DIY of the Day: Mrs. Muyonjo, who lives in the small, remote village of Ivukula in eastern Uganda, had to ride her bicycle 20 miles to the nearest city with electricity in order to charge her cell phone.

One day, the operators of the charging station Mrs. Muyonjo frequented unscrupulously swapped her long-lasting battery for a cheap one that barely lasted a day. Knowing that she couldn’t afford to ride into town on a daily basis, Mrs. Muyonjo constructed a homemade charging device using five D batteries wrapped together with found material.

While not particularly safe — Mrs. Muyonjo had to remove the plug from the phone’s existing charger and hook up the exposed wires to her home-brewed battery pack — it apparently gets the job done. And, given her extenuating circumstances, that’s really all Mrs. Muyonjo can ask for.

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