Rural

 Here is a story about how a variety of Changemakers are improving economic development while preserving the environment:

If you could name one economic development project that directly benefits the environment, what would it be? Or should we say, “bee?”

Honeybees have the power to help secure a food supply, keep a local environment cleaner, bolster biodiversity, and generate income through honey production. And numerous initiatives in Africa are spreading the word about the advantages of honeybees and are training small farmers to add honey production to their agricultural activities.

Read more about this solution, or discuss this topic below.

 

Glint4Life

Glint4life is a for-profit social enterprise, totally privately funded with investors expecting
economical, social and environmental return. The initial major challenge of the firm is lighting
Africa and boosting its development through the implementation of renewables solutions. The
long-term mission implies the ambitious goal of becoming a western hub for selling and distributing products in BOP economies. In this way empowering people living at the bottom of social pyramid and improving their quality of life.

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Improved liveliness through Microenterprises in rural areas

Created on 08/1/2012 by evainindia12

BISWA sees the vision in "Social Change with Inclusive Development" to be achieved by the mission of "Participatory development with equity, dignity and human rights for the unreached and underserved". This is what the organisation and all members and staff stand for.

About You

Organization: Bharat Integrated Social Welfare Agency (BISWA) Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hide

About You

First Name

Eva

Last Name

Werding

About Your Organization

Organization Name

Bharat Integrated Social Welfare Agency (BISWA)

Organization Website

Organization Country

India, OR, Sambalpur

Country where this project is creating social impact

India, OR

Age of Innovator

Over 34

Gender of Innovator

Male

Is your organization a

Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization

How long has your organization been operating?

More than 5 years

The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..

Innovation

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Name Your Entry

Improved liveliness through Microenterprises in rural areas

Select the stage that best applies to your solution

Scaling (the next step will be growing impact on a regional or even global scale)

How long have you been in operation?

Operating for more than 5 years

The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?

The Indian economy is characterised by a heavy dependence on agriculture as industries are concentrated in the urban areas and a highly skewed distribution of income and wealth. Poverty and unemployment are highly connected.
The economic situation in the poorest state Orissa is fatal: 48% of the population lives under the poverty line. A high percentage of the working population depends on agriculture and related activities. In rural areas disguised unemployment prevails. People have a poor base of resources, a low level of capacity and limited access to financial and other support services. Especially women do not have enough opportunities to utilise their limited skills and resources. A measure to reduce the poverty can be the generation of additional adequate employment in rural areas.

The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!

BISWA provides sustainable business development services to people organized in Self Help Groups (SHG) of about 14 persons generating employment and improving the quality of life for the underprivileged section of society. A special focus lies on women and youth. One the one hand, this is a Microfinance programme so that the SHGs can apply for loans to invest into their business ideas. On the other hand, compulsory and periodic skills-enhancement interventions make sure the beneficiaries can improve and use their skills and are up-to-date with market trends allowing them to leverage maximum benefit out of the programme. Networking with other SHGs and building common brands are further factors helping the people to strengthen their businesses. This Micromarketing allows them to be better connected so that they achieve better prices for their products. So people do not only receive money, but are furthermore supported to be able to carry out their Microenterprises successfully.

The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities

“BISWA Palliprativa” is a SHG based in the Kendrapara District, Orissa. The livelihood of the villagers was based on traditional subsidence agricultural practices and wage labour and thereby unable to ensure food and income through the year.
Some women with a common perception of need and the will to act came forward searching for possible alternatives to improve the situation. With the support of BISWA, they founded the SHG. Motivated by collective approaches to thrift and credit among themselves they became confident to develop further towards financial independency.
When they were found eligible in the BISWA microfinance scheme, they got a first loan for enterprise purposes. Having traditional proficiency in making handcraft from golden grass such as handbags, belts and jewelleries, they used the loan systematically for its commercial production and marketing. Handling this, they were actively supported by BISWA. The group-based approach was successful and they could pay back the loan in 6 instead of the granted 12 month. With strengthened confidence they availed another loan to establish a production unit for the golden grass products at large scale with the objective of a long-term livelihood option. It was a success: The products could be found in almost all nearby households. The group could reimburse the credit amount from the profit earned and improve their livelihood strongly. Furthermore, they gained respect in the community, a better social and economic status and an increasing participation in the decision making processes in the household and the village.

The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?

With a wide network and the experience of now 18 years of work we can differentiate ourselves from many organizations coping with the same needs. Still, we normally do not see them as competitors as they have similar goals which should be in the spotlight. BISWA Network is one of our umbrella organizations, continuing to perform activities for strengthening partnership with NGOs nationwide. Its endeavours are mainly focused on coordination with partner NGOs and to enhance their ability to execute different operations in association with BISWA. In its area of activity BISWA Network has been able to evolve some new ideas which have been supportive in holding conducive relationship with partner NGOs and looking forward to further cultivate it for qualitative and quantitative outcomes.

Social Impact

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This Entry is about (Issues)

What solution(s) does your initiative address to help emerging entrepreneurs and small businesses grow and thrive in underserved communities? (select all applicable)

Access to financing, Access to supply chains, Access to economic opportunity.

What has been the impact of your solution to date?

BISWA´s integrated approach has emerged as a successful mean to holistic social development programmes by bringing convergence of Micro Finance, Micro Enterprise, Micro Insurance and Micro Marketing. Its development programmes address poverty eradication, livelihood promotion, basic health services, water and sanitation, education and gender equity. An analysis by our internal and external evaluators yields among others the employment generation and sustainable livelihood promotion in 1,273,702 households families, an enhanced status of women through self-reliance, capacity building trainings etc. and an increase of social security to SHG members through micro insurance in life, health and asset. BISWA has trained 278,040 women to micro-entrepreneurs in skills of applique, incense-stick making, weaving, pottery and other livelihood skills. Resultantly, these women SHG members can generate commercial value utilising their traditional skills.

What is your projected impact over the next 1-3 years?

There is a concrete goal for 2015: We want to have created in total 1 million jobs. The women taking part in our programmes shall sustainably have improved their livelihood, have gained more self-reliance and an empowered status in family and society.
From further projects we hope to have built 2 million toilets, 3 million water tap connections and 10 million trees. As a superior goal we have committed ourselves to the Millennium Goals of the United Nations.

What barriers might hinder the success of your project? How do you plan to overcome them?

A problem is the on-going uncertainty in the Microfinance Sector that can be a threat also for us, but as we offer an integrated program including mentoring, guidance and other social development projects we think, we can have a positive sight to the future. We are sure that responsible finance is the only working model in the Microfinance Sector – not only as vision, but also in terms of a pragmatic client protection and social performance management. Our strategic collaborations with government and various partnerships remain healthy and effective in delivering public goods to poor. We will further expand these relationships by long-term collaboration. The strategy is to create national level advocacy and attract multiple funding sources to multiply actions and scale up the interventions

Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact

Providing access to new opportunities to earn their liveliness to a larger number of households

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone

Task 1

Increase of the number of SHGs to about 90,000

Task 2

Increase of the number of clients (SHG-Members) to about 1,500,000

Task 3

Further development of the marketing network for the products

Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone

Expanding the concept of microenterprises to a larger number of people

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone

Task 1

Increase of the number of SHGs to about 100,000

Task 2

Increase of the number of clients (SHG-Members) to about 1,700,000

Task 3

Identification of sales markets and further development of the marketing network for the products

Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world.

It all started as a small dream of an individual and then grew as a snowball. As a banker 17 years ago, Mr. Khirod Chandra Malick, founder Chairman, Bharat Integrated Social Welfare Agency (BISWA), worked in the western part of Odish and, realised the debilitating impact of real poverty in the region. In fact, this was the turning point in his life, generating an inner urge to start a philanthropic Organisation with a group of life-minded people. Thus BISWA was born with a very well-defined Vision and Mission. It is now fully committed towards sustainable development of the poor people with special emphasis on women. During this period, the Organisation has expanded to 20 other states thereby acquiring the status of a prominent national level NGO. It has promoted 238 independent BISWA federations known as MBTs (Mutual Benefit Trusts).

Sustainability

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Tell us about your partnerships

In our projects we are supported by a number of different promoters. From government departments (e.g. Odisha State Social Welfare Board), to bilateral and multilateral donors, to international and national NGOs (e.g. UNICEF, MISEREOR from Germany), to corporate bodies and civil society networks to local governments and peoples processes we find any kind of organization in our network. Furthermore we collaborate with banks and insurances to improve our projects. Furthermore, see above for more information about BISWA Network.

Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list

Talent/Networking: We help the women in the SHGs to utilise their traditional skills and talents to improve their livelihood by providing access to financial services. We support them by special trainings giving them the opportunity to learn how they efficiently generate income with their skills. Furthermore, SHGs use the contacts to other groups to improve the effectiveness of their Marketing.

Information technology for female health volunteers

Information and communication technology for village female health volunteers in child growth monitoring program.

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WOMEN RURAL RADIO PROJECT

Created on 07/18/2012 by mike85hot

agriculture development information dissemination to rural women

About You

Organization: Rainbow Gate Foundation Nigeria Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hide

About You

First Name

michael

Last Name

iyanro

About Your Organization

Organization Name

Rainbow Gate Foundation Nigeria

Organization Website

Organization Country

Nigeria

Country where this project is creating social impact

Nigeria, OG, ABEOKUTA

Age of Innovator

18-34

Gender of Innovator

Male

Is your organization a

Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization

How long has your organization been operating?

1‐5 years

Has the organization received awards or honors? Please tell us about them

The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..

Innovation

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Name Your Entry

WOMEN RURAL RADIO PROJECT

Select the stage that best applies to your solution

Start-Up (a pilot that has just begun operating)

How long have you been in operation?

Operating for 1‐5 years

Which of the following best describes the barrier(s) your innovation addresses? Choose up to two

Access, Equity.

The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?

The biggest obstacle in achieving the MDGs in Nigeria is the poor access to information by rural poor women engaged in agricultural activities. With no electricity in their villages, no access to televisions, no effective mobile telephony system and the collapse of agricultural extension services, the rural poor women have been cut off by the information reception system. Secondly, poor women that survives through farming lacks adequate and appropriate information that will boost their agricultural productivity and income as a result of the production of all valuable information in national or international languages.

The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!

To reach rural poor women engaged in farming activities living in remote Ogun State South-Western Nigeria with sustainable agricultural, environmental management skills and daily market information derived from internet sources and established networks in the local Yoruba Language. The Women Rural radio is specifically designed for farming women communities. It shall elaborate and present programmes in the local languages; this will enable the women farmers acquire knowledge, sustainable and modern agricultural and farming techniques. The radio shall give them access and linkage to national and international markets, to finance and micro credit facilities for their agricultural production and sustainability, and access to a Question and Answer service which will deal with pertinent questions concerning climate/agricultural production.

The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities

The Women Rural Radio tackles rural poverty and hunger by designing and broadcasting daily programs in the local Yoruba language across local radio stations. The radio enables women farmers to acquire contemporary agricultural and environmental management techniques, to receive daily market information, to advertise their farm products and to learn business skills. The women utilize daily broadcast information to decide what, when, how and for whom to produce in the long term boosting their agricultural yields and household income. The radio is interactive and invites feedback from listeners through the deployment of interactive radio (AIR) mobile devices. This is a simple communications system intended to link those off the cellular and electrical grid with the rural radio. AIR are small, rugged, solar-powered mobile devices that record user voice input, and then asynchronously forward voice feedback to the radio station via an ad-hoc delay-tolerant network. Due to the low power footprint, ease of use, and use of wireless connectivity between devices, AIR does not incur any cost to the user. The project increases knowledge sharing and the rate of development through community involvement.

The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?

Women Rural Radio lives firmly in the center of the burgeoning communication sector, where the power of information technology is leveraged to improve the quality of and access to information for women in the remote rural area. There are other organizations working on aspects of the information delivery system, but no one is particularly focused on reaching the local indigenous women especially smallholder women farmers with vital information on climate change/agricultural production and how to reduce GHG emissions in the local language they will understand.

Social Impact

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This Entry is about (Issues)

What solution(s) does your initiative address to better the lives of girls and women by leveraging technology? (select all applicable)

Access to education/training, Access to economic opportunity.

What has been the impact of your solution to date?

The Women Rural Radio created in 2011 to inform, educate and improve the capacity of 150,000 small women farmer listeners. 61% of the present listeners’ livelihood has been changed because household income has improved. Women farmers have witnessed 60% increase in output per acre of sorghum, maize, cassava, yam and vegetable farms. Among other achievements women farmers have increased their household income from $2 to $2.50 per day, the volume of quintiles/output per acre of farmland and their knowledge of the exportation process in order to connect with the international market. Education has reduced soil degradation and improved the conservation of wood resources. Over 300 hectares of rainforest have been restored.

What is your projected impact over the next 1-3 years?

Through these actions we will reach over50 million womensmall farmer listeners in the 36 states of Nigeria with relevant, adequate, accurate, timely and well adapted information on agricultural development and natural resources management for secure livelihood. 85% of beneficiaries’ livelihood will be changed and food security will be strengthened.Agricultural productivity per acre of land will increase by an envisaged more than 88% and household income will increase by more than 60%. The long term expected result being reduced poverty indices in rural communities and accelerated economic empowerment at household level as a result of the liberalization of access to information.

What barriers might hinder the success of your project? How do you plan to overcome them?

-Increased access to donor grants and loans to scale up and replicate The WRR all over Nigeria is a major challenge. Our goal has been to replicate at least in 36 states of Nigeria but funding has been a limitation and barrier to our tall ambitions. Nevertheless we have continued to strive utilizing internally generated revenue while still struggling to broaden our donor base.

Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact

Expanding range of services, Expanding Partnerships, and enhancing operational efficiency,

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone

Task 1

Enhancing Operational Efficiency by better cost management, capacity building of team, improved coverage

Task 2

Expanding range of services in educating rural women and agric management,

Task 3

2nd phase of Communication Campaign, reinforce communication strategy , raise program awareness and call for action

Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone

Faster Operational Breakeven for Women Rural Radio, Increased adoption rate in Nigeria, expanding to other states

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone

Task 1

Successfully integrating new methodology meeting target audiences needs

Task 2

Combination of new services, communication campaign and cost management resulting in faster breakeven

Task 3

Strengthening local partnerships & alliances for rollout of Women Rural Radio

Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world.

I drew this idea because of my desire to make a lasting social change in the lives of women across Nigeria. I realized during my projects with various communities reflecting on my personal life route that poverty is a result of lack of information. When people are empowered with appropriate information that will make their livelihood secure, they attain secure income. To me the quest to empower women technologically starts with information empowerment. In 2011 I started this project to improve availability and access to relevant, adequate, accurate, timely and well adapted information on priority information in agriculture and environmental conservation utilizing rural radio to curtail the pitfall inherent in the sector.

