The archive · Product Ideas · Product decision · 2023–2024
Ambessa Play's DIY flashlight teaches STEM — each kit sold gives a refugee child one free
A battery-free, build-it-yourself flashlight turns kinetic energy into a lesson; for every kit sold, a refugee child out of school gets one free.
Ambessa Play
What it had to solve
Ambessa Play is a social enterprise building educational STEM kits to spark creativity for children everywhere, with a one-to-one model: for every kit purchased, a refugee child out of school receives one free. The first kit had to work as both a learning experience and a genuinely usable product.
How it works
Ambessa Play is a social enterprise that builds educational STEM kits to spark creativity and imagination for children everywhere. Its business model is one-to-one: for every kit purchased, a refugee child out of school receives one for free.
Its first product, the DIY Flashlight, had to make an abstract lesson tangible and still be worth owning. The kit turns learning about kinetic energy and electronic components into an adventure a child builds with their own hands.
The flashlight contains 10 separate components and 16 build steps. It is battery-free, using a dynamo to charge a capacitor that powers the LED lamp for about 15 minutes after 1–2 minutes of winding, and its distinctive design works equally well as a kit and as a usable product.
Because every kit sold sends one to a refugee child out of school, the product's engineering and its social mission reinforce each other. The work is held in the D&AD awards archive under Product Design, which records no separate sales figures.
Why it lands
- Battery-free winding means the finished object works anywhere, including places without reliable power, so the product is useful beyond the lesson.
- Winding for 1–2 minutes to earn 15 minutes of light puts the physics lesson directly in the child's hands.
- The one-to-one give model makes every commercial sale an act of access, rather than a separate charity ask.
- Working equally well as kit and usable product keeps the design honest: it is judged as hardware, not just an activity.
What it did
Every purchase funds a free kit for a refugee child out of school, so the product's usefulness and its social model are the same decision. The D&AD archive page records no sales or distribution figures; the work is held there under Product Design.
What you can take
Give the educational product a real job — a light that works after the build — and build the giving into the product: each sale sends a free kit to a refugee child.
Since then
Ambessa Play's first kit made a battery-free dynamo flashlight the object of a STEM lesson: 10 components and 16 build steps teach kinetic energy and electronic parts, and 1–2 minutes of winding charges a capacitor that lights the LED for about 15 minutes. Designed to work as both a build and a usable product, each kit sold also funds a free kit for a refugee child out of school, so the social model runs through every purchase. The work is held in the D&AD awards archive under Product Design, which records no separate sales or distribution figures.
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