Today I had the privilege of speaking with Ben Markham, a retired chemical engineer who recently served an LDS mission with his wife in Ghana. Ben has created an invention that is bringing light and delight to hundreds of children in Africa through his charitable organization, Empower Playgrounds. The invention is a merry-go-round connected to a special gearbox and power generator for charging LED lamps that can provide light in schools and in students homes so they can study more effectively. This non-profit adventure is just getting started and I'm sure Ben would welcome your assistance. I'm hoping some of my readers with deep pockets are reading tonight.

"I'm doing this for no other reason than to help the children in Africa," Brother Markham told me. What a wonderful motivation for innovation.

In Africa, Ben noticed that very few schools had electrical power, and that many buildings were just dark cement shells without lights and without many windows. He also learned that many students aren't able to graduate from school, partly because they have to do work on the family farm when they are home and there is light. By the time they have finished their work with the farm, it's dark. Without electrical lighting, even the brightest student will have trouble completing homework and studying at night. We can hardly imagine that being a barrier here, but millions are held back by the lack of lighting.

Ben also noticed that few children in Western Africa had toys or equipment to play with. In fact, the initial motivation for Ben's invention was a desire to add some kind of playground equipment to schools. He wondered if a rotating device he saw used for wells could be converted into a merry-go-round, a novelty in his part of the world. But further discussion and thinking took him a step further to power generation, and then to rechargeable lighting.

He worked with BYU-Provo and BYU-Idaho in solving some of the challenges in making these systems safe, reliable, and effective. The result has been highly successful. The kids love the special merry-go-round, and the power management issues have been worked out to provide effective charging when the equipment is revolved at typical speeds. And the kids love it. The merry-go-rounds draw a lot of attention and large crowds.

Ben is pursuing additional innovation, working to develop swings with clever couplings for power generation and other playground devices that can help provide useful electrical power. His goal is to have entire sets of playground equipment that will allow him to provide power for larger schools. Right now they are focusing on small schools of about 100 to 150 children that can benefit from the power of a merry-go-round.

There is much more to do. Ben could use your help.

Here is a recent story: "Merry-go-round makes electricity" from the Daily Herald. Includes an awesome video.

The organization's Website is EmpowerPlaygrounds.org.

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