Sustainability

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Tell us about your partnerships

We receive important daily, weekly and monthly market information and commodity prices from NGOs, Businesses and governmental organizations. We also receive radio broadcast scripts which we subsequently translate into Yoruba Language for broadcasts. We have received from these partners valuable information on where small women farmers can obtain much needed agricultural input materials in the form of seeds and low cost irrigation devices.

Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list

Pioneering clean energy lending in Pakistan

Created on 07/18/2012 by Fiza.Farhan

Buksh Foundation is a microfinance institution operating in Pakistan providing financial services to poor people living in rural areas in Pakistan. Buksh Foundation is currently providing Productive Loan (microcredit), Transport Loan (asset financing) and Clean Energy Loans.

About You

Organization: Buksh Foundation Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hide

About You

First Name

Fiza

Last Name

Farhan

About Your Organization

Organization Name

Buksh Foundation

Organization Website

Organization Country

Pakistan, P, Lahore

Country where this project is creating social impact

Pakistan, P, Lahore

Age of Innovator

Over 34

Gender of Innovator

Male

Is your organization a

Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization

How long has your organization been operating?

1‐5 years

The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..

Innovation

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Name Your Entry

Pioneering clean energy lending in Pakistan

Select the stage that best applies to your solution

Growth (your pilot is up and running, and starting to expand)

How long have you been in operation?

Operating for 1‐5 years

The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?

• About 43% (80 million people) of the total population of Pakistan lives without access to electricity. The rest residing in rural and urban areas, are all facing acute electricity shortages with extended daily blackouts of up to 18 hours.

• The energy situation of Pakistan has gravely impacted the small enterprises operating in rural and peri urban areas of Pakistan whose electrical expenses can be the largest operational expense and can marginally cut down on potential daily income. It is overall an unfortunate situation for a small marginalized entrepreneur who is working against all odds to create a respectable life for him/herself.

The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!

• Staying in line with its vision of introducing meaningful impact investments for the lower income masses of Pakistan, Buksh Foundation has launched pioneering Clean Energy Loans with the objective of fulfilling the energy needs of small enterprises and rural households, via solar panels, solar lights, and solar fans.
• Any small enterprise; be it a small barber shop, a home salon, or a vegetable shop, can now run on efficient energy sources and in turn become more cost efficient, more productive, and profitable.
• Affordable, sustainable and environmentally friendly solar solutions are now being provided through a monthly repayment plan which is tailored to match the client’s needs.
• Now, a poor client can have his own infinite energy supply to run his enterprise by only paying a monthly installment as low as $6 per month.

The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities

Buksh Foundation being a MFI is providing a holistic 360 degree solution to fulfill the energy needs of its clients making the solar technology affordable and accessible.
Example:
Buksh Foundation disbursed its first clean energy loan to Fatima Nazeer and her son Mubashir, who manage a small rented mobile repair and sales shop. Mubashir faced daily blackouts of 10-12 hours that were negatively impacting his sales and income generation. He was previously using a small electric torch for lightening purposes which provided minimal support. Clean energy loan was a perfect match for his needs and helped him augment his business by operating for longer hours after dusk.

Primary Activities:
Buksh Foundation’s innovative approach includes the following activities:

a. Technical Trainings:
Our technical partner, Buksh Energy Pvt. Ltd helps in training our staff about the products, and regularly provide after sales and maintenance services for the products our clients get.
b. Community Engagement/ Awareness:
Since solar energy is a new phenomenon, to make the client comfortable with this energy shift Buksh Foundation holds interactive street demos in all rural and urban areas of operation.

c. After Sales:
After sales services and client monitoring is carried out to make sure the products operate at full capacity giving maximum benefit. Any Technical complaints can be made which are resolves within 2 days.

The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?

Ingenuity of idea:
Buksh Foundation is the only Microfinance institution in Pakistan that is currently lending out clean energy products to peri urban and rural areas in Pakistan. It successfully launched a pilot of clean energy loans in Pakistan, initiating the project in the peri-urban areas where the population is facing daily extended blackouts.

Substitutes:
Currently there are no other clean energy solutions for poor people available in the country. The only solutions that exist are fossil fuels which are not only expensive but hazardous as well. Therefore, the only viable solution for un-electrified villages and households facing up to 18 hours of blackouts each day is through solar.

Social Impact

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This Entry is about (Issues)

What solution(s) does your initiative address to help emerging entrepreneurs and small businesses grow and thrive in underserved communities? (select all applicable)

Access to technology.

What has been the impact of your solution to date?

Buksh Foundation has successfully been able to impact more than 1200 people by lending solar solutions. Impact investment study was conducted to understand the impact generated.

1. Entrepreneurs:
Any small enterprise can now run on efficient energy sources and in turn become more cost efficient, more productive, and profitable by paying a monthly installment as low as $6 per month.

75 % of the clients now operate their businesses even after dusk which has increased their income by 37%.

2. Women:
Women can now productively engage in activities even after dusk. A 20% increase in productivity was noticed in all the households where women work.

Improved health conditions were observed in 44% of the households as illness resulting from traditional fuels and stoves are now being reduced.

Reduced accidents during child birth were also observed in 8% of the households.

3. Children:

Children can now go to night schools or continue their studies at night.

What is your projected impact over the next 1-3 years?

Micro credit:
Buksh Foundation is providing clean energy loans through its microcredit program which involves leasing out solar products to rural households on easy installments.
It aims to tap around USD 1M, in the next three years and impact more than 35,000 people through its clean energy lending activities.

Project Financing:
Buksh Foundation is also involved in a number of projects through which rural electrification is taking place. Through the Buksh-Teri project, Buksh Foundation aims to impact 450,000 people over a period of 3 years with USD 10M.

What barriers might hinder the success of your project? How do you plan to overcome them?

a) Lack of awareness about solar energy usage:
Buksh Foundation holds clean energy awareness programs and community events to educate people.

b) Lack of funds/ support
Buksh Foundation is currently talking to a number of international and local investors to acquire up to USD 350,000 for its clean energy lending program in the first year.

c) Lack of R&D
Buksh Foundation along with the help and support of The State Bank of Pakistan is looking forward to conduct an in depth research of unelectrified villages in Pakistan.

d) Lack of Quality assured local supply
The solar products available in the local market are not up to the mark.
Buksh Foundation is working with Buksh Energy Pvt. Ltd which works with European and Chinese suppliers that are EU and World Bank certified.

Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone

Task 1

1. Acquire Funding and Increase international investor insight to clean energy initiatives in Pakistan

Task 2

2. Increase awareness and R&D

Task 3

3. Assure that demand driven products of a certified quality are provided within the market

Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone

Task 1

1. Create a brand name within the market

Task 2

2. Increase outreach to at least 4 new cities

Task 3

3. Introduce 3 new projects enhancing clean energy usage in Pakistan

Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world.

Chairman of Buksh Foundation, Mr. Asim Buksh, founded the organization in April 2009 after the turn of events in 2008 i.e. the financial crisis of 2008-09, which led him to think about those who get affected majorly by daily economic downturns i.e. people at the bottom of the pyramid.
He realized that the return of every $ invested in the poor leads to 215 times more return than the money invested on the privileged and hence realized that impacting 1 entrepreneur impacts 6 individuals within the society along with the entire community. Hence Buksh Foundation was set up with the social mission of bringing a positive socio-economic change within the society with the creation of micro entrepreneurs.
Being an ardent believer of clean energy and seeing the deteriorating condition of energy in Pakistan, Asim decided to launch clean energy lending for the poor for whom the technology is unaffordable. He was awarded ‘Heroes of the Environment’ by Times Magazine in 2009.

Sustainability

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Tell us about your partnerships

The clean energy initiative has led to productive partnerships being formed in Pakistan which is enhancing the productive capacities of all the organizations.

• Buksh Foundation has partnered with Enercon, Ministry of Water and Power in Pakistan, to create energy efficiency and conservation in all sectors of the economy.
• Buksh Foundation has also partnered with TERI India, an organization working to ‘light up a billion lives’ through women empowerment and solar lanterns.
• It has also partnered with Buksh Energy Pvt. Ltd for technical assistance, trainings and after sales services.

Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list

Other than Funding, Buksh Foundation is also looking for technical assistance and training.

Women's personal marketplace

Created on 07/16/2012 by Nicole Darabian

Decode Global is an incubator of mobile apps for social change. We provide international opportunities for humanitarian technologists and code for social good.

About You

Organization: Decode Global Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hide

About You

First Name

Nicole

Last Name

Darabian

About Your Organization

Organization Name

Decode Global

Organization Website

Organization Country

Canada, QC, Montréal

Country where this project is creating social impact

India, RJ

Age of Innovator

Gender of Innovator

Female

Is your organization a

Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization

How long has your organization been operating?

Less than a year

Has the organization received awards or honors? Please tell us about them

Prize winner for "Youth Employment Services (YES) Women in Tech" competition

The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..

Innovation

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Name Your Entry

Women's personal marketplace

Select the stage that best applies to your solution

Idea (you're poised to launch)

How long have you been in operation?

Still in idea phase, but looking to launch soon

Which of the following best describes the barrier(s) your innovation addresses? Choose up to two

Access, Cost.

The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?

Many women living in rural areas of India do not have easy and discreet access to personal care products. Research has shown that less than 2% of women in rural India use personal hygiene products like sanitary napkins. Plan India in collaboration with AC Nielsen reported that over 80% of women in rural India use unsterilized clothes, sand, husk,and ash as alternatives to sanitary napkins. They also found that reproductive tract infections are 70% more prevalent amoung women who lack access to personal hygiene products. Further, research from the World Bank suggests there is a correlation to girls missing school and a lack of access to sanitary napkins.Cultural taboos about menses, social norms, pricing and lack of supply chain are reasons limiting women's access to personal care products

The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!

Our solution is to train women to be entrepreneurs and to develop a mobile application that would enable these women to sell personal hygiene products easily and discreetly. India has over 600 million mobile users with over 200 million being woman (mostly in the age where they would use these products) providing the application an instant access to a large number of customers. The approach proposed by Decode Global and the Boond Foundation involves entrepreneurship education, menstrual health education and strong technology. These two organizations will collaborate to train female entrepreneurs to order, sell, and market feminine hygiene products using mobile phones.

The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities

A mobile application is very discreet, and the women using it (women rural entrepreneurs) do not need to go to the market and interact with a conventional shop-keeper (mostly male) or male members of the family making the acquisition of hygiene products personal and free of cultural taboos. The mobile application would be used as a multi-purpose tool enabling both the ordering of the product and its payment; providing awareness information to the rural women about benefits, usage and disposal for these items; dispensing health adivsory as well as generating employment for rural women. These women are instrumental in implementing the supply chain (with support from social organizations and NGOs). Moreover, this project will address a deficit of activity both within industry and academia that investigates the socio-economic impact of mobile technology for women, and how technology can be designed to complement grassroots development projects for women.

The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?

Programs currently exist to address parts of the problem. Unilever’s Shakti program trains women to sell products in rural communities, but this initiative is limited to a single supplier. P&G has pledged to work with the Minstry of Health & Family Welfare to produce inexpensive sanitary napkins for women in the state of Rajasthan. This approach focuses on subsidies while ours focuses on women entrepreneuship and job creation. A Muruganatham, an Indian entrepreneur, has created a machine to produce sanitary napkins at a low cost. He has sold his machine to female entrepreneurs. His approach encourages women as entrepreneurs and could be a potential partner. No programs using mobile technology were identified. We foresee these players as being collaborative rather than competitors.

Social Impact

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This Entry is about (Issues)

What solution(s) does your initiative address to better the lives of girls and women by leveraging technology? (select all applicable)

Access to technology, Access to education/training, Access to health care, Access to economic opportunity.

What has been the impact of your solution to date?

Between December 2011 - March 2012 we conducted an extensive literature review of mobile app design for women’s economic empowerment, and technology review of mobile applications currently on the market. Our conclusion was there is a dearth of academic and industry activity around technology development for women’s economic empowerment. We are currently planning the prototype and focus groups/feedback sessions which Boond and Decode Global will do collaboratively.

What is your projected impact over the next 1-3 years?

This mobile application will initially be for women rural entrepreneurs in Rajasthan. The pilot phase will start with training 50 women. These 50 women will be in 1 district of India with an average population of 1.5 million (or about 700,000 women). Hence the indirect impact of this application will be for around 400,000 women in the first phase (taking away women below 13 and over 50). The long term goal of the project is to expand the program to more districts in other rural parts of India and South Asia as there is a huge potential for scaling. We estimate an impact to over 10 million women over the next five years.

What barriers might hinder the success of your project? How do you plan to overcome them?

The main barriers could come from women not using the mobile application and not becoming entrepreneurs despite being trained through Boond's entrepreneuship training program. Another barrier could emerge from not having a strong and stable supply chain for sanitary napkins distribution.
We hope to avoid such barriers by enhancing awareness, skills and capacity to support scaling up of feminine hygiene related programmes in rural India.

Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact

Prototype Validaton and Mobile Service Validation

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone

Task 1

Conduct awareness campaigns and discuss mobile application and its usage with villagers: 6 roadshows, 6 vilages, aprox.15K women

Task 2

Prototype design & development in collaboration with university researchers and Canada, US and India

Task 3

Entrepreneurship selection

Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone

Mobile app development and supply chain

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone

Task 1

Development of the final version of mobile application

Task 2

Training of the women entrepreneurs

Task 3

Development of the supply chain for the products

Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world.

While working as a product manager at Nokia, Decode Global's founder had the opportunity to participate in a research study that focused on mobile application development where women are considered the primary (and only) users of the technology. It quickly became apparent to me that there is a lack of attention both within industry and academia on this topic. Through many conversations with Rustam Sengupta of Boond, we came up with the idea of building a project around women's entrepreneurship, mobile technology, and increased access to essential products for women's health.

Sustainability

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Tell us about your partnerships

Decode Global is partnering with Boond Foundation which has many years of experience managing supply chains and providing entrepreneurship training. They have recently expanded their entrepreneurship training to women. We also have partnerships with Nokia and Microsoft BizSpark Startup.

Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list

There is a deficit of research and activity both within industry and academia that looks at the socio-economic impact of mobile technology on women, and how technology could be designed to complement grassroots development projects for women. The only research providing some insight on the topic is by Schroff and Kam in “Towards a Design Model for Women’s Empowerment in the Developing World”.

Copra Trading in Davao

Created on 07/9/2012 by yao

Oceanic Gold is an impact investment firm that encourages and develops scalable SMEs in rural communities within the ASEAN region. We set up rural development projects in countries like Indonesia and the Philippines with a focus on poverty alleviation. Our projects comprise of scalable agricultural-based enterprises that will help rural entrepreneurs create jobs in their communities.

