About Us

INNOVATION! A word that conjures images of engineers or scientists clad in crisp white scrubs tinkering with the latest technology, drumming up a new scientific breakthrough for the electronics, computer, or biomedical fields. At Frangia however, we believe that such image represents a skewed angle on what innovation means, as it is a basic human trait.

Innovation can come from anywhere. From the developed and developing world alike. A simple farmer in a remote rural village in Tanzania using his mobile phone (via SMS text) to check market prices for his crop, a traditional fruit seller in Mexico City using a modified wheelbarrow as a mobile fruit stand, and a Javanese basket weaver artisan with minimal education who designs a rudimentary motorized weaving machine with sewing machine and bicycle parts… all demonstrate the creative power of the human mind. To create the right tools and find solutions to increase productivity and ease the burden of daily life.

Motorized twine and rope making machine made from sewing machine and bicycle parts, Central Java, Indonesia

Farmer with his water-purifier system invention, Mexico

Mobile pay phone service using car battery-powered mobile phones on bicycles that visit remote villages in Kenya

 

Water remains the single-most challenging issue in Africa, and water transportation comes as close second. The Hippo Roller water transport drums help reduce time and wasted energy. Even a child can do it, South Africa.

Africa is in dire need for alternative transportation, to transport people, healthcare workers, water, goods and crops. Bicycles are excellent solutions, requiring more durable bikes. Solution: bamboo bikes, Ghana.

Farmers in rural Tanzania checking market prices for their crops using SMS texting on their mobile phones.

 

This is innovation at its most fundamental. We consider them: grassroots-level innovation. Driven by the human spirit of “necessity is the mother of all inventions”, innovation is a color blind, spread equally across race, gender, creed, or social background.

Frangia was conceived on the mission of bringing attention to these grassroots-level innovation, and the reality that in our interconnected global world of today, every nation and every people can learn from each other.

The entire world (Humanity) is moving toward an increased awareness of the environmental challenge, seeking a balance between human progress and nature’s limited resources is an equal responsibility that rests on all our shoulders. The green movement of late has been generally positioned (understood) that the developed world would educate the developing world on eco-friendly and sustainable practices.

At Frangia, we beg to differ.

The learning curve goes both ways, and on the contrary, the developed world stands to learn more (gain more knowledge) from the developing world on how to tackle environmental issues.

It is therefore Frangia’s mission, to become “the voice for disadvantaged crafts communities where small-scale (micro-scale) sustainable business ventures exist (sustainable business ideas are incubated and practiced) and seek to connect them with the global market”. For it is in these simple communities where what the rest of the world calls “Green/Organic Lifestyle” has been part of their culture passed down through countless generations. And although industrialization and the knowledge economy may be a remote possibility, their daily habits that seek a balance between People and Planet are commendable (truly inspiring).