Industrial design graduate Gwen Gage's has created a plastic mesh that connect medication boxes together to allow easier delivery of malaria medicine in remote sub-Saharan African villages.
Gage developed the roll of plastic mesh, called VeloMed, to fit over boxes of medication that are then rolled to secure the units together so that many boxes can be transported together.

She found volunteers tended to walk or cycle from villages to a regional medical centre to pick up boxes of medicine and return with them to distribute to those in need.
The number of boxes that they are able to transport depended on the carrying device that they already own and are able to take with them, often a bag or rucksack.

Typically these can hold seven boxes, whereas with her VeloMed device, which has been shortlisted for a Dezeen Award in the Transport design category, that number can be increased seven fold. Her project aimed to find a solution to this low capacity that relied on a shift in the manufacturing process, rather than the volunteers having to buy a potentially expensive new product themselves.

The roll of plastic strip can be included in the shipment of medical boxes to the regional depot. When volunteers arrive to pick up medicines, the strip can be cut to the necessary length, and the boxes slotted into the holes.
The long string of boxes can then be rolled and tied to the bike with string or bungee cord, both commonly used to secure items to bikes in the region and readily av...