About You

Organization: Oceanic Gold Pte Ltd Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hide

About You

First Name

Yao

Last Name

Lee

About Your Organization

Organization Name

Oceanic Gold Pte Ltd

Organization Website

asiasocialventures.com

Organization Country

Singapore

Country where this project is creating social impact

Philippines, DOR, Davao

Age of Innovator

18-34

Gender of Innovator

Male

Is your organization a

For‐profit

How long has your organization been operating?

Less than a year

The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..

Innovation

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Name Your Entry

Copra Trading in Davao

Select the stage that best applies to your solution

Start-Up (a pilot that has just begun operating)

How long have you been in operation?

Operating for less than a year

The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?

The biggest problem in the rural communities in the Philippines is the outflow of young people and educated people to the cities and to foreign countries. Philippines' biggest export is human labor primarily because of the lack of a reliable long-term supply of jobs in the rural areas. Most of the people in rural communities are small-time farmers with little income. As a result of the outflow of people, families break up and creates much social imbalance.

The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!

Since November 2011, we have created a program that allows small time farmers to move up the supply and value chain in their rural coconut-farming industries. We piloted with 4 managers across the state of Davao on the island of Mindanao to implement our program. As the coconut commodity prices are always fluctuating, we have equipped these farmers with the trading skills, business tools and trading capital to trade these coconut commodities. For example, a small farmer might be able to sell his own harvest for a monthly income of P3,000 on a good harvest month. However, with the capital and tools we have supplied him, he can collectively buy from his own community of 60-100 small farmers and then sell wholesale to the factories. Such community based group sourcing and buying activity can uplift a whole community by providing fair market rates for the farmers produce and create jobs in the newly created trading business.

The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities

The manager who we have decided to support will canvass for farmers in his community willing to sell their produce to him. He will then extend a interest-free cash advance to them in exchange for a contract to purchase their entire harvest in the next cycle. These farmers used to loan from micro-lenders to pay for their daily living expenses at an interest rate of 10-20% per month. We have radically changed that model by using the farmers' harvest as collateral for the cash advance. Upon harvest, our manager will pay the farmers the balance of what is owed for the harvest and store the coconut stock in our warehouses. Once critical mass is collected, our manager will hire a truck to transport the shipment to the factories in the cities. We have developed a business system for the managers such that they will be constantly aware of the change in fluctuating commodity prices and will not be negatively impacted by it.

The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?

Currently, there are no social impact investment firms like ours doing anything like this in Davao or in the Philippines for that matter. The traditional business in these areas are micro-credit or micro-loan firms which charge high interest rates of 10-20% per month, resulting in a viscious cycle of debt for the farmer. We have introduced an innovative sustainability model which can help uplift and empower the rural communities.

The barrier of entry is extremely high in these areas as someone else will need to find trusted local partners who are willing to believe in the vision and help implement the program. Integrity is always a major issue working in poor rural communities like Davao and what we have is a strong team behind us.

Social Impact

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This Entry is about (Issues)

What solution(s) does your initiative address to help emerging entrepreneurs and small businesses grow and thrive in underserved communities? (select all applicable)

Access to financing, Access to supply chains, Access to technology, Access to economic opportunity.

What has been the impact of your solution to date?

Our managers who were previously jobless are now running profitable small trading enterprises earning between P8,000 to P13,000 per month. They will be growing and expanding business operations over time. However, the real social impact comes in the number of farmers that are under their network. They each support between 60-100 farmers each and issue about P600-700,000 of cash advances each month to these farmers.

What is your projected impact over the next 1-3 years?

We plan to replicate this successful pilot model all across Mindanao which is one of the poorest farming regions in the Philippines. We currently support a network of about We plan to hire 10 more managers over the next year each supporting between 60-100 small farmers. Our total outreach and impact is targeted to increase from 240 farmers to about 1000 farmers in 1 year. Our model makes our business extremely scalable as each manager is in charge of his own region which can support a few hundred farmers.

What barriers might hinder the success of your project? How do you plan to overcome them?

Evaluating the integrity and business acumen of new managers is a long process of interviewing, training, apprenticeship and seed funding. The whole process takes about 4-6 months before the manager can truly make a big economic impact in his own community. My firm, Oceanic Gold, is improving its evaluation process so the turnaround time will be reduced especially when we build a more standard process for the training of new managers. We are compiling a set of best practices and lessons learnt so that new managers can get up to speed.

Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact

Scale up our operations

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone

Task 1

Fund raising of S$200,000 to fund 5 more new managers

Task 2

Development of a training and best practice package

Task 3

Conduct internal impact assessment of our social enterprise

Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone

Move up the supply chain again!

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone

Task 1

Fund raising of S$200,000 to fund 5 more new managers

Task 2

Develop a plan for a rural coconut oil mill so that farmers can supply us directly

Task 3

Get impact rated by a reliable and respected independent social impact assessment board

Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world.

My founder and I have been volunteering at a non profit microfinancing organization and have learnt about different social enterprise models and decided to develop an impact investment enterprise not based on interest or loans, but on empowering rural enterprises by develop a growth path for them. My firm, Oceanic Gold, was developed after much study and experimentation and is the fruit of much lesson learnt by ourselves and our peers.

Sustainability

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Tell us about your partnerships

Our partnerships are mainly with the managers who are free to run their own businesses within a certain set of guidelines. They use their community networks to help Oceanic Gold source for coconut suppliers. Oceanic Gold signs legal profit sharing agreements with these managers and dividends are issued to Oceanic Gold every month.

Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list

We need more financial investment to expand on our current operations. We are continually finding new media channels to spread our message which is poverty alleviation in rural communities. Market research will help greatly in giving our partners and managers ideas on how to collaborate better in the field and providing each other with real time market information.

Changeshop

This project also has a Changeshop where you can read more about its latest progress.
Go to Changeshop: e-Agro.

e-Agro

Created on 07/6/2012 by olufemi

e-Agro is a web and mobile based repository for information relating to agriculture. We pull together information from every stakeholder for all stakeholders. e-Agro is based on a global quadrangle of stakeholders where people from all over Africa exchange information, ideas, and resources related to the use of(ICT) for sustainable agriculture and rural development.

About You

Organization: e-Agro Network Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hide

About You

First Name

Olufemi

Last Name

Oladimeji

About Your Organization

Organization Name

e-Agro Network

Organization Website

Organization Country

Nigeria, CT, Abuja

Country where this project is creating social impact

Nigeria, ONG, Ondo/Ile-oluji

Age of Innovator

18-34

Gender of Innovator

Male

Is your organization a

Hybrid

How long has your organization been operating?

Less than a year

The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..

Innovation

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Name Your Entry

e-Agro

Select the stage that best applies to your solution

Idea (you're poised to launch)

How long have you been in operation?

Still in idea phase, but looking to launch soon

The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?

The rise in web and mobile technology has not been bought in the agriculture sector of Nigeria. Farmers and other stakeholders in the sector still have little knowledge about how much ICT can influence development in that sector. The availability of a repository where stakeholders can source for information ranging from crop cycle practices, market pricing for cash crops, diseases and pest control, and links to buyers is not available.

The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!

A common platform for agriculture stakeholders
A single, integrated information system for all stakeholders has many advantages. It minimizes the duplication of data and ensures consistency, improves integrity of the data, and addresses a variety of requirements. Although often quite complex, the system can be customized to ensure that the user experience of the system as relatively simple. Cost and time spend on maintenance is relatively low and the amount of user training required can be reduced.
With the use of mobile and web-based applications, we intend to reach the rural community, partner with other similar agencies and help influence a policy for ICT in agriculture. We shall begin with pilot projects and sensitization exercises targeted at rural communities in the south-west and south-east region of Nigeria. We shall also make use of social media tools to propagate this service.

The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities

1. A website is made available as a repository of information related to the agricultural sector. information ranging from agriculture statistics, updated price of commodities and tracking options made available in the 3 major languages (Hausa, Ibo, Yoruba).
2. The entire website is converted into a mobile application (cross-platform)downloadable via a mobile code. Individuals can subscribe for daily alerts on various information.
3. A SMS-based solution for people without smart phones, where based on subscription, SMS messages are sent in local language.

4. Provision of a call center in project areas, where fliers containing current information is obtained. A CD-based repository (similar to that web-based) is provided for areas with no power supply.

The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?

The project success is based on acceptance by local community. Currently, little work is being done by government agencies and other institutes. we however, see a greater partnership between government agencies, International organizations and relevant stakeholders in the sector.

Social Impact

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This Entry is about (Issues)

What solution(s) does your initiative address to help emerging entrepreneurs and small businesses grow and thrive in underserved communities? (select all applicable)

Access to financing, Access to talent, Access to supply chains, Access to technology, Access to economic opportunity, Policy change/advocacy.

What has been the impact of your solution to date?

Our Solution is still at the starting stage. Pilot projects shall begin in August, 2012.

What is your projected impact over the next 1-3 years?

A total impact of rural development in 10 Local government areas, across south west Nigeria.

What barriers might hinder the success of your project? How do you plan to overcome them?

Inadequate funding may prevent us from reaching our targeted audience. The acceptability of the model by policy makers at the federal, State and local government is important if we are to reach the nooks and crannies of South-west Nigeria.
Also, getting other individuals to partner with us in developing local contents will influence the level of success of this project.

Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone

Task 1

3 Pilot Projects completion in south-west Nigeria, with results shared via social media platforms

Task 2

Complete updates of repository for our web-based platform and continous update with current and real-time trends.

Task 3

Begin development of local contents (Texts and Electronic forms) for pilot project areas.

Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone

Task 1

Establishment of resource centres in selected villages/ communities

Task 2

Partner with major telecommunications companies to provide SMS services for subscribers

Task 3

Total migration of the web-platform into a mobile platform for smart phones, tablets, and symbian phones.

Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world.

I had just attended a conference on Social media for good governance, where one of the speakers talked about how Kenya is using ICT for rural development, I immediately see an opportunity to invent such in Nigeria. Nigeria does not presently have an active policy on ICT in Agriculture, and with the greater dependence on Oil, the rural community had being left behind. I decided to create a platform similar to what was already in existence in other countries, and I one hoped I will be part of the consortium to develop an active policy for ICT in agriculture. Since I had a degree in Crop, soil and Pest management, combined with my over 8 years of experience in ICT, I launched this project.

Sustainability

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Tell us about your partnerships

We intend to partner with similar agencies especially those already working in Nigeria and other African countries

Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list

We require supports on Investment, HR, and research since our work is based majorly on information

Tool Lending Library

Created on 07/4/2012 by kathy.w

To Create a Tool Lending Library to empower the Huu-ay-aht and Bamfield Citizens to take pride in ownership and maintain thier homes and community.

About You

Organization: Huu-ay-aht First nation Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hide

About You

First Name

Kathy

Last Name

Waddell

About Your Organization

Organization Name

Huu-ay-aht First nation

Organization Website

Organization Country

Canada, BC, Bamfield

Country where this solution is creating social impact

Canada, BC, Anacla/Bamfield

Region in BC where your solution creates social impact

Vancouver Island.

Is your organization a

Government

How long has your organization been operating?

1‐5 years

The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..

Innovation

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Select the stage that best applies to your solution

Idea (you're poised to launch)

How long have you been in operation?

Operating for 1‐5 years

Which of the following best describes the barrier(s) your solution addresses? Choose up to two

Access, Cost.

The Need: Describe the need for your solution and the size and characteristics of the community(ies) your solution is engaging

Our First Nation is a self-governing nation under the Maa-nulth Treaty. Our community is a semi-remote community 75 kms from Port Alberni. We have limited access to any services. Contractors are very expensive. We have established laws for housing regulation. Many residence have opted to lease thier own homes. The main goal of our innovation for change is to empower people to take pride and ownership in thier homes and community. We would like to develop a tool lending library where citizens can borrow the equipment they need to maintain thier homes. We would like to provide workshops and safety lessons so that people gain skills and knowledge to operate the equipment safely. People would gain capacity to maintain and renovate thier existing buildings and yards.

The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!

We want to purchase an Interstate contained trailer, tools (hand and power), yard tools, a computer, and small consumables like screws and nails. We would create a community board to manage the inventory. We would employ one person part time to be the person responsible for maintenance, replacing, lending and recieving back, and facilitating workshops. This traveling tool library can help because many people lack not only the skills but the equipment to do the work properly and safely.

The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include the primary activities involved in your solution.

A homeonwer would be able to fix up outside of their home to make it asthetically appealing and safe! Let's begin with the stairs that lead to their front door. The homeowner can borrow hammers, skill saw, levels and nails to work on the stairs. Replacing rotten wood and adding a hand rail. They would be able to borrow paint materials to help keep the stairs in good shape longer. The homeowner could then borrow a lawn mower, weed eater, wheel barrow and rake. They could use the equipment to tidy up and maintain thier yard. This provides the homeowner with pride in ownership of their home. It helps the community spirit and encourages families to work together.

The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others working to address the same needs as you and indicate what sets you apart from them.

There are no significant competitiors in our community. There is a small hardware store who would benefit from this project because people would need to buy supplies for their renovations. There are no contractors available in Bamfield or Anacla. The nearest supplier of these services is Port Alberni which is 75 kms away via logging road.

This Entry is about (Issues)

Social Impact

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Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world.

We were thinking about innovative ways to help people take responsibility for their homes. I was serching the internet and found the Vancouver Tool Lending Library (http://vancouvertoollibrary.com/) and thought "What a GREAT idea!! This idea could change our communities and empower people to get out, get active and improve their community!

Please describe the goal of your initiative; outline what you are trying to achieve

Our goal is to empower, educate and facilitate a healthier community through encouragement of pride of ownership and community. Independence and learning are promoted.

What has been the impact of your solution to date?

Our community is excited about the idea and many people see the potential for positive impacts.

What is your projected impact over the next five years?

We expect to see a beautiful community in the remote West Coast to be cared for, loved and promoted.

What barriers might hinder the success of your project? How do you plan to overcome them?

Barriers are obtaining a skilled facilitator to coordinate the project. We may need to help this person become an enterprenuer to start a renovation and repair business to enable them to sustain an adequate level of income. This may also benefit those citizens who have difficulty working on thier own homes (elderly, disabled, young moms). We will support the facilitator to engage in any activities that benefit the community.

Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact

Tool Library stocked and at least one workshop facilitated

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone

Task 1

Hire Coordinator

Task 2

Puchase Trailer and tools

Task 3

Organize community board and workshops

Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone

People will have cleaner, safer yards! Our community will be happier and healthier!

