A belly belt is a common must-have item for pregnant women in the United States–try searching for it on Amazon, and you’ll be served with a huge number of products. But what if the belly belt could be made cheaply, designed by local artisans, outfitted with inexpensive sensors, and used by women in rural parts of Kenya? Then you’d have our proposed invention, Ma Belly! Our team, which included Kenyans Josh Ogure (of Kibera News Network) and Sasha Kinney (of Pawa 254) submitted Ma Belly to the UNICEF Wearables For Good Challenge this summer. The proposal was not chosen to advance, but it was still quite fun and interesting to put together.
