“ A
Vision without action is only dreaming. Action without vision is only passing time. Vision with action can change the world.” —NELSON MANDELA
Source: UNAIDS Special Report, “How Africa Turned AIDS Around,” May 2013
ccording to the latest report from UNAIDS, the the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/ AIDS, approximately 35 million people are known to be living with HIV, more than 25 million of them in Africa. In the early 1980s, just as the world was learning of the disease, a small group
of engineers in Minnesota was working on designing innovative food and water tools to reduce hunger and poverty in the developing world. Today, thousands of their food grinders, water chlorinators and grain process- ing tools are being used in dozens of countries to help communities improve their food production, raise their incomes and transform their lives. In Africa, a microenterprise in Malawi uses the group’s peanut processing equipment, with a cast ductile iron grinding burr developed in the U.S., to support its community of people living with HIV/AIDS. Technical engineer George Ewing was among the group of volunteer engineers and scientists who founded Compatible Technology International (CTI), St. Paul, Minn.,
in 1980. With a background in chemical engineering, he worked as a food process- ing research engineer for General Mills. “[CTI] was an independent group, and General Mills donated use of its facility,” said Ewing. “Ten, we outgrew that location and started our own operation. We got our nonprofit status in May 1981.” Te organization provides afford-
able, culturally appropriate tools to help people produce safe water, process their crops more efficiently and improve their nutrition. Its flagship technology is a hand-operated burr mill that grinds grain into flour and nuts into paste.
The Omega machines, with housings cast in aluminum (left), are equipped with a cast ductile iron grinding burr (right). Mar/Apr 2014 | METAL CASTING DESIGN & PURCHASING | 29
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