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone

Task 1

Facilitation of at least 6 workshops

Task 2

Demonstration of safe tool practices

Task 3

Community work bees to help those who need it

Sustainability

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Tell us about your partnerships

We will partner with the Bamfield community and the local hardware supplier to see success and to benefit a larger community.

Are you currently targeting other specific populations, locations, or markets for your solution? If so, where and why?

What type of operating environment and internal organizational factors make your innovation successful?

We are a successful self-governing First Nation. We have high degree of ethics and have strong policies and laws. We also employ best practices with regards to financial management practices.

Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list

Changeshop

This project also has a Changeshop where you can read more about its latest progress.
Go to Changeshop: Text to Change .

Text to Change

Created on 07/3/2012 by jdevroeg

What can mobile technology do for health, education and economic development? Connect, start a dialogue and create endless opportunities. Text to Change knows how to reach people in Africa.

About You

Organization: Text to Change Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hide

About You

First Name

Josette

Last Name

de Vroeg

About Your Organization

Organization Name

Text to Change

Organization Website

Organization Country

Netherlands

Country where this project is creating social impact

Uganda

Age of Innovator

18-34

Gender of Innovator

Female

Is your organization a

Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization

How long has your organization been operating?

1‐5 years

Has the organization received awards or honors? Please tell us about them

2010:
-Dutch national Transparency in the development aid sector (http://texttochange.org/news/text-change-wins-first-transparency-award-d...)
-Content Services award for best mobile service provider in Uganda from the Communications Commission (http://texttochange.org/news/text-change-wins-annual-communications-inno...)

2011:
-Nomination for Best Product, Initiative or Service for Underserved Segments for the GSMA's 16th Annual Global Mobile Awards (http://texttochange.org/news/text-change-nominated-gsmas-16th-annual-glo...)
-Remarkable Healthcare Engagement Channel Award from Creation Healthcare (http://engagementstrategy.com/articles/hes-smstext/)
-IdeasProject, Nokia and WWF's Award to Use Mobile Phones for Wildlife Conservation (http://www.texttochange.org/news/text-change-wins-nokia-and-wwfs-award-u...)
-mHealth Award for the best mHealth project druing the eWorld Jury Choice Awards in New Delhi, India (http://texttochange.org/news/text-change-wins-mhealth-award-eworld-confe...)

2012:
-Best Paper Award at the 3rd International Conference on Mobile Communication for Development (M4D 2012) in New Delhi, India (http://texttochange.org/news/text-change-wins-award-international-confer...)

The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..

Innovation

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Name Your Entry

Text to Change

Select the stage that best applies to your solution

Scaling (the next step will be growing impact on a regional or even global scale)

How long have you been in operation?

Operating for 1‐5 years

Which of the following best describes the barrier(s) your innovation addresses? Choose up to two

Cost.

The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?

Text to Change is driven by the belief that the mobile phone has become more and more affordable and accessible, also at the poorest level of the population in rural areas. By themselves, mobile phones will neither pull people out of poverty, nor propel democratic governance. Instead they are catalytic tools for enhancing and broadening development programming if deployed strategically.
Access to information in the developing world is a well-known challenge.

Text to Change plays a vital role in improving lives - even in the most isolated areas - by connecting people via their mobile phones. We also collect participants’ data for analysis, which then helps us to plan our campaigns more effectively. In this way, we are reaching out to hundreds of thousands of people.

The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!

Currently 80% of the population in developing countries have access to a mobile phone. Text messages are an easy, scalable, and anonymous way to gain access to people. This is the reason why Text to Change so strongly believes in the power of using SMS to provide and collect important information – especially in the developing world. It’s an effective and efficient way of reaching people. SMS can be used as a very effective campaigning tool because of the 100% opening rate. Also 95% of messages is read within 4 minutes in Africa.
TTC was the first of its kind in Africa, mobile phones had never been used before on such a large scale for health educational purposes. The success of Text to Change’s initial programmes in Uganda – covering HIV prevention and the uptake of HIV Voluntary Counseling & Testing (HCT), malaria, family planning, reproductive health and child abuse – paved the way for Text to Change’s emerging presence across Africa and other developing regions.

The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities

Text to Change conceptualizes, manages and analyses mobile phone-based programs. Our flexible and easily scalable mobile platform sends out and receives text messages, mms, voice and data. We focus on improving healthcare and education, stimulating economic development and creating awareness on environmental issues.
Examples of what we do: Interactive and incentive-based quizzes to educate people, personalized medicine reminder programs, data collection surveys via apps and SMS and price information systems for farmers. Our model encourages continued participation in our programmes and sparks a dialogue on topics such as HIV/AIDS, which are often considered taboo.
An example of one of our projects that enabled the empowerment of women is The Unicef Mother Reminder System. This project aims at improving the lives of children and mothers in nine districts of Uganda by using available technology to educate and mobilize mothers and families to demand for ANC and PMTCT services. The combination of field research, experience with past SMS programs and lessons learned from similar programs ensure that the implementation design is realistic; both technically and practically.

The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?

Most of the competitors of Text to change are focused locally or by sector. TTC has experience in several countries and in several sectors without underestimating the quality of each project.
-Praekelt Foundation
-Cell-Life
-Voxiva
-Dimagi
-D-Tree
-Grameen Foundation

Social Impact

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This Entry is about (Issues)

What solution(s) does your initiative address to better the lives of girls and women by leveraging technology? (select all applicable)

Access to health care.

What has been the impact of your solution to date?

Text to Change and Health Child introduced a mobile phone SMS campaign to increase access to health information and services among the rural communities in Jinja (Uganda). Through interactive and incentive-based SMS quizzes on health information and promotion. Already 60% of the respondents reported that they had come to seek for HIV Counselling and Testing services.

Health Child, a local organization in the districts of Jinja and Wakiso is supported by Dutch NGO Cordaid, and is currently working with plans to extend its services to other parts of the country as funding allows.

What is your projected impact over the next 1-3 years?

The project is expected to have the following outcomes: (i) the percentage of pregnant women who complete the recommended four visits will increase from 47% to 75%; (ii) women who deliver their babies under skilled care will increase from 39% to 70%; (iii) women who attend post-natal care services will increase from 36% to 80%; and (iv) the number of fully immunized children will increase from 41.9% to 75%.

What barriers might hinder the success of your project? How do you plan to overcome them?

In multiple parts of Africa the mobile phone conception is very bad, this has an effect on the overall service of the mobile networks.
We’ll improve our mobile technologies. We already combine them with radio. Now we work on campaigns with games, images and mobile internet. Soon our newly developed open- source interactive SMS platform, called vusion, will be launched. Which also improves our data collection, but in order to collect good data, we need to train our peer educators better. The failures that occured from our prototype, and after the implementation, need to be carefully taken into account and be solved.

Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact

We'll focus on better partnerships and positioning TTC more. Partnerships with the private and public sector with a global view.

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone

Task 1

In the coming 6 months we will work in 17 countries in Africa and South America and we’ll work on our global footprint.

Task 2

We want to focus more on the private sector besides our normal public sector contracts .

Task 3

Improve our mobile technologies, our open-source platform Vusion will be launched. That includes integration with social media.

Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone

In 12 months we'll work in 3 continents for 5 governments, 10 companies, 8 UN-organizations and 20 NGO's.

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone

Task 1

TTC’s systems will be available in all (local) languages, next to English and Spanish.

Task 2

We’ll be executing active sales activities in big countries like Brazil, China, India and Russia.

Task 3

We’ll expand from 2 to 4 offices; we’ll hire more local people and focus on training our local staff.

Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world.

Text to Change was launched in 2007, after Bas Hoefman was inspired by a documentary on the growth of mobile telephony in Africa. Bas Hoefman was a Marketing Manager, his sister was a Tropical Doctor and Hajo van Beijma was an IT-specialist. Bas and Hajo are friends since kindergarden. Mobile phones are now readily available at relatively low cost throughout the poorest countries. Networks cover the majority of the world’s population. Bas Hoefman, Hajo van Beijma and Marieke Hoefman combined their expertise and developed this brilliant idea of using short message service (SMS) communication in order to reach wide audiences on health related issues.

Sustainability

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Tell us about your partnerships

With a four year successful track record, TTC has experience in working with both the public and the private sector. Among Text to Change's partners and clients are the UN (Unicef, ECOSOC and GIVAS), governments (USAID, German, Dutch and English Ministries), NGO’s (Family Health International, Cordaid, IICD, Warchild, HIVOS, Twaweza), universities (Johns Hopkins (USA), Makerere (Uganda), University Utrecht (The Netherlands)), companies (Kakira Sugar, IBM, Microsoft, PWC, Clifford & Chance, Merck) and major mobile providers (Orange, Airtel, MTN, Vodacom).

Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list

BRENJONK Organic Village Development

Created on 07/1/2012 by Slamet

Brenjonk Organic Village - integrated solution for rural food security, economic development, and environment management

About You

Organization: BRENJONK Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hide

About You

First Name

Slamet

Last Name

-

About Your Organization

Organization Name

BRENJONK

Organization Website

Organization Country

Indonesia, JI, Mojokerto

Country where this project is creating social impact

Indonesia, JI, Mojokerto

Age of Innovator

Over 34

Gender of Innovator

Male

Is your organization a

Not registered

How long has your organization been operating?

1‐5 years

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Innovation

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Name Your Entry

BRENJONK Organic Village Development

Select the stage that best applies to your solution

Established (past the previous stages and has demonstrated success)

How long have you been in operation?

Operating for 1‐5 years

The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?

Some major challenge in rural communities are health, poverty, and environment.
In term of health, most villagers are not familiar with healthy eating pattern, not to mention healthy food/ go-organic movement.
In term of poverty, rural areas dominate the poverty count due to lack of job opportunity, market access, and knowledge development.
In term of environment, the use of chemicals on farming plots has caused serious damage on the water and soil ecosystem. Pollution has disrupt ecologiacal balance so that more and more pest and disease are found on crops, which in turn increase production cost.
All three problems are interrelated, creating a visious cycle of social problems in rural areas.

The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!

Our solution is increasing health through organic food and living and increasing welfare through community enterprise organic production. Particularly aiming poor rural families, Brenjonk introduce land optimation and organic cultivation in line with local potential. To serve wider market, we introduce internal quality control system. We also facilitate promotion and marketing of organic products as well as the know-how to the public.
Thus the solution is expected to break the three problems at the same time.

The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities

Our solution is development of organic village, and replication to other villages.
Brenjonk has developed organic community in various type of land, from residential, rice field, and non-irrigated

field. Some elements of our model are:
management of household organic waste - separation of waste from its source

production of organic planting media from the waste

construction of household scale organic vegetable greenhouse - as a do-it-yourself package that could be replicated/franchised

introduction of organic certification

facilitation of product promotion and marketing to retail and end user

development of organic village as a eco-tourism model for public - where people can visit, learn, and upon returning apply the knowledge at home. Students, farmer groups, and government institutions are also welcomed to conduct internship or training.

The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?

Brenjonk's stakeholder consist of market partner (middleman, supermarket, and end user/ consumer), local NGO, research center, local and national government, CSR department, and financial institution.
Our competitors are among which corporates selling organic products.
Brenjonk's strength is the strong community basis, rural communities that have benefited from this model in term of health, economic, and environmental aspect.
To compete we're putting effort to develop our production and market base, and increase effective knowledge sharing.

Social Impact

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This Entry is about (Issues)

What solution(s) does your initiative address to help emerging entrepreneurs and small businesses grow and thrive in underserved communities? (select all applicable)

Access to financing, Access to talent, Access to supply chains, Access to technology, Access to economic opportunity, Policy change/advocacy.

What has been the impact of your solution to date?

The immediate impact of organic village model is rural food security, how the rural families (particularly the poorest) have healthy and safe food stock.

The model also served as feasible sustainable village enterprise, which will develop rural economy, and in turn open

job opportunity. Particularly important is regeneration of farmers among village youth, resulting in creative young farmers. This will reverse the current trend where unemployment rate is high, young people are moving to the urban

areas only to find low wage position, and the village is deserted, as more and more villagers sell their productive land.

In the long run, the model will improve environment condition, as less and less chemicals are applied in crop production, and household waste is better managed. With wide replication of this model, organic production scale would increase, resulting in affordability and availability to serve wider population.

What is your projected impact over the next 1-3 years?

more village will implement this model, supported by policy on village or even district level.
go-organic won't be an exclusive movement of the upper class, but also the lower socio-economic class.
overall village condition will improve as the villagers eat healthy, increase welfare, and turn to environmentally friendly means of crop production.

What barriers might hinder the success of your project? How do you plan to overcome them?

The major challenges are competitors, capital, human resources - field staff and trainer for new communities.
Brenjonk's strategy to compete against large corporates is to organize end user (e.g. school, health centre, hotel, small retailers, and household consumers).
Financially, we apply an agreement with community members to buy the product on monthly basis - to help create steady cashflow. We also actively seek for other funding opportunities, such as grants.

Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact

Increased number of local consumer of organic products

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone

Task 1

Strengthening organic production basis in rural areas through household scale greenhouse farming

Task 2

Campaigning go-organic particularly to locals

Task 3

Marketing organic products to public, particularly of lower economic class

Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone

Organic village becomes eco-tourism reference and learning center for practical, easy, and cost-effective organic production

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone

Task 1

educating community by sharing skills and experience on organic farming

Task 2

expanding organic production areas

Task 3

expanding market basis, both for organic products as well as education/training

Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world.

Indonesia consists of villages with strikingly similar character in term of geographic, social, and economic aspects. Organic village is a model that tackle health, poverty, and environment problem,and easily replicated and adapted to local conditions.

Sustainability

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Tell us about your partnerships

Up to now Brenjonk partnered with local NGOs, local and national government, business sector (middlemen, retail sector, and hotel), research center, farmer groups, and financial institution.

Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list

Bussines Development

Changeshop

This project also has a Changeshop where you can read more about its latest progress.
Go to Changeshop: Nicole's Farm - growing food sovereign communities.

Nicole's Farm - growing food sovereign communities

Created on 05/31/2012 by Nicole's Farm

We are answering the question, who will grow your food, one Nicole's Farm acre at a time.

About You

Organization: Nicole's Farm Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hide

About You

First Name

Nicole

Last Name

Huska

About Your Organization

Organization Name

Nicole's Farm

Organization Website

Organization Country

Canada, BC, Halfmoon Bay

Country where this solution is creating social impact

Canada, BC

Region in BC where your solution creates social impact

Coast and Mountains.

Is your organization a

For‐profit

How long has your organization been operating?

Less than a year

The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..

Innovation

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Select the stage that best applies to your solution

Idea (you're poised to launch)

How long have you been in operation?

