A simply ‘wonder’ful invention

SARAH Collins has embarked on many ventures in her life. The 44-year-old has founded an NGO, Take Back the Future, started Woman Forward, a political party focused on rural development for women and was named as one of Fortune Magazine’s Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs in 2013. However it’s her dedication to social development and poverty alleviation that she has excelled with the revolutionary Wonderbag.

The genius behind Collins’s profound invention is that the Wonderbag is a non-electric, heat-retention cooker that allows food to continue cooking. Made of polyester fabric, insulated with recycled polystyrene granules the bag finishes the cooking process using heat first generated in the pot from a stove or fire.

She has sold more than 600 000 bags to homes all over Africa and the world. For every bag sold on the international market another is donated to a household.

The self described ‘farm girl’ said the idea for the Wonderbag was inspired by Bridget Oppenheimer’s Wonderbox, which her granny owned. “I’ve always had a passion for social development. When I was a youngster, I remember thinking why did I sleep in clean white sheets and whydid some of my friends sleep next to a fire. As I grew older I realised that poverty alleviation projects were the key to grassroots conservation in Africa,” she explained.

Then in 2008, everything changed, the rolling blackouts left many South African families in the dark, including Collins who remembers being frustrated with half cooked dinners.

“So I began experimenting with something similar to the Wonderbox and ultimately I saw a huge difference. Women who sold food on the side of road or on the bustling streets could keep their food hotter for longer.

“South African women spent less hours collecting firewood or using highly flammable paraffin or burning kerosene. Not only did it make it unsafe for the women and their families but it was also polluting the atmosphere,” she said.

Every Wonderbag is manufactured in South Africa and Collins said her goal is to help alleviate poverty and see a Wonderbag in every house around the world.

“Wonderbag has the ability to play a role in the developing world. Statistically 3-billion women still cook with fire, if I can reduce that by a billion, that would be fantastic,” she said.