Wonderbag, the cooking innovation that addresses economic gender disparity, climate change, smoke inhalation, rape and access to education was recently featured int TIME Magazine and featured alongside innovation titans Apple, SpaceX, Amazon and Oculus and more.
Speaking of the honour, Founder Sarah Collins said: “The recognition by TIME Magazine further endorses the visible and measurable impact Wonderbag is having across the globe, it illustrates that culturally relevant solutions from Africa can be exported to benefit the whole world. This is further evidence that the business models of the future will be social enterprises that take on the world’s biggest problems with innovative, solution-oriented products and services.”
The Wonderbag is a simple but revolutionary heat retention slow-cooker, which continues to cook food, which has been brought to the boil by fire, cook stoves or any conventional method, for up to 12 hours without the use of any additional fuel source. Founder Sarah Collins, known as both a powerful CEO and an equality innovator, has turned Wonderbag into a multi-million dollar globally conscious enterprise. Collins developed the Wonderbag as a response to the deep inequalities and gender divides that she saw in her native South Africa. She witnessed that many mothers and grandmothers spent most of their days relegated to a stove while many girls were spending 4-6 hours a day gathering firewood instead of going to school.
Wonderbag is celebrating 10 years in business this year and new milestones of impact. Over 1.5million Wonderbags have now been activated in the Western and Majority world. Sarah’s extreme dedication, resilience and determination has earned her Fortune Magazine’s Top 10 Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs, Oprah’s African Heroines and the Women’s Economic Forum Woman of the Decade for Entrepreneurship.
What makes Wonderbag genius
Why have Bill Gates, Paul Polmon, Kathy Calvin, Mohammed Yunus, Etharin Cousins, Mark Rutte and Jane Goodall seen this innovation as a humanitarian game changer with global appeal?
- The Wonderbag is a simple but revolutionary, non-electric portable slow cooker. The South African invention is saving lives from smoke inhalation, combating deforestation, providing time women to work and for children to go to school and decreasing the incidents of rape (82% of rapes happen while women and girls are gathering firewood).
- Wonderbag is an economic catalyst. In rural African communities the intervention of a Wonderbag can help a family go from 20 cents a day income to $2 a day.
- Over four billion people eat from an open fire everyday causing 4 million people to die each year from illness caused by indoor air pollution-related diseases. 50% of deaths from pneumonia of children under 5 are caused by breathing particulates from household air pollution.
- Wonderbag is a powerful change agent for the Climate. A single Wonderbag, when used for one year can: Reduce carbon emissions by 1 Ton. Reduce deforestation, save 1.7 trees. Conserve 1,000 litres of cooking water. Reduce indoor air pollution by 60%. Reduce time poverty, giving back 1,465 hours per year.
- Wonderbag was accredited by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Rwanda. Wonderbag has harvested and issued over 1million tons of Carbon Credits since 2008 as POA-CDM and VCE projects.
- Wonderbag has been utilized in refugee and humanitarian interventions in the Middle East since 2012. This year Wonderbag launched a partnership with The Red Cross. Wonderbag has launched and monitored the impacts of Wonderbag Activations in the Mahama refugee settlement in Rwanda and in the BidiBidi Refugee settlement in Uganda (the largest refugee settlement in the world) as part of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement’s Green Energy program.
- Wonderbag is a social enterprise with a unique business model. For every bag sold in the Western World, a donation is made to the Wonderbag Foundation and a bag is subsidized in the developing world. By subsidizing the Wonderbag and selling it at a price that is affordable in the local economy, women are given the opportunity to exercise dignity of choice in the financial transaction. Wonderbag’s research shows that purchased bags are used 92% of the time, while bags given away were used in just 54% of households.
- Sarah is a fierce advocate for change, opportunity and economic equality for women and families in Africa and around the world. Sarah’s impact as a CEO and advocate for women and families has lead to her speaking at the 2013 Davos World Economic Forum, The Global Alliance in New York, The UN Social Good Summit, The Royal Geographic Society in London, The Eye On Earth Summit in Abu Dabi and more. Sarah speaks around the world about Globally Conscious Capitalism, gender equality and how global business models of the future can scale ethically through human centered market entry and participation.
- Sarah has launched successful partnerships with major corporations such as Unilever, Pfizer and Microsoft who wish to be part of impactful economic, environmental and health solutions across the world. Sarah is creating a fresh blueprint for the business community to work together in innovative ways that uphold human rights, honor human dignity and build sustainable economies.
- Wonderbags are activated via Wonderfeasts. A WonderFeast is an opportunity for the community to come together to learn to cook with the Wonderbags, enjoy a meal together and purchase a subsidized Wonderbag at a price they can afford. A WonderFeast is a catalyst for communities to come together to learn about life saving opportunities and often there is a partnership with a public health initiative. Community leaders are also brought together to discuss challenges and and look for solutions together.
The Wonderbag is a catalyst for change around the world. Entrepreneur, activist and innovator Sarah Collins took an age-old cooking technology, that of simple heat retention, and reinvented it into a modern-day, life-changing, sought-after kitchen accessory, found in both the poorest and most affluent of homes around the globe. Sarah’s invention, and her continued work with foundations, aid agencies and business allies has cemented her reputation as a leader in alleviating time poverty and providing safety and entrepreneurial opportunities for women around the world.