Still in idea phase, but looking to launch soon

Which of the following best describes the barrier(s) your solution addresses? Choose up to two

Access, Quality.

The Need: Describe the need for your solution and the size and characteristics of the community(ies) your solution is engaging

THE NEED(S) 1) Stable, long term, year round, living wage, RURAL jobs to keep families together & strengthen community. 2) Revival of intergenerational farming skill set: average age of Canadian farmer = 52. Limited entry into farming due to lack of access to land & belief that farming = low economic return. 3) Limited supply & lack of access to local, sustainably grown, year round fruits & vegetables. 4) Solution for increased consumer concern about food security & safety, genetically modified organisms, chemical pesticides, water shortages, climate instability, & fuel shortages.
THE "PROOF OF CONCEPT" COMMUNITY: Sunshine Coast (pop. 27,759). Accessible only by plane and boat. Local food production = approx. 1% of consumption. Employment & Economic performance below provincial average.

The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!

By creating profitable, sustainable farms on small acreages which combine proven bio-intensive farming methods & focus on socially responsible management, Nicole's Farm is able unite & uniquely benefit land owners, farmers & consumers by establishing collaborative, sustainable, year round food sovereign communities. Each new acreage is developed on underutilized land and acts as a satellite production location to the town hub. Nicole's Farm management matches landowner and farmer, installs farm infrastructure, and acts as farm business administration. Each new acre has the potential to create 2 full time “living wage” jobs. Project wide vision is the creation of green energy surplus, zero waste, carbon negative solutions to each new rural scenario. The project will also include the development and implementation of a hands on school curriculum component to revive intergenerational appreciation for fresh, local food & renew the view of farming as a viable career path.

The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include the primary activities involved in your solution.

THE MODEL: A network of sustainable farms on small acreages which supply
mainstream consumers through direct from farm to conventional shopping venues (grocery stores). Pricing is at par or slightly above Canadian organic wholesale pricing. Each acre engages in year round cultivation. Farm site prep and infrastructure installation takes approximately 14 days from fallow land to first planting. First harvest occurs within 30 to 45 days and each acre becomes cash flow positive Net 30 of first harvest. Each acre functions as a satellite to a community hub to ensure consistent quality and quantity needs of the grocery stores. The model is inherently scalable and upon successful launch of proof of concept farm and local network development on the Sunshine Coast, the Nicole’s Farm model aims for subsequent expansion to Vancouver Island & the Columbia Basin with mid term goals of growth through out Canada & the United States. We are also exploring the possibilities of contracting farm development & training services to the Not for Profit sector, specifically for food production within the Association for Community Living model.

The Value Proposition: 1. Community attachment to project due to local job creation economic stimulation through repurposing underutilized land. 2. Consumer appeal due to sustainable, chemical free premium crop cultivation with vibrant colours and high value presentation. 3. Revival of intergenerational appreciation for local fresh produce through high school curriculum.

The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others working to address the same needs as you and indicate what sets you apart from them.

The aim is to displace imported fruits and vegetables that can be cultivated locally year round.
The competitive advantage of the Nicole's Farm model has 3 main components:
1. significant opportunities for scaling of model in a growth market due to lack of mainstream interest based in long held but now obsolete view which perceives agriculture as an industry of low economic returns.
2. lack of effective execution in the average small farm model specifically: inefficient use of land base, failure of pest deterrent infrastructure, loss of skill set for organic cultivation practices in general and specifically year round production, absence of business knowledge for employee management and distribution chain development.
3. Relatable brand: Progressive, woman/mother run company

This Entry is about (Issues)

Social Impact

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Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world.

I have always been interested in food. I grew up wandering the rows of my grandparents' blueberry farm in Richmond, savouring the taste of garden fresh boiled new potatoes for dinner at their house after a day of picking, and awaiting summer's seasonal stream of all sorts of fresh veggies from my mother's backyard garden. At this point in my life, I have three young daughters. For the past few years, my partner and I have been tossing around the idea of growing food for sale, but life (in the form of a small but very demanding civil construction company), kept us away from our home garden for the last two summers. After a few less than friendly experiences while working away, our priorities have shifted. We would like our daughters to grow up in the community we were raised. Never lacking ambition, I have developed a very personal vision for my farm which I aim to expand to a local farm management model based on sustainable farming methods.

Please describe the goal of your initiative; outline what you are trying to achieve

The project goal is twofold: create employment opportunities for rural families so that they are able to afford to stay together in their communities, and improve a food system that I feel is increasingly poisoning our children.

What has been the impact of your solution to date?

Through social media and a considerable amount of favorable press both locally and nationally, my project has brought together many folks to expand the ongoing conversation around sustainable agriculture. I believe Nicole's Farm brings a unique perspective to the conversation because it is business focused first. I firmly believe that for profit small business has the capacity to "incentivize" people and build community at the same time.

What is your projected impact over the next five years?

2012/13, launch & operate 1 acre proof of concept farm. Prove sales & revenue projections. 2013/14, with backup of 12 months proven revenues from 1 acre proof of concept farm raise expansion/mezzanine financing through venture capital with coaching from mentor who has been involved in venture capital in BC for 20 years. Beyond 2014, grow the model by minimum of 10 acres per year. Starting on the Sunshine Coast & expanding to Vancouver Island, the Columbia Basin & beyond.

Each acre will:
1. create 2 rural living wage jobs as well as some ancillary management and part time jobs.
2. grow at least 20,000lbs of produce annually which will eliminate substantial food miles and reduce net global exposure to pesticides and chemicals that would have been used to grow the food elsewhere.

What barriers might hinder the success of your project? How do you plan to overcome them?

The biggest obstacle we have faced to date is raising the $60,000 in seed financing to complete the launch of the 1 acre proof of concept. We do not qualify for many of the grant programs available to non profit sustainable agriculture projects & the conventional business environment holds a misconceived perception that sustainable agriculture is somehow more risky than most other industries.
We have the land for the 1 acre proof of concept farm cleared as well as the equipment to complete the infrastructure installation & have the first farm operational within 14 days of funding. In addition, close to 20 acres have already been offered in the local community to expand the project. My spouse and I are slowly overcoming this barrier by self financing with any spare funds we earn.

Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact

6 months of cultivation

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone

Task 1

Raise $60,000 in seed capital

Task 2

Complete Infrastructure installation on proof of concept acre

Task 3

Harvest and distribute vegetables direct to grocery stores

Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone

12 Months of Proven Revenue

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone

Task 1

Demonstrate Financial viability of the model with 12 months of proven sales

Task 2

Proceed with Venture Capital (mentored by Bioenterprise.ca) round to expand model

Task 3

begin installations on additional farms

Sustainability

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Tell us about your partnerships

My business mentor has been engaged in entrepreneurship for over 30 years & has actively participated in the venture capital community in BC for the last two decades. This summer, I met multiple times with the Executive Director of the local Association for Community Living to discuss the possibilities of contracting farm development & training services to the Not for Profit sector, specifically for food production within their business model. In addition, I am a Board Member for the municipal Agriculture Advisory Committee and have taken meetings with the local community futures organization.

Are you currently targeting other specific populations, locations, or markets for your solution? If so, where and why?

TARGET: Rural Populations
LOCATIONS: Sunshine Coast, Columbia Basin and Vancouver Island because they all pose unique geographical challenges to food security, have low percentages of local food production and could stand to benefit significantly from economic diversification and job creation.
BEYOND: With the successful execution of the regional food networks mentioned above, we would like to explore further expansion beyond British Columbia and into the United States.

What type of operating environment and internal organizational factors make your innovation successful?

I have seven years of hands on experience operating the administration end of a small but highly efficient heavy civil contracting company. The ups and downs experienced while managing the company during a global economic recession have taught me to be resilient and steadfast in my business goals and fearless in my methods. This project is deeply rooted in my personal calling and the model is founded on the principles of socially progressive business ethics. They reflect my personal convictions and are an extension of my belief that we must "be the change we want to see in the world." The operating environment for the project is hands on, transparent and constantly evolving to meet new trends and opportunities for furthering sustainable agriculture opportunities.

Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list

NEEDS: $60,000 in seed funding will launch the proof of concept farm and provide for 3 months of wages and operating capital to manage the time between first planting and first harvest of crops. In the future, we could use some pro bono guidance for expanding the company beyond BC and internationally.
OFFERS: social networking and business development peer mentoring.

Greenlight Planet: Smart ideas. Brighter lives.

Greenlight Planet’s mission is to bring life-changing technology solutions to developing world households. We design and distribute solar-powered lanterns to villagers in rural India and Africa: remarkably useful products that change lives but are expensive by local standards and as such require more "push" in the absence of consumer "pull."

We’ve built a disruptive sales and distribution network comprising of massive, efficient sales force of trusted, local agents, who we call "Saathis”, who evangelize our award-winning Sun King™ solar lantern and build trust in our brand.

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Mobile Banking & Emergency Transport

PROBLEM
Pregnant mothers and their children are at high risk of harm during childbirth due to under-utilization of emergency transport and hospitals for complex deliveries in developing countries

SOLUTION
Harness the growing power of mobile phones and extend it to health and banking services in rural areas by integrating an emergency transport and insurance program into hospital deliveries. These programs will be carried out primarily through mobile phone applications.

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Kaslo Food Hub

Created on 05/17/2012 by aimeewatson

The Food System that feeds us is also destroying us. By creating localized food systems, we create sustainable communities while reducing our global impact.

About You

Organization: North Kootenay Lake Community Services Society Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hide

About You

First Name

Aimee

Last Name

Watson

About Your Organization

Organization Name

North Kootenay Lake Community Services Society

Organization Website

Organization Country

Canada, BC, Kaslo

Country where this solution is creating social impact

Canada, BC, Kaslo and surrounding rural area

Region in BC where your solution creates social impact

Kootenay Rockies, Columbia Basin.

Is your organization a

Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization

How long has your organization been operating?

More than 5 years

The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..

Innovation

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Select the stage that best applies to your solution

Growth (your pilot is up and running, and starting to expand)

How long have you been in operation?

Operating for 1‐5 years

Which of the following best describes the barrier(s) your solution addresses? Choose up to two

Access, Equity.

The Need: Describe the need for your solution and the size and characteristics of the community(ies) your solution is engaging

Our global food system is serving up a toxic concoction that is causing a health care epidemic, polluting our environments and increasing vulnerabilities for low income households to access healthy fresh food. In Kaslo, 25% of median income is needed to meet the basic Canada Food Guide recommendations for a healthy diet. If one is low income, that goes up to 50-60% of income. Our project started 6 years ago to work towards a food secure region. Three years ago we opened the doors to the Kaslo Food Hub which offers a diversity of programs to work at both ends of food security- immediate hunger and the long term need for a secure, safe and healthy food supply via a healthy farming community. Unfortunately, we are seeing food cupboard use double and farmers are facing more barriers.

The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!

two solutions.
1. Designing a cohesive regional Food Value Chain.
With two current projects, we are doing an extensive amount of research and have determined that a cohesive food value chain designed on a regional basis is the best tool to enable a more viable local farm community. Food value chains (FVCs) comprise all activities required to bring farm products to consumers, including agricultural production, processing, storage, marketing, distribution, and consumption. Models we are currently researching have a broad spectrum of applications- given each regions diverse needs and activities, we need to combine research from other models with localized stakeholder research. Retailers, farmers, consumers and distributors would be consulted to provide input into our ideal FVC.
2. A resource/job bank within the Food Cupboard. The intent would be to connect clients with potential work and other resources that could decrease their need for emergency food services.

The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include the primary activities involved in your solution.

Research with stakeholders would assist in determining the exact model. However, in our current research and ongoing activities, we have determined that there are four primary areas of need to create our ideal FVC.
They are:
1. Farmer support for market based crop planning, regional pricing, delivery/distribution, and input resourcing.
2. Retail support for collaborative distribution that provides a diverse bread basket with consistency in products and pricing.
3. Value added/Food Processors options for food system waste and farm 2nds that could be processed into value added goods for our regional markets. This would include potential for further income to the farms and employment creation.
4. Consumer support for cooking, recipes and seasonal eating awareness. This is a comprehensive activity that would work to align our diet expectations more with the local food production possibilities such as campaigns (facebook, Twitter) to promote foods that are in season with recipes, storage and preserving options, cultural history and overall educational awareness of our diets ability to assist in our ideals of a localized food system.
The design itself would be the outcome of this project and would comprise of the above elements. FVC's can be a variety of models:
1. Retail-Driven
2. Non-profit driven
3. Producer driven
4. Consumer driven
The design would be from a social enterprise perspective with financial sustainability included. Viability in the system itself is crucial to enabling a sustainable solution.

The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others working to address the same needs as you and indicate what sets you apart from them.

There are no other organizations currently working on creating a cohesive, financially sustainable food value chain for our region. There are organizations working on aspects that will be crucial to the overall FVC. Lakehead and Beyond Produce, a farming society working on the same mission of enabling a more viable farming region is working specifically on the farmers needs, assets and barriers. A current collaborative project with Lakehead is providing a large amount of research into our need as a food security program to look at the larger picture. We consider Lakehead allies and will be including them extensively in our work.
Our peers are all of the stakeholders in the current local food system, who will all be included in our consulting process.

This Entry is about (Issues)

Social Impact

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Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world.

Food security has been my passion as a catalyst for moving the world into a state of equilibrium for humans, the environment, and nature for over 10 years now. My aha moment came when reading about Ghandi’s famous quote "be the change you seek in the world". The moment I read that, food was the solution. Food is the one resource that is at the root of all things unsustainable; the health of the planet, many of the wars we are fighting- oil being a primary ingredient in the food system and our bodies. While the food system erodes away at our home and bodies, it is also the very catalyst that we can use to reclaim a balanced earth while creating sustainable futures. Local food systems that support local economic development, healthy food grown with sustainable methods is not only a recipe for better living, but could reverse the downward spiral we are on by reducing our dependency on a global food system that feeds us toxic foods while destroying all that we depend on for survival.

Please describe the goal of your initiative; outline what you are trying to achieve

Simply, our goal is to provide the tools for a viable and sustainable local food economy that feeds our region healthy, affordable food while creating sustainable economic opportunities.
This goal increases the health of our residents, the strength of ecosystem within which we live and provides financial stability for the region.

What has been the impact of your solution to date?

Impact is measurable on a variety of levels.
Consumer awareness
Since inception, we have raised awareness and education for our community about the importance of healthy eating and a localized food system. The demand for local food at the retail level has significantly increased since we began the Kaslo Food Security Project.
Environmental Sustainability
In 2007 we offered a two year program called Lawns to Gardens where we promoted, educated and converted 5 local lawns into gardens. The measurable impacts were:
Reduced emissions of GHG: 45 tonnes
Compost diverted from landfill: 1180Kg
Pesticides diverted from use: 4500Kg
Water conserved: 14, 859, 504L

Farm/Consumer connections
Bulk Buying Club members: 220
Total farm sales through our Bulk Buying Club(BBC)Program: $32,430
(approx. 80% goes to farmers, 20% to the Food Cupboard)

Food Cupboard
Funds raised from BBC, grants and community donations:$32,152

What is your projected impact over the next five years?

