One of the passions that I am discovering is best described as inventing things for poor people. I come from the 'third-world' and have a humanitarian bent; so how can one, such as myself, make a difference beyond financial aid etc?
I really like having this sense of purpose - it motivates me quite a bit. The most interesting part of trying to design things for those in need is that one is forced to innovate and decide what is essential. The cost of the product must be ultra-low for it to be affordable [one cannot ignore the necessity of economic sustainability] and it must be durable [it must last] and it must be relatively easy to use [the majority of the target demographic has the misfortune of bad formal education]. This means one needs to decide what the most important functions are and then everything else must serve that purpose - nothing can be extraneous.
As they say: 'need is the mother of invention'
There is a wonderful TED talk that covers this idea:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_XchYY3bnU
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