Not surprisingly, a dearth of electrical power is one of the major obstacles to rescue and recovery efforts in Haiti.  While rescuers struggle to get emergency power in place, I’m thinking that low-tech inventions coming out of Africa might be helpful. For years, Afrigadget.com has been tracking such inventions for years. Here are a few that might be helpful in Haiti right now. The inventions here come from that site and links from there:

Recycled car batteries as generators:

Bicycle powered cell-phone charger:

The solar FLAP (Flexible Light and Power) messenger bag:

Wearable flexible solar-paneled vest

Electricity for Haiti: Wisdom from Africa by Kim Pearson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.