Our projected impact would be multi fold:
A Food Value Chain that enables:

1. Increased number of farmers in our region
2. Increased diversity of farm fresh goods available to consumers
3. Economic development of our agriculture sector
4. Decreased client visits to the food cupboard due to increased food security via increased farmers and resource connections for clients
5. The doors remain open at the Kaslo Food Hub with sustainable operations that continue programming for long term food security

What barriers might hinder the success of your project? How do you plan to overcome them?

1. Funding options- we will continue to apply to multiple funders until we have created and implemented a viable FVC
2. Cost of land for farmers- we will continue our work to acquire crown land to hold this land for future farmers
3. A viable distribution system- we will work at a variety of levels to incubate new farmers, mostly through our peers- Lakehead and Beyond Produce
4. The true cost of food- we have been under a false sense of the cost of food with our global food system immensely subsidized that when local food comes on the market, it appears drastically more expensive. Our solution will be to provide extensive education to highlight the external costs not seen at the till and work towards a FVC that decreases barriers for farmers, enabling more affordable local food

Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone

Task 1

Created a format for resource connections for food cupboard clients, regular input and updates of the resource board

Task 2

Created a regional FVC stakeholder database. Dates for consultations set with format for consultations established.

Task 3

Begin mapping our current FVC with flags for known gaps, needs and assets

Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone

Task 1

Reduced client visits to the Food Cupboard due to resource connections- monthly visits drop by 10%

Task 2

FVC consultations completed, inputed into database with commonalities and essential FVC pieces identified

Task 3

FVC mapping complete with essential elements included along with current assets. Viability of the FVC is now the focus.

Sustainability

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Tell us about your partnerships

The sustainability of the KFSP is enhanced by being a part of a larger organization, North Kootenay Lake Community Services Society, with access to existing office infrastructure and paid administration staff.
Local government has been extremely supportive in providing matching funds and hosting UBCM funds for the KFSP.
Lakehead Society is a strong ally and supporter of farmers north of Kaslo in RDCK area D. Their connections with rural farmers will be of great assistance in the project. Their active vegetable farm currently offers a weekly food box through the Bulk Buying Club.

Are you currently targeting other specific populations, locations, or markets for your solution? If so, where and why?

Our solution is targeted to Kaslo and RDCK Area D. The solution also accesses food (and supports farmers) in adjacent areas in order to be able to access a greater variety of foods, eg grain from Creston and fruit from the Okanagan.

What type of operating environment and internal organizational factors make your innovation successful?

The Kaslo Food Security Project is situated in rental space in the basement of the United Church. Walk-in coolers have been built into the facility, which has both an office and a large public area where the public can acess the Food Cupboard, the Bulk Buying Club, the resource library and tool library. The main NKLCSS office is just around the corner. The NKLCSS Admin team is housed here,offering a sounding board for ideas, and technical and editing support for documents. The project also has access to NKLCSS office equipment such as fax and photocopier, as well as data projector and screen for presentations.

Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list

Samridhi Agri Products Private Limited

Samridhi gives extremely poor families who do not own their own livestock an opportunity to build skills and earn a living through dairy farming. Each participant cares for and milks dairy cows or goats over a period of two years, during which time they are paid a dependable salary and earn animals of their own. Samridhi also maintains local chilling facilities to collect the milk and deliver it to wholesale buyers in nearby urban centers.

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Created on 04/2/2012 by sikizanatrust

Sikizana Trust fights for the right of the child and promotes education of the needy and vulnerable children. We have a rescue centre for abused children.

About You

Organization: Sikizana Trust for Community Development Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hide

About You

First Name

Cosmas

Last Name

Nzilili

About Your Organization

Organization Name

Sikizana Trust for Community Development

Organization Website

Organization Country

Kenya, XX, Mtito Andei

Country where this project is creating social impact

Kenya, Mtito Andei

Is your organization a

Non‐profit / NGO / Citizen sector organization

Your role in Education

Social Worker.

The type of school(s) your solution is affiliated with

Public (tuition-free)

How long has your organization been operating?

More than 5 years

The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..

Innovation

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Select the stage that best applies to your solution

Growth (your pilot is up and running, and starting to expand)

How long has your solution been in operation?

Operating for more than 5 years

The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?

Orphaned children and those who have been subject of child abuse then rescued and returned to school within the lower eastern part of Kenya have been facing descrimination from fellow pupils, teachers and to some extend parents. I extreme cases, such pupils have opted to recoil back to solitary at home or in the streets. Effectively they cannot access the government free education offered here in Kenya and poverty settles in their families.Those who hold on to their guns result in applying bullying and other forms of violence as a way of protecting their space.

The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!

Sikizana Trust runsa Rescue for abandoned and abused children and scholarship programme for needy bright ones from Kibwezi district in Kenya.

To create appreciation among the beneficiaries, we run weekly forums for the children at the rescue centre where they share their backgrounds freely. We bring together all the high schools students every Christmas holidays. The older ones start by sharing their live experiences to bolden up the new beneficiaries. These helps to eliminate self pity and appreciate that each individual has had his/her challenges.

We have extended this to schools where we continuously advocate for case by case handling of characters. Where the community feels that a school is mishandling a case, we are called in. We assist the teachers and pupils to analyse the child in question. We also assist the affected children to freely share their experiences.

The solution is continous communication among the school community and right based approach to education.

The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities

Role models' experience sharing - This involves identifies successful personalities within the communities who have gone through serious difficulties as they grew up yet they made it. We also identify others who at one time mocked suffering cases like orphans who say how later fortunes changed and how sorry they where.

Personal experience - Everywhere I go I share with parents, teachers and pupils about my childhood problems and how certain people identified with and saw the inherent potential and helped me through.

Friday baraza at the Rescue centre - This forum help break the ice for new comers at the centre. Older beneficiaries invite them and talk about themselves first without asking for response.

Christmas camp - This was brought up to make sure that all our beneficiaries had same holiday experiences.

Schools outreach - We go school to school advising teachers on right based education and the need for case by case approach to child behaviour. This reduces instances where children maybe evicted for issues they were not in control of.

Community education on children rights - Through public forums and radio programmes, we educate parents on the need to respect the right of the child irrespective of where the child comes from.

Story telling - Africa is rich with stories emphasizing on emphathy. We have initiated school based story telling during public events.

Audio video shows - This is the new phenomena that we seek to introduce here. We intend to showcase the need for children to put themslves in other children situations.

The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?

I work closely with teachers in schools and the children department. We are more of collaborators than competitors. Sikizana Trust is more so percieved as an authority in the field and so a point of reference. The main challenge may arise where schools parents and teachers may feel our intervention is not welcome.

Now that you have thought out your entry, help us pitch it.

Define your company, program, service, or product in 1-2 short sentences [136 characters]

Sikizana Trust exists to make sure each child's right is respected by all and provides education and rescue support to needy children.

Identify what is innovative about your solution in 1-2 short sentences [136 characters]

Innovation arises from the fact we are breaking social norms and local teaching practices that do not allow cross-age communication.

Social Impact

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This Entry is about (Issues)

What has been the impact of your solution to date?

We have reached upto 22 schools with a population of 7000 pupils with message of emphathy and behaviour change. These schools have ceased to evict orphans and disturbed cases. Instead they have initiated modalities of identifying each case by case problems. More vulnerable children are now sticking in school and receiving good care from parents, teachers and fellow children.

There has been reduced instances of bullying and violence in the schools we have reached. We are receiving reports from concerned parents everytime they feel a child situation in a school is not being understood.

What is your projected impact over the next 1-3 years?

We need to reach at least 36 schools per year in the next three years. We as well seek to include the participation of local district education office in the program so that they can assist in policy inclussion upward. The use of audio visual is going to help our rural population capture faster the essence of emphathy in schools.

What barriers might hinder the success of your project? How do you plan to overcome them?

The main barrier is distence from one school to the other. This might restrict our ability to reach all of them and for their experience sharing. We intend to instead bring them in central points using existing cluster structures when in outreach.

The other challenge might be uneaseness by the Ministry of Education as concerns our activities in the schools. We shall seek to involve the district education office in the programme to overcome this.

Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone

Task 1

Identify target schools

Task 2

Consult and hold a briefing session with the head teachers and District education office

Task 3

Identify role models to carry out our outreaches

Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone

Task 1

Train select teachers on behaviour change towards appreciating emphathy in schools

Task 2

Collect and develop audio visual material for sharing with children during outreach

Task 3

Review our activities through monitoring and evaluation

Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world [125 words]

Every December we bring our scholarship beneficiaries together for Christmas holidays. On the second day we hold a camp fire where I share my story of having been streetboy, a scholarship beneficiary, a university graduate and now the founder and Directo of Sikizana Trust. This opens the space for voluntary sharing of their background. In 2007, we invited guests to the camp fire. They included 3 teachers, an area administrator and my former teacher. The following day, the teachers called and confessed that they felt that they could have been mishandling desperate and vulnerable children without knowledge. They challenged Sikizana Trust to share our approach to all schools in the region.

Sustainability

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Tell us about your partnerships

I work with Out of Afrika in the Uk to sponsor rescued children at the Rescue centre. Bertha Foundation in South Africa helps us in core support.
Alliance fro Youth Achievement supports in infrastructure development including construction.
The government of Kenya supplements our feeding programme with relief food.

What type of team (staff, volunteers, etc.) will ensure that you achieve the growth milestones identified in the Social Impact section? [75 words]

Our volunteers have mainly been from the teachers fraternity. This will continue to be the case as ths domesticates the projects in each individual participating school.

Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list

Raising Youth Voice on Policy Through Debate

Created on 03/14/2012 by AJPRODHO

AJPRODHO is a non-profit, student-formed NGO working to improve the enjoyment of rights for youth and children in Rwanda.

About You

Organization: AJPRODHO-JIJUKIRWA Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hide

About You

First Name

Enock

Last Name

Nkurunziza

About Your Organization

Organization Name

AJPRODHO-JIJUKIRWA

Organization Website

Organization Country

Rwanda, KV, Kigali

Country where this project is creating social impact

Rwanda, KV, Kigali

Is your organization a

Non‐profit / NGO / Citizen sector organization

Your role in Education

Administrator.

The type of school(s) your solution is affiliated with

Public (tuition-free)

How long has your organization been operating?

More than 5 years

The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..

Innovation

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Select the stage that best applies to your solution

Growth (your pilot is up and running, and starting to expand)

How long has your solution been in operation?

Operating for 1‐5 years

The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?

Despite over 67% of Rwanda’s population being under the age of 35, their participation in policy conception, formulation, and implementation remains minimal. Many youth have become hopeless due to absence of enabling policy decisions to address their core problems such as unemployment, limited access to higher education and vocational training, and the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Meanwhile, youth have traditionally remained very submissive and fearful of engaging authority, due to 30 years of dictatorship and totalitarianism, including a government sponsored genocide in 1994, along with having limited government education systems to teach them how to properly conduct policy change, thus creating a culture with almost no youth voice in government.

The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!

This project will focus on scaling up the culture of debate in secondary schools initiated by AJPRODHO since 2007/2008, especially to rural schools. This will specifically be accomplished by focusing more on policy debate, so that these students are nurtured into active citizens of tomorrow. Policy debate shall greatly boost the interest amongst students to learn more on different policies, and even identify existing gaps in terms of policy to trigger debate for their enactment. Students shall be equipped with the relevant tools and skills to research, intelligently discuss, and critically analyze different policies as well as the ability to present ideas in a clear, organized and professional manner, thus assisting them in future political advocacy.

The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities

Our project model shall be implemented in 10 pilot Secondary Schools, 5 from Kigali City and 5 from the more rural Eastern Province. From here we will select 2 students and one teacher from each school, who we will teach debate methodology and advocacy during a three-day training seminar. We will use this foundation in order to start debate clubs in each school, with each in charge of organizing monthly debates on policy issues, as well as one inter-secondary school debate tournament. Overall, this should result in students’ views on different policy issues being raised and forwarded to decision makers through policy briefs generated through debates and endorsed to different stakeholders, along with initiating discussions with relevant institutions to promote policy debate in secondary schools. Subsequently, this debate program should help improve students’ political will and efficacy, as they learn about the government system, and how to negotiate it to a greater extent, within a safe, educational environment.

The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?

We do not have competitors as such, but rather partners on similar issues. An example of this would be Never Again Rwanda, as a local CSO that also organizes debates in secondary schools. In order to avoid duplication of schools, we have a joint committee to select which schools each organization should work with, along with discussing which policies have worked and which have failed with each school. There has been no challenge with this yet.

Now that you have thought out your entry, help us pitch it.

Define your company, program, service, or product in 1-2 short sentences [136 characters]

AJPRODHO is a non-profit, student-formed NGO working to improve the enjoyment of rights for youth and children in Rwanda.

Identify what is innovative about your solution in 1-2 short sentences [136 characters]

We create an environment where youth become empowered to both educate and advocate for themselves.

Social Impact

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This Entry is about (Issues)

What has been the impact of your solution to date?

Since we started this project in 2007, we have seen a significant increase in both political awareness and efficacy among youth participants. Students have begun to take a more active role in local governance and politics as they have learned how to peacefully and effectively advocate for themselves, thus taking away some of their previous fears of engaging with authority. Along with this, students have learned how to provide clear and easily accessible information to their fellow youth, as they write articles for AJPRODHO’s bi-monthly magazine concerning those political issues that most interest and affect them. This project has also allowed us a greater insight into the needs of youth in Rwanda, thus giving us direction in which to focus our activities.

What is your projected impact over the next 1-3 years?

Over the next one to three years, we expect to see a continued growth in student awareness and advocacy, as each school continues with their debate programs, while we focus on expanding this program to even more schools, thus reaching increasingly more youth. Similarly, the expertise among educators should grow during this time period, as they gain experience in teaching students debate. Along with this, we expect an increase in the number of youth-focused magazines available in Rwanda, as these students build their journalizing skills and realize the importance of creating awareness among their fellow citizens.

What barriers might hinder the success of your project? How do you plan to overcome them?

Keeping the schools motivated to continue with their debate programs after the initial six-month period provides our biggest barrier to the continued success of this project. However, this should be easily overcome as we keep in constant contact with the school, providing occasional funding support and lobbying for the continuation of this program. Along with this, the increased national presence these programs should create for these schools, as they win inter-school competitions and gain recognition, should help build a positive reputation around these schools and incentivize them to keep the debate programs in place.

Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact

Identification and training of students from 10 secondary schools.

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone

Task 1

Identification of 10 pilot secondary schools for debate programs.

Task 2

Updating training curriculum.

Task 3

Conducting a three day training seminar for one teacher and two students per school.

Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone

Getting students' voices heard by policy makers.

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone

Task 1

Organizing monthly debates for each school, along with a two day inter-school debate competition.

Task 2

Supporting students to package their policy briefs to decision makers.

Task 3

Organizing advocacy/lobbying sessions with the Ministry of Education to support debate clubs in secondary schools.

Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world [125 words]

Every day at AJPRODHO we deal with disenfranchised youth who feel as though they have absolutely no say in local politics and governance, especially due to the history of Rwanda. As such, we are constantly searching for new ways to help promote political efficacy and awareness among youth. Meanwhile, debates on policies have long been recognized as being an important tool for informing youth on policies, along with having them actively participate in the entire governance process. Due to this, it did not take much of a leap of mind to go from our more humanitarian rights focus, to attempting to empower youth to advocate for themselves with the formation of local secondary school debate programs.

Sustainability

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Tell us about your partnerships

With this project specifically, we are funded by the Rwanda Governance Board (RGB) and the European Commission. However, some other partners fund other related project, for example, Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), which supports a project to strengthen youth to monitor and evaluate service delivery.

What type of team (staff, volunteers, etc.) will ensure that you achieve the growth milestones identified in the Social Impact section? [75 words]

In order to achieve our milestones, we will have a small, dedicated group of staff members. At the top will be our Project Coordinator, who will oversee the entire project, making sure that all is running smoothly and reporting back to headquarters. Then we will have a professional debate educator to teach debate methodology to the students and teachers. Finally, we will have ten teachers, one from each school, who will be responsible for carrying out the day-to-day administration of the debate clubs, along with supervising and educating the students further on debate.

Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list

We could use information and mentorship on various methodologies of debate to teach the students, as our program currently only focuses on the Karl Popper debate format.

Raise Hidden Message of Culture to Educate Empathy

Created on 02/26/2012 by bimaesw

We increase interdisciplinary teaching material and process which connect among daily life, global perspectives, and deliver it with actively methods.

About You

Organization: Benih Matahari Organization Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hide

About You

First Name

Ni Ketut Sekarsanti

Last Name

Indraswari Palupi

About Your Organization

Organization Name

Benih Matahari Organization

Organization Website

Organization Country

Indonesia, JI, Malang

Country where this project is creating social impact

Indonesia

Is your organization a

Non‐profit / NGO / Citizen sector organization

Your role in Education

Coach, Other.

The type of school(s) your solution is affiliated with

Other

How long has your organization been operating?

More than 5 years

The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..

Innovation

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Select the stage that best applies to your solution

Idea (you're poised to launch)

How long has your solution been in operation?

Still in idea phase, but looking to launch soon

The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?

The basic foundation of character building (affective aspect for empathy) cannot answer by teaching process at school. It happen because of problems on :
• The teacher lacks on capacity of adapt and develop the teaching material. Most of materials write about theory and the explanation of theory is not fit with life in village and small city.
• Learning process that focus on knowledge aspect, and individual learning what build a competition among student.

The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!

Each ethnic have local knowledge, culture, or wisdom. We find, it educate about to do daily activity of life with respecting to human being and nature. We assume that philosophy (hidden message) inside the culture and wisdom is as empathy education. Besides that, it creates by the thought with future perspective of whole life.
The solution will explore and reflect the cultural philosophy into current situation and global perspective. Then, the exploring cultural philosophy will integrate into teaching material and process.
Besides that, we need to increase the teacher skill on writing to adapt and develop that material based on changing in community life local and global level. We need appropriate strategy and approach because it will implement for teachers in village and small city.

The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities

The primary activities and make this solution different are
1)explore and analysis the cultural philosophy which can connect into current condition and global perspective;
2)find out the simply ways to explore and analysis it, then these activities can apply by teachers and students itself;
3)benchmark of the teaching material and active teaching methods which develop based on the local knowledge and culture and reflect to students’ daily life and global perspective;
4)encourage teacher to increase writing skill and updating their discourse for adapt and develop teaching material.
5)create a tool to measure the teaching process will increase the empathy character.
All activities above are in the idea phase, and other activities below are improvement from establish program.
It is an improvement from existing activities :
1)integrate the topic (from the local knowledge and culture) into teaching material based on the curriculum;
2)interdisciplinary teaching material from several school subject;
3)encourage teachers update their discourse.
Other activities that almost same with other organization :
1)apply active teaching methods
2)connecting among teachers and students in several villages and small cities in Indonesia where have limited internet and news facilities.

The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?

We never say others as competitors; because we think each organization have their own specialization. The differences of us are
1)we always integrate the daily life topic into teaching material based on curriculum; 2)interdisciplinary among teaching material of schools subjects, consider several aspects that connected with topic, and interconnection between local – global perspectives;
3)interconnection between active teaching methods with teaching material based on the curriculum.

Now that you have thought out your entry, help us pitch it.

Define your company, program, service, or product in 1-2 short sentences [136 characters]

We increase teacher capacity on interdisciplinary teaching material and process which connecting among daily life activities, global per

Identify what is innovative about your solution in 1-2 short sentences [136 characters]

The teaching material and methods develop based on interconnection between curriculum and updating local knowledge, culture, or wisdom w

Social Impact

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This Entry is about (Issues)

What has been the impact of your solution to date?

The pilot project will implement in 3 schools in East Java and 3 schools in Bali. WE want to sure that the concepts are applicable. After 1 – 1,5 years we will promote it into other 3 schools in those provinces, and we promote it to our network we will implement it in their location. It is about 4 other provinces (Sabang/Aceh, Takalar/South Sulawesi, Majene/West Sulawesi, Lombok Island). After we get feedbacks from our network and revise the concept, we will promote it to other locations.

What is your projected impact over the next 1-3 years?

During the phase of teacher is comfort with new concept of teaching process, in the same time we have to strengthen the networking among teachers from several locations. The networking has to give benefit for teachers based on the collaboration between our perspective and the teacher’s perspective.

What barriers might hinder the success of your project? How do you plan to overcome them?

Several barrier might be face :
1)the teacher’s motivation is low, for it in the beginning we select the motivated teachers as team and the entry point of approach from the teaching process;
2)support from school as institution, for it we will show that the teaching process will give positive progress for school;
3)difference focus of NGO who will work in networking, for it in the promotion phase we will select NGO who already have partnership with us.

Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact

Show that the local knowledge or culture or wisdom is up to date with current situation and global perspective. And, it is appli

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone

Task 1

Identify and interconnect the cultural philosophy with current situation and local – global perspective

Task 2

] frame work on 1)integrate the updating culture above into the curriculum;2)frame work on adapt and develop based on local and

Task 3

create tool to measure the achievement on build empathy character.

Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone

Show the integrated teaching material can apply and get positive impact from teacher and student.

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone

Task 1

Apply and revise it in the teaching process

Task 2

writing skill of teacher for adapt and develop

Task 3

Evaluate the feedback and measure the achievement in build empathy.

Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world [125 words]

We delivered teacher trainings in several locations like in Takalar, Selayar, and Makassar/South Sulawesi, Mejene/West Sulawesi Bajawa/Flores Island, Timika/Papua, several places in East and Central Java. In each places has unique culture and differ each others. It disturbed our mind.
Finally, when we gave training in Sabang/Aceh, we found the communities still apply their wisdom to manage the marine. We looked it deeply, then we found that the philosophy of those wisdom really educate the respecting to the human being, to nature, and long term impact of human daily activity. We made a conclusion briefly that many educational theory about sustainability and empathy exist in those kind of wisdom.

Sustainability

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Tell us about your partnerships

Our organization consists of 2 persons. It means our ways of work based on partnership. We think each organization has specialization and expertise, that can sinergyze to encourage the progress of program. This kind of ways of work is important to promote our concept as well. And we have sustained network with several NGOs and individual contributions.

What type of team (staff, volunteers, etc.) will ensure that you achieve the growth milestones identified in the Social Impact section? [75 words]

Our staffs, several volunteers, and our network will monitor the achievement of social impact. The network is exist closely since 2008 until now.

Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list

Language Translation Interface For Improved Rural Health Delivery

Created on 02/13/2012 by kev10x

software utility that translates the labels of drugs and print out labels in a variety of languages as preferred by the user

About You

Organization: Inqb8 Technologies more ↓↑ hide↑ hide

About You

First Name

Kevin

Last Name

Kativu

About Your Organization

Organization Name

Inqb8 Technologies

Organization Website

Organization Country

n/a

Country where this project is creating social impact

n/a

Is your organization a

Please select

How long has your organization been operating?

Please select

Has the organization received awards or honors? Please tell us about them

References - Please provide two references with a two-sentence biography, email address, and phone number for each

The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..

Innovation

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Select the stage that best applies to your solution

Idea (you're poised to launch)

How long have you been in operation?

Still in idea phase, but looking to launch soon

Which of the following best describes the barrier(s) your innovation addresses? Choose up to two

Access, Cost.

The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?

The current health delivery practices to remote communities does not adequately address the language barriers and the limitations these place on the effectiveness and correct administration of the medicines and practitioner recommendations.

The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!

A simple translation utility that prints out the labels of medications and practitioner recommendations on the fly according to a selected language and /or format (example braille). The Utility will be a cognitive application linked to a web translation service.
Translation services are not perfect, the application will be capable of learning from corrections. These corrections will be submitted to a database allowing the nodes to collectively learn from each other.

The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities

South Africa has 11 official languages, The space on the labels of medication is not adequate to include them all.

HIV patients recieve periodical allocations of drugs. With this system. each patient gets the same drug printed in a language ofr format they are comfortably literate in. This information is the same but has taken into account the user experience and has allowed the user to be fully informed on the implications of the medication they are taking.

This wil help in eliminating distortions that may arise as a result of misguided translation.

The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?

There is a lot of work going into mobile applications for healthcare but i have not identified any applications that seek to deliver avccoding to an individuals preferred language/format

This Entry is about (Issues)

Social Impact

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Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world.

i was watching the news and i saw a queue for HIV patients waiting for their drug allocation. I then wondered how many of these people were actually aware of what the drugs they are taking are for and the possible side effects. From the images i saw, this was in a rural community where literacy rates are usually low. Medication is usually labelled in a predefined selection of languages which may not be applicable to all the communities in which it is to be distributed

Please describe the goal of your initiative; outline what you are trying to achieve

The goal is to help in developing more health aware communities by allowing the users of the medication to interpret the contents, administration and side effects of the mediacation they are given in a language/format they are comfortably literate in.

This will promote the safe administration of drugs and decrease the false alarms associated with expected side effects.Additionally, this will serve to protect the user from administering the wrong medication due to an error in the distribution system.

What has been the impact of your solution to date?

This is still an idea in the early developmental phase. It has however attracted the attention of my peers who are as enthusiastic about taking part as i am about developing the utility

What is your projected impact over the next five years?

This is hard to predict, I intend to deploy withing three communities quartely. This will include training, hence the impact over five years will be full deployment in twenty rural communities

What barriers might hinder the success of your project? How do you plan to overcome them?

The user experience is vital, The users have to understand that there will be imperfections and make considerations accordingly.

with each deployment, a training session will take place to inform a selection of individuals of the advantages and pitfalls of the system. This is in the hope that this information will go viral and gradually the greater community will be aware of the shortcomings and advantages

Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone

Task 1

Deploy a prototype for testing the user experience cognitive functions

Task 2

Expand the selection of languages available

Task 3

Deploy a pilot project with a limitted language scope

Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone

Task 1

Deploy more widely for larger testing

Task 2

Add support for more languages

Task 3

Develop a technical support system

Sustainability

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Tell us about your partnerships

i currently have no partnerships but am affiliated and associated with developers and Research students in the healt informatics field

Are you currently targeting other specific populations, locations, or markets for your innovation? If so, where and why?

I am currently targeting the rural and remotely located communities with low literacy rates

What type of operating environment and internal organizational factors make your innovation successful?

I am working in an open environment with no bounds. I also develop using open source software. This gives accessibility to a variety of open source tools that can ease the development of the utility.

Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list

Using cloth as a tool to open up taboo subject of menstruation..

Created on 02/13/2012 by anshu goonj

Making clothing a matter of concern !!

About You

Organization: GOONJ Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hide

About You

First Name

anshu

Last Name

gupta

About Your Organization

Organization Name

GOONJ

Organization Website

Organization Country

India, DL

Country where this project is creating social impact

India, XX

Is your organization a

Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization

How long has your organization been operating?

More than 5 years

Has the organization received awards or honors? Please tell us about them

• Nov’10: Listed in ‘Forbes’ as one of the India’s most powerful entrepreneurs
• May’10: ‘Innovation for India’ award to GOONJ..
• March’10: Jamnalal Bajaj CFBP Award for ‘Fair Practices’
• Nov’09: ‘Cloth for Work’ wins international Lien i3 Challenge Award
• June’09: ‘NJPC’ wins Changemaker’s Innovation Award
• March 2009: CNN IBN’s ‘Real Heros’ award to Mr. Anshu Gupta in women welfare segment.
• March 2008: ‘India NGO of the year' award
• May 2007: GOONJ’s sanitary napkin project ‘Not just a piece of cloth’ wins World Bank’s Global Development Market Place Award.
• July 2007: GOONJ’s first initiative “VASTRA-SAMMAN” recognized as one of ‘The Good Practices’ in Dubai International Awards.
• 2006: Win the prestigious Changemaker’s Innovation Award, the second time, for our disaster relief initiative ‘RAHAT’.
• 2004: Prestigious Ashoka Fellowship to Anshu Gupta.
• 2004: GOONJ wins Changemaker’s Innovation Award for its “SCHOOL to SCHOOL” initiative.

References - Please provide two references with a two-sentence biography, email address, and phone number for each

Prof. Anil Gupta, IIM-A, Founder- honeybee network and known for his Shodh yatra to find innovations across the country. E- anilg@iimahd.ernet.in
Tel.-09825014437
Prof. Madhukar shukla, XLRI, known in the field of Social entrepreneurship E- madhukar@xlri.ac.in
Tel.- 09431113764

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Innovation

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Select the stage that best applies to your solution

Established (past the previous stages and has demonstrated success)

How long have you been in operation?

Operating for more than 5 years

Which of the following best describes the barrier(s) your innovation addresses? Choose up to two

Access, Cost.

The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?

