SleepBreeze Ltd on show at the TIDES project, Washington D.C.
Hampshire start-up firm SleepBreeze Ltd. participated in the TIDES project last week at Washington D.C.'s National Defense University (NDU). TIDES is the acronym for Transportable Infrastructures for Development and Emergency Support
The TIDES project is a major new way of thinking about refugee and humanitarian issues. It's more about sharing knowledge and expertise than throwing money at the problem.
Too often we dig into our pockets with little appreciation of how the money will be spent and what it will achieve in practice. Bitter experience has shown that providing 80% of a solution still leaves an overwhelming amount of work to do for the local population. So, whilst donations of equipment are well meaning, the outcome is often resentment by the receipients.
The aim of TIDES is to think solutions through from start to finish. Andy Buxton, Managing Director of SleepBreeze Ltd. spoke about SleepBreeze's involvement. "We'd been working with Vinay Gupta from the innovative Hexayurt shelter project for some time. Offering our personal cooler for consideration by TIDES was a natural progression for us. We were delighted to receive an invitation from NDU's Dr Linn Wells II to participate."
Andy went on to talk about the advantages of the SleepBreeze personal cooler in the context of a refugee situation. "Energy provision is one of the major issues in these situations. So, there's an emphasis on providing solutions that use minimal energy. Our cooler uses just 1/20th the energy of a lightbulb. Also, it can be used to ventilate a shelter to reduce the concentration of smoke emanating from wood fires, cooking stoves - a major health issue for many living in temporary encampments."
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