Two RP entries among 12 finalists in BBC ‘World Challenge’

Two Philippine entries are among the 12 finalists in the British Broadcasting Corporation's "World Challenge," a global competition on grassroots enterprise and innovation. The Philippine entries are the hydraulic ram pump of the Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation Inc. (AIDFI) in Bacolod City, and the bamboo bicycle of renowned bike designer Craig Calfee. The AIDFI was selected as a finalist for perfecting an indigenous hydraulic ram pump to bring water to remote hillside villages. "Using the power of a river's flow to literally push water uphill without any other energy input, it's proving to be a boon for poor villagers living in mountainous regions," BBC said in the website of its World Challenge 2010. BBC said the pump can "save hours of backbreaking work carrying water, and cash where expensive pumps are replaced." Some 170 pumps have been installed in highland villages and the AIDFI plans to spread its benefits far and wide among poor communities, it added. The pump was selected from more than 800 nominations worldwide, Thiago Meister, BBC World News marketing manager, said in a letter to Auke Idzenga, AIDFI chief executive officer. Meister said the quality of nominations was extremely high and judges had a difficult time picking this year’s top 12 projects, according to a report of the Visayan Daily Star. Calfee, on the other hand, first made a bamboo bicycle frame in 1995. He spent the next 10 years making the bamboo frame durable before he started working with small workshops in the Philippines and three countries in Africa, where bamboo grows fast. The bamboo bikes are sold locally but entrepreneurs are hoping to sell them in Europe and the United States, where there is a market for high-quality and unique frames. Calfee made bicycle frames for Tour de France winner Greg LeMond and other professional racers. Rewarding projects and businesses World Challenge, now on its sixth year, is a global competition aimed at finding projects or small businesses that show enterprise and innovation at the grassroots level. It is sponsored by BBC World News and Newsweek, in association with Shell. According to the BBC website, the World Challenge "is about championing and rewarding projects and businesses which really make a difference." The other finalists in the World Challenge are from Denmark, Tanzania, Peru, Kenya, Guatemala, India, Madagascar, Mexico, Rwanda and Malawi. The winner, who will receive a grant of $20,000 (P917,500), will be decided by online voting at the BBC World Challenge website from September 27 until November 12. The second and third finalists will each receive a grant of $10,000. If there is a tie for first place, the top two finalists will receive a grant of $15,000 each and the third finalist will receive a grant of $10,000. –VVP/KBK, GMANews.TV