Uncharted Play is a new social business that is trying to address humanity’s issues through play. The sOccket is what Uncharted Play calls a soccer ball that is able to harness kinetic energy to light up lamps and power up small electrical appliances. What spawned as an idea for a class project at Harvard University, co-inventors Jessica O. Matthews and Julia Silverman, also co-founders of Uncharted Play, now distributes sOccket to areas of the world where electricity is nonexistent.
It was a simple idea. 25% of kids in the world do not have electricity yet many of these kids play soccer. Rather than playing with a traditional soccer ball, 30 minutes of play with the sOccket can provide up to 3 hours of LED light.
Their initiatives to distribute the sOccket rely on donation. Individuals can purchase a sOccket for $75 which will be donated along with a lamp to a child in a developing country. They have set up programs for larger companies, organizations, and philanthropists wanting to support large-scale distribution as well.
Whether or not this ball can nurture future David Beckhams remains questionable. But we can count on the balls to keep a few houses lit.