Student startup sends mobile maternity clinic to Kenya

ASU student startup G3Box is preparing to install its first mobile maternity clinic in Kenya, as reported this week by College Times.

The company, whose name was inspired by the phrase “Generating Global Good,” is an organization that outfits medical clinics in shipping containers for use in remote or underdeveloped areas that suffer from high maternal mortality rates.

The idea developed out of an engineering program called Engineering Projects in Community Service, where the four founders began working on similar projects. They later decided to merge their projects into one initiative and G3Box was born.

ASU’s Edson Student Entrepreneur Initiative provided $20,000 in grant money, office space, and training, as well as the group’s mentor, Carl Nablo.

Gabrielle Palermo, a senior engineering student at ASU and the chief operations officer for G3Box, said, “It would have been really hard (to start G3Box) without Edson. We’ve met so many amazing people and mentors through the Edson program and been introduced to so many people who’ve changed the course of our company.”

Since winning the Edson funding in 2011, G3Box has secured two shipping containers that will be outfitted as medical clinics. The first will likely be sent to Kenya by this summer, said Palermo. The company also received an award for College Entrepreneur of the Year in 2011 from Entrepreneur magazine.

To learn more about the organization, visit g3box.org.

To donate to the organization, visit http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/g3box-ship-a-maternity-clinic-to-kenya?c=home.