Malaika provides a product, a service and a sustainable business model that empowers slum communities and the women responsible for creating homes and keeping their children safe there.
What most of us regards as slums and shelters, nearly a billion people worldwide call their home. Slum communities are especially endangered in case of fires due to narrow set up, light housing materials, lack of water supplies and the use of real fire indoor. A small fire that gets out of control can literally leave hundreds or even thousands homeless before the nearby fire brigade has a chance to respond.
Since this project started in collaboration with Interspiro, a Swedish international manufacturer of fire fighter equipment, the initial focus was to explore the development of low cost firefighting equipment (self-contained breathing apparatus) for fire brigades in emerging countries.
My research brought me to South Africa and Kenya.
In both Cape Town, South Africa and Nairobi, Kenya, I visited different fire stations and met with fire fighters to talk about the challenges they face in their everyday work. (Interviews + tour trough the fire stations facilities and introduction to the currently used equipment) Besides an open conversations about the country specifics in fire service, a focus of the conversations was the SCBA usage. A part of each visit was also a demonstration of the Intersprio equipment and gathering feedback on the current Intersprio products from the firemen
Besides meeting with firemen and other authorities, I was also visiting exemplary informal residential ares in both South Africa and Kenya.
In Cape Town I visited the township Imziamu Yetu.
In Nairobi I visited Mathare, one of the poorest slums in the Sub Saharan area. I visited people in their humble homes and I learned to get to know the community side of fire incidents in slums. I gained insights on the slum communities and its structure and dynamics.
During the research trips it became clear that the project had started with the wrong hypothesis. The root to the biggest problems in fire safety services in these developing countries became obvious - and it was not the equipment level of the fire fighters.
Malaika is designed as a system that provides a product, a service and a business model that goes hand in hand in order to create and offer multiple safety features for the most vulnerable members of the slum community.
Installation and Set-up
The fire detector will be handed out by the fire warden and will get installed in a proper way, to ensure the best functionality of the device.
Malaika App
The app allows the fire warden to locate where help is needed in case of an incident.
The app supports the entire process of the fire warden.
_Localization of fire incidents
_Connection to authorities (information sharing, escalation)
_Knowledge (tutorials, fire safety / first aid)
_Organizational support (subscription and member management, maintenance plan, etc.)
Fire Safety Curriculum
Education program run by fire warden together with fire brigade for all subscribing community members as starting point of the service. The purpose is to spread knowledge of fire prevention and to built trust between community and authorities.
The design of Malaika was influenced by a number of factors like cost efficiency in production, ruggedness in order to withstand rough environments and potential vandalism, at the same time as it aesthetically should be simple, harmonious and showcase the contribution of the household to the safety of the neighborhood.
The outside part has a solar cell in the front that powers the system. As an additional feature the outside part is equipped with a small LED that light up after dark and bring “street light” and the feeling of safety into the otherwise pitch dark alleyways, and simultaneously light up the 3-word address tag below it.
The interface dial on the inside part can be used for a number of interactions, like snoozing the alarm for up to 15 minutes in case the household need to cook over open fire. In case a fire gets out of hand while cooking and the alarm has been snoozed, it can still be activated by pulling the strap for the panic alarm.
The alleyways can be dangerous and threatening places, especially during night time. Lightning up these corridors will make them less scary. In case of a fire incident, it will be easier for the people to evacuate.
The United Nations estimates that 70 percent of the world is unaddressed, and struggles because of it. “Addresses are more than just a place where the post goes,” says Charles Prescott, founder of the Global Address Data Association. “It’s an indicator of who you are. It’s a tool people use to distinguish human beings.”
3-word-addresses are an already existing framework that allows to localize and name every 3 by 3 meter spot on earth in a more human centered way than abstract GPS coordinates.
When setting up the safety system in the slum home, the 3-word-address of the home will be assigned to the Malaika device (via NFC from the Malaika app of the Malaika service provider).
The address will also be noted down on the address tag of the outside component of the Malaika devide.
chirp.io is an existing framework that could be utilized to implement the alerting function. Data is encoded on a sending device before being transmitted, over the air, to a receiving device, or group of devices where it is decoded. Any device with a speaker can emit a Chirp and most devices with a microphone and a small amount of processing power can receive and decode it. Sound works completely peer-to-peer so it works great in situation where there is no other network access.
Malaika transfers location information by using sound only. The 3 word adress of the home will be translated into a sound. The regular alert sound of the fire detector will carry the location data on top of it. The sound can be interpreted by a smart-phone and the location can be detected. Help can be provided immediately and the location information can easily be shared with the authorities if needed.
With the malaika app the location of the fire can be found out by the neighborhoods fire safety responsible who can immediately help out, or share the information with the fire brigade.
In emerging countries, where first responders due to limitations in budgets, education or access, already struggle to provide the most basic of services, the empowerment of slum communities to respond to fires and other safety hazards as quickly as possible by themselves, could serve as a vital part in defusing an already tense and unstable situation. By having safety wardens represented within the community, who will be in contact with the authorities and first responders, the relationship between the parties would be strengthened and the slum community could gain its own voice in society.
Malaika could not only help to protect and keep the most vulnerable members of the community safe, it could also provide homes and families with something as simple as an address, and thereby giving dignity to the people living there and building the self-esteem of an entire community from within.
Malaika will not be able to change major injustices in society by itself, but it can be one important stepping stone towards bringing divided societies closer together and establish a culture of empowerment, increased safety and more trust in slum communities.