This year has been a year of growth for the DO Team. We added two new full-time engineers—Malawi Field Engineering Director Hugo van der Walt and R&D Project Engineer Naja Robinson. We are so thankful for the friends and family who support these engineering missionaries making their work at DO possible. Like co-founders Abe Wright and Greg Bixler, Hugo van der … Read More
DO to Ship 54 LifePumps to 5 Countries this Month
What do a drum set, generator, and pump parts have in common? These items—among other critical supplies—are being packed into a shipping container bound for Malawi. The shipment will leave Columbus soon and arrive in Malawi this fall. The shipment will include 17 LifePumps and spare parts, printer, sound system, keyboard, drum set, two generators, and other needed supplies. While … Read More
Our Global Team is Growing:
Q&A with DO’s New Malawi-based LifePump Technician. The Design Outreach (DO) global team is growing! Please join us in welcoming Dickson Wandawanda as DO’s new LifePump Technician based in Lilongwe, Malawi. Dickson will be responsible for leading LifePump installations and upgrades, providing training and support for village-level operations and maintenance, conducting hydrogeological mapping to determine the most ideal LifePump locations, … Read More
Introducing our new Stewardship Officer
This month, Design Outreach welcomed Emily Krichbaum, Ph.D. to the team! We’ve loved getting to know her, and we’d love for you to get to know her as well. Q: What brought you to DO? A: One of my favorite things about teaching history was communicating to various audiences and storytelling. At DO, I’m able to use this gift to … Read More
Introducing our new Chief Stewardship Officer
This month, Design Outreach welcomed Rhonda Davis-Comoretto to the team! Rhonda brings over twenty years of experience working with some of the most respected nonprofits at the local, state, national and international level, from COSI to the American Red Cross. We’ve loved getting to know her, and we’d love for you to get to know her as well. Q: What … Read More
Reflections from our founders
It seems like just yesterday that Greg and I were taking our first trip to Malawi to learn about communities in need of more reliable water technologies and dreaming about how Design Outreach might be able to help. That was over five years ago! It is incredible to look back and see all that has been accomplished through our team … Read More
Zolomondo & Chilekwa—almost 5 years later.
CEO and Co-founder Greg Bixler is in Malawi this week with Africa Field Director Beatrice Chisenga, Emmy award winning filmmaker Mike Edwards from The 5 Stones Group, and cameraman Danny Woods. They are working on a new short film highlighting the amazing transformation LifePump has had on the communities of Zolomondo and Chilekwa. These were the first two LifePumps installed … Read More
Moulin: The Journey to Bringing Safe & Reliable Water to a Community in Northwest Haiti
Five years ago, Bruce Robinson, of ODRINO, drove his well drilling rig up the mountains of arid Northwest Haiti to a remote community called Moulin. The people of Moulin currently had to walk either three quarters of a mile in one direction or one mile in another direction for water. However, these groundwater sources often recede in the brutal dry … Read More
2016: Greg’s Reflection
While traveling the globe this year for Design Outreach, I heard several responses from recipients of the LifePump I didn’t expect to hear, “Now I get to go to church” and “I’m praying for you so that other villages can get one of these pumps too.” I can’t stop thinking about our brothers and sisters across the globe in very … Read More
The LifePump – the Story of a 40 year Journey | Part 2
From Poverty to PhD As a child growing up 150 kilometers outside the urban center of Malawi’s Mzimba District—a rural region characterized by illiteracy rates of about 62 percent—Beatrice Chisenga spent her evenings poring over her school books, lit by the soft glow of a heavily fumed kerosene lamp. Exhausted from fetching firewood, pounding maize, helping cook meals for … Read More