Jock Brandis is an environmental entrpreneur who has devoted his life to doing good things, including coming up with inventive solutions to problems and ingenious devices to solve environmental challenges. Brandis operates around the world through his non-profit organization, Full Belly Project.
While visiting a small village in Mali in 2001 to fix a water treatment system, he came across a villager who shared that it would be a great service to their village if he could find an affordable nut sheller for them for their peanuts. He returned to the U.S. and found a peanut authority at the University of Georgia who shared with him a Bulgarian Peanut Shelling Design.
He adapted the design with help froma friend and went through several prototypes. A year later, he had developed what is now called, the Universal Nut Sheller.
Then, in 2003, he teamed up with a group of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers from Wilmington, NC to form the Full Belly Project.
He has helped farmers in North Carolina develop gravity fed water systems for watering their orchards in drought conditions. He has worked with Indian communities to develop hand pumps for irrigating their crops as well. And, he has also launched Soap For Hope in the fall of 2013 which is a program for reprocessing unused soap for helping communities in Cambodia, Mexico and beyond.
Full Belly’s new mission is to design and distribute innovative, sustainable technologies with our local community that empower people all over the world to improve their own lives.
Fully Belly’s new vision is a world in which all people are empowered with resources to change their lives through sustainable solutions to improve food security, better their health and increase their income.
Full Belly recognizes that nothing works without a solid partner on the ground. These programs are not just about inventing and engineering. They are about people- total strangers, some from opposite sides of the planet working together towards a shared goal.
Full Belly’s local community consists of global citizens who take action to build communities that thrive through partnerships.
For more info on Full Belly Project, visit: www.thefullbellyproject.org
And, to view a short video produced by RePlan It about Jock Brandis:
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