How Peanut Butter Sustains Lives


A simple piece of cast iron equipment is improving the quality of life for thousands of ailing people around the world.


Approximately 35 million people are known to be living with HIV, more than 25 million of them in Africa, according to UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. In the early ˠ˨˧0ǣʰ ĠȖǣǼ ǣ ǼÌs ɠŸNjĶ_ ɠ ǣ Ķs NjŘÞض Ÿ¯ 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 grind- ers, water chlorinators and grain pro- cessing 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 mi- croenterprise 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 Technol- ogy International (CTI), St. Paul, ōÞŘŘsǣŸǼ ʰ ÞŘ ˠ˨˧0. ǻÌs ŸNj¶ ŘÞʊ ǼÞŸŘ provides affordable, culturally appropri- ate tools to help families 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. In Malawi, the Tikondale Support Group for people living with HIV/AIDS uses the grinders to make peanut butter to eat and sell. “Because of the grinders, our live-


lihoods have drastically changed for the better,” said Yonas Chonzi, who oversees the Tikondane Support Group. “Since the grinders came, we can afford peanut butter, a source of much needed protein. Before, we couldn’t dream of eating peanut but-


MELTING POINT 11


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