Inventing the clockwork radio

Is the wind-up radio sustainable?

Think about the following.

• The wind-up radio meets an important human need.
  
  
• It works on a renewable energy source (people power).
  
  
• It is manufactured in South Africa, using local labour.
  
  
• Many of the people who make the radios have disabilities, are ex-convicts or battered women. With the exception of the occasional wheelchair, it is impossible to tell the disabled from the able-bodied; the ex-convicts from the victims.
  
  
• The radios cost $80 to buy, but many are distributed free by governments or non-profit organisations. The Freeplay Foundation supplies them at a large discount.

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