, which will focus on enhancing child nutrition and the livelihoods of rural households in Malawi and Tanzania.
Malnutrition is widespread in Malawi and Tanzania, particularly among children under five whose diet is deficient in protein, oils and micronutrients. The need is urgent to develop and harvest improved, nutritious foods using locally available crops such as groundnuts (commonly called peanuts). Increased groundnut production can significantly improve individual nutrition as well as economic security.
“We feel very privileged to be chosen for this McKnight Foundation grant,” said CTI’s executive director, Roger Salway. “This project is essential to addressing the issues and needs of families in Malawi and Tanzania and the McKnight Foundation grant makes it all possible.”
“This project is essentially about collaborating with these farm families about the crops growing naturally in their environments,” said CTI’s vice president of operations, Bert Rivers. “This collaboration is important, not only to provide additional nutrition to their families, but to also provide increased revenue for their households to improve their livelihood. We are also being educated by the farmers about the realities of their living conditions and farming systems.”
Full Press Release (PDF)
Link to McKnight Foundation
CTI's Executive Director is Featured Speaker at International Engineers Without Borders Conference
March 26-29, 2009, Milwaukee, WI
CTI Executive Director, Roger Salway was invited to speak at the Annual International Engineers Without Borders Conference in Milwaukee. Roger was assisted by Reade Harpham and Jeff Held from the OneLab Initative in Columbus, Ohio. Over 1,500 engineers from around the world attended. Roger made three presentations about CTI to over 250 conference attendees over the course of three days and made many new connections and greatly increased CTI’s visibility in this community.
CTI Selected As One of 33 Buckminster Fuller Challenge Finalists and Finishes in Top 6
March 2, 2009, New York, NY (updated June 1, 2009)
"The Buckminster Fuller Institute is proud to announce that thirty-three outstanding entries to the Buckminster Fuller Challenge have been advanced to the final stage of review." CTI's Water Harvesting to Promote Economic Sustainability project has been selected as a finalist. Over 6000 entries were submitted and CTI was in the top 6 finalists.
The jury will select the winner of the Challenge, to be announced to the public in May 2009. The thirty-three proposals currently under consideration have undergone a rigorous review and vetting process including an interview with the individual or team behind the strategy. The titles and project leads of these entries are listed below. The distinguished jury will spend the next two months reviewing the entries and will meet for a group deliberation session on April 21st and 22nd to select a winner and runner up.
“We are tremendously excited about the finalists to this year’s Buckminster Fuller Challenge. They include an amazing array of comprehensive, integrated strategies to tackle the world’s major problems, submitted by highly accomplished individuals and/or teams. They come from all over the world and we are thrilled that so many have been submitted by student teams. Every one of them will inspire interest and hopefully, support for their work - I think the jury is in for a very tough deliberation process!” says Elizabeth Thompson, BFI’s Executive Director.
Global Harmony Chorus Performed Benefit Concert and Raised Over $16,000 for CTI
February 7 and 8, 2009, North Como Presbyterian Church,
Roseville, MN
The Global Harmony Benefit Concert was a great success and over $16,000 was raised to benefit CTI! 701 people attended, which was Global Harmony’s best attended series to date. We extend our deep appreciation to everyone who made this possible: the entire 120-voice chorus that volunteered 5 weeks of their time preparing for the series, director Jennifer Anderson, composer Ben Allaway, volunteers from North Como Presbyterian Church, CTI volunteers, and Tom Crann of Minnesota Public Radio who donated his time and voice to be emcee for all three concerts.
Global Harmony is an inter-faith, non-auditioned community chorus open to all who wish to sing to make a difference. The chorus presented it's first series of benefit concerts in 2003 in response to the horrific Tsunami that destroyed so much. The concerts were such a phenomenal success - not only in the tangible monies raised, but also in the intangible connections made with our neighbors - that North Como decided to make the concert weekend an annual event. CTI was selected as the beneficiary of the concert proceeds for their 5th Anniversary Concert Series.
For more information about the Global Harmony Chorus: Global Harmony, North Como Church
CTI Volunteer Highlighted in Volunteers for Prosperity 2008 Annual Report
January, 2009
CTI volunteer Hans Zoerb has been highlighted in Volunteers for Prosperity’ 2008 Annual Report! See a few pages from their report here (5 MB PDF). Volunteers for Prosperity is a volunteer-based initiative supporting major U.S. development initiatives overseas using the talents of highly skilled American professionals working through American organizations to improve health and generate prosperity in developing countries around the world.
Grinder to Ghana
January 9, 2009, St. Paul, MN
Another grinder is headed to Ghana! Cyndi Iwan of Serving in Missions (SIM) has picked up an Omega VI grinder to take back to Ghana with her. In Ghana, she will give the grinder to an organization called Theovision, who is partnering with HCJB Global, an organization that establishes radio stations in sub-saharan Africa. These two organizations are partnering to provide spiritual encouragement and basic health education. The CTI grinder will be used to grind moringa as part of the nutrition portion of the project.
CTI Maintains Smartgiver Status
Monday, January 5th, 2009, St. Paul, MN
CTI’s Fiscal Year 2008 results have been up dated at the Charities Review Council website, click on link to see the updated report: http://smartgivers.org/SmartGiversReview/411400421.html.