Menses falls in most neglected health subjects worldwide.One of most taboo subjects,it induces a ‘culture of shame & silence'.With a complete lack of awareness about connect it has with a women’s reproductive health,even the biggest health projects don’t have budget for sanitary pads.Use of Old cloth is most common worldwide,but due to lack of basic clothing itself millions of women are forced to use sand,ash,jute bags,old papers, dry grass to even polythene during menses.We have cases where a women used a piece of blouse and died of tetanus,a lady died as a centipede entered through the grass or many women lost their uterus due to infections!! Adolescent girls are worst;relying n their peer groups for half-baked information,also a major cause for drop out of girls from schools.

The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!

We are using old cloth as a tool to open up the subject. Old cotton cloth lying idle in cities is used as a resource to address this basic need, focusing on critical gap in women’s health.Clean cloth pads are entry point to generate awareness on related health & hygiene issues.In cities we are involving urban women,drawing on their instinctive empathy.Use of cloth;most village women are comfortable & familiar with & reuse possibilities makes it
viable.Sustained raw material supply is ensured as cities discards cloth frequently.This nationwide intervention starts with
providing physical product but stresses on changing practices, behavior
change,education & replication.Pad is developed out of old cloth
collected from urban masses. Made with highly indigenous process at
just INR 1(2 cents),cheapest in the world,this is also becoming an income generation activity for women!!This is like a tool to teach women the value of cleanliness and bring changes in behaviour & practices.

The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities

For last 13 years GOONJ channelises vast quantities of
underutilized material in urban homes to villages to address many
needs of village India.Clothing & other material is collected from
metros from corporates,schools,collages,institutions & residential
areas which reaches far flung villages of India
through our network of more than 250 grassroots partner groups. Un-wearable cotton cloth is turned into sanitary pads, reaching rural women through
same channel.Just by strengthening & spreading our present programmes,
generation, distribution & management of pad initiative is done
smoothly.
Four interconnected innovative aspects;
1. Providing better product; this pad get village women
to experience better product first hand, to feel the difference.
2. Behavioral change;Spread of awareness about health & hygiene
aspects tied to distribution of pads; bring about a long term
behavior change.
3. Supplying cloth holistically in long term: pad work is
implemented together with our other initiatives, ensuring fulfillment
of entire family’s clothing needs. Thus households have surplus cloth
available for use.
4.Teaching how to make cloth pads;village women are trained in
simple cloth pad making process so they can make it on their own as
also turn it into an income generation activity.

The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?

Practical,affordable & environment friendly pads are still
on experimental level in most parts of the world.Commercial sector has
not made affordable & good pads for masses therefore village India uses all kind of bad things.Few NGOs,women’s groups have taken this as
limited activity only for their communities.Products/programmes
developed thus face sustenance challenge as raw material & logistical costs make it unviable.There is no macro analysis of problem.Connect it has with serious health hazards hasn’t translated into comprehensive remedial action.Our is a regular,large scale,affordable,easy to copy/replicate,sustainable solution due to large scale people's participation.As we take it more an idea than an organisation or project, competitor are helpful in spreading the word !!

This Entry is about (Issues)

Social Impact

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Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world.

Many years ago in his journalism days,in Delhi
Anshu Gupta,founder GOONJ saw a rickshaw carrying abandoned dead bodies.
Bit shocked & intrigued he followed Habib’s rickshaw & started
spending time with his family to know more.Statements from Habib & his daughter shook Anshu
completely.Habib said, “In winters my work goes up” he found that
sometime he picked up 10-12 dead bodies in 24 hours,double the number
in summers!! meant more deaths on roads due to cold,inadequate
clothing.His 6 years old daughter innocently said -“When I feel
cold,I hug the dead body & sleep.It doesn’t trouble me, it doesn’t
turn around!.”This in India’s capital where people have so much stuff
in their almirahs & they don’t know who to give to. Later he found about a woman who used a blouse piece as sanitary pad & died of tetanus due to metal hook inside.Another women died in Tamil Nadu as centipede entered her body. This is how clothing and later the sanitary pads became a subject for him..

Please describe the goal of your initiative; outline what you are trying to achieve

Village Women receive less health care & education bearing prime
responsibility for dealing with hunger,education,health for their family. Struggling for everyday survival,they treat their own
needs as last priority.The goal is to highlight their high-risk behavior & empowers their health
seeking behavior.Exposure & interactions on this taboo issue shows simple possibilities available to them in their daily lives.By opening up the subject and debate in urban parts we are not only making urban women more aware but they are getting involved in making a difference in lives of their village counterparts.
The aim is to use this small piece of discarded cloth in opening up the subject,create awareness and promote a practical,affordable solution to the problem of million of women across !!

What has been the impact of your solution to date?

Opened up the subject,major impact on government's policy & NGOs/agencies work
Over 2 million pads provided so far
Production capacity of a million pads.year
Over 200 meetings held across India,talking to village women about the taboos and related health and hygiene issues
75 Display cum exhibition held in the villages,highlighting good practices, health issues,taboos and superstitions around this issue.
Over 500 collection camps held in metros to sensitise urban women and to collect material.
Production process easily replicable in any part of India or the world.
Pads produced without any machines or technological inputs.Entirely manual operations employing women from nearby slums in entire process.
Tonnes of waste cloth,which would have gone in landfill sites is converted into the pads.
Potential of large scale employment to the most marginalized women in slums/villages.Right now 25 women are employed full time to work on this.
People call it the cheapest pad in the word.

What is your projected impact over the next five years?

Impact will be on 2 levels-idea & organization level
Sanitary pad to enter in list of issues in Development sector.
Help people to scale up 5 more local solutions
10 organisations,replicating by starting local production & us focusing on mentoring & capacity building.
Intensify advocacy at policy level with national & international health & development agencies.
Work towards making PHCs to become hub for information and product distribution.
Focus on going deeper to remote areas.Given growing scale,we
want to explore more avenues of vast quantities of cotton cloth.For
self sustenance we want to work on idea of urban women sponsoring
sanitary pads.
Become a voice to make sure that commercial sector think of environment and disposal before entering deep in rural market !!

What barriers might hinder the success of your project? How do you plan to overcome them?

Communicating new idea: GOONJ started with challenge of communicating
simple but new idea.Here challenge is changing mindsets built over strong cultural & social dogmas.Women’s growing awareness about their rights & needs is translating into more discussion,debate & growing demand.
Risk of generating material;risk in generating material from masses is
in forward planning.We tackle it on different levels.Napkin cloth
sponsorship,export surplus,big hospitals,hotels & scrap dealers are
some sources we are tapping.
Tackling attitudes:of people who clear their wardrobes and give useless material which eats up meager resources. Others
seriously doubt NGO’s.The showcase of work and impact and use of social media has been very useful in tackling this

Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone

Task 1

Identifying 30 grassroots groups from among our rural partners who want to focus seriously on this issue.

Task 2

Make them understand gravity of issue & urgency of need.Train them on interacting with women on this taboo issue

Task 3

Putting up village level awareness exhibition, village level meetings with target women so that they take it further.

Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone

Task 1

10000 benificiary women gets 12 to 15 packs @ 5 napkin each pack spread over in 10 states

Task 2

100 Schols, SHG groups, PHCs come in the network to work on this.

Task 3

Target national/International media and forums to share stories and issues.

Sustainability

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Tell us about your partnerships

Our existing rural & urban network of partner organizations is
backbone of our model.In cities we work with
corporates,institutions & individual households.Every
part of society is involved in our processes.Our stress on services
results in wide network of transporters,suppliers etc. providing
free/highly subsidized services.Identification of reliable grassroots
groups is critical in effective implementation. We build partnerships
by talking to established institutions, existing network is of about 250
partner groups- NGOs, Ashoka Fellows, panchayats etc.

Are you currently targeting other specific populations, locations, or markets for your innovation? If so, where and why?

the prime target is tribal and rural population in the remotest parts of the country.People from a few other countries are in regular touch to take up the model.It has become a part of WSSCC forums and various other international forums.

What type of operating environment and internal organizational factors make your innovation successful?

This idea is familiar to beneficiaries;it is improvisation of existing usage practices with lot of value addition.Wide scale replication & spread has been possible given our nationwide network.Market products
are un-affordable for village women.GOONJ
offers them more appropriate option,preventing bigger environmental problem of disposal.Most ideasfail to reach their potential due to financial constraints. This programme deals with frequently discarded cloth in urban homes. Unlike other efforts for limited audiences this is nationwide intervention,stressing on education &
replication rather than providing physical product forever.It works
together with our other programmes addressing bigger issue of
clothing,in turn ensuring regular supply of raw material..

Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list

Turning it into income generation activity can be explored by women
SHG’s, micro finance groups & we share our knowledge & provide raw
material.We can collaborate with experiments in different parts of
India/world to better work & product.Going deeper in far flung areas
means rising costs;we need pro bono services & support to reach more
women.

Cellphone Based Hearing Screening for Newborns

Created on 02/12/2012 by ikarosilva

The aim of our program is to provide professional audiologist with a tool for remote diagnosis of hearing loss based on mobile phones and their networks.

About You

Organization: Sana Mobile Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hide

About You

First Name

Ikaro

Last Name

Silva

About Your Organization

Organization Name

Sana Mobile

Organization Website

Organization Country

United States, MA, Cambridge

Country where this project is creating social impact

Brazil, RN, Natal

Is your organization a

Not registered

How long has your organization been operating?

1‐5 years

Has the organization received awards or honors? Please tell us about them

1. Capita Foundation Auditory Research Grant
2. MIT MISTI Seed Fund
3. Brazil’s CNP Science without Borders Fund

References - Please provide two references with a two-sentence biography, email address, and phone number for each

1. Dr. Leo Anthony Celi

Dr. Leo Anthony Celi is founder of Sana and his current research projects are in the field of artificial intelligence in medicine and strengthening health care systems in resource-constrained settings. He is now on staff at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center ICU and the Laboratory of Computational Physiology at MIT.
Email: lceli@mit.edu, phone: (617) 710-3114
2. Dr. Trishan Panch, MBBS, MPH
Dr. Trishan Panch is the director of clinical operations for Sana, he is a medical doctor from the UK with an interest in the application of technology to strengthen health systems. He gained his medical degree from Imperial College, London and has completed specialist qualifications in Primary Care (MRCGP) and Obstetrics and Gynaecology (DRCOG).
Email: tpanch@mit.edu

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Innovation

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Select the stage that best applies to your solution

Idea (you're poised to launch)

How long have you been in operation?

Still in idea phase, but looking to launch soon

Which of the following best describes the barrier(s) your innovation addresses? Choose up to two

Access, Equity.

The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?

Roughly 3 out of 1000 children are born with hearing loss and many others acquire hearing loss during childhood. Delayed and insufficient language development resulting from hearing loss can negatively affect academic achievement, social skills and future employment. Most of these deficits can be avoid by the use of hearing aids subsidized by governments. However, while standard clinical methods for detecting hearing loss (such as otoacoustic emissions, or OAEs) are relatively straightforward, they are limited in use because of access to an audiologist. For populations living in poor distant rural areas, access to an audiology clinic may be costly and difficult. Thus, it is not uncommon for hearing problems to go untreated, resulting in safety risks or problems learning in school.

The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!

We would like to propose an open-source app for hearing screening based on OAE testing and integrated with the Sana mobile health platform. Once operational, diagnostic data obtained from the OAE test will be transmitted to a centralized medical database so that a professional Audiologist can remotely diagnose the hearing of a newborn baby. Results of the diagnosis is then sent back via text message (SMS), so that the family can know the results of the hearing screening.

The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities

The aim of our project is to develop free open-source software to help audiologists remotely diagnose hearing-loss in newborns. A specific ideal example would involve a clinical health care worker in a poor rural area or village (with basic health knowledge and protocol experience) equipped with a cell phone. Use our mobile application, the heal care worker would collect clinical AOE data of an infant’s hearing capabilities and transmit this data remotely to a centralized database in a large city hospital. A professional audiologist would then analyze the data and send the diagnosis back via text message (either confirming a normal hearing for the child or requesting a follow-up at the clinic for more specialized tests).

The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?

We believe the following people would be interested in collaborating with us:
• Government agencies: There is a federal mandate in Brazil and other countries, like US, in which newborns are required to be tested for hearing loss within the first few weeks of age.
• Hearing Aid-Agencies: This application would significantly expand the consumer-base for the hearing aid companies because this population is currently being neglected. Furthermore, some countries, like Brazil, may sub-sized some of the costs of the hearing-aid companies.
• Audiologist: The professionals would be interested in expanding their services to under-served populations (specially neonates), if we can prove to them that this can be done with good quality and reliably.

This Entry is about (Issues)

Social Impact

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Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world.

The Sana team came across this solution when they realized that alot of governments across the world require infants to be screened for hearing loss. Preliminary analysis showed a lack of tools in the current market capable of obtaining clinical data for an audiologist to remotely diagnose hearing loss. The team realized the potential of this new tool to revolutionize the way hearing screening is currently performed.

Please describe the goal of your initiative; outline what you are trying to achieve

We are trying to develop mobile tools for remote screening of hearing in infants with the aim of making hearing screening cheap, high-quality, and ubiquitous.

What has been the impact of your solution to date?

We have received several small seed money. Several institutions, including a Brazilian university is currently very eager to work with us in order to bring this project into a testing scalable phase.

What is your projected impact over the next five years?

The goal of the project for the next five years will be to publish in relevant clinical journals our pilot project along with an economical and public health evaluation of the potential benefits of our approach.

On the Brazilian operations side, we plan to scale up the project with our partner from Universidade Federal of Rio Grande do Norte, where the initial phase of the project will involve 2 Children's Hospital and several hundred newborns.

What barriers might hinder the success of your project? How do you plan to overcome them?

The commercial hardware for which we wish to collect the OAE from cost around $2,000. This can be a significant barrier when we attempt to scale up the project in an affordable way. Possible methods for overcoming this include:

1) Working with researchers to develop our own, custom build hardware

2) Securing a steady stream of funding to compensate for the hardware price through government subsidies, insurance/hearing aid grants, and private donations.

3) Collaboration with the providers of the commercial equipment for possible discounts on bulk sales of their hardware.

Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact

50 patient proof of concept pilot study and evaluation analysis

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone

Task 1

50 patient pilot study showing that our mobile app is capable of similar accuracy as standard clinical equipments

Task 2

Evalution of the current costs, and significant barriers for scalability of hearing aid tests in Rio Grande do Norte

Task 3

Projected benefit of our approach and suggested revenue model for sustainability of the project

Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone

Task 1

Scalability of our project to 2 Children's Hospital in Rio Grande do Norte involving 300 or more newborns

Task 2

Manufacturing of our own OAE hardware (or purchase of comercial hardware at 30% of current price)

Task 3

Build revenue system based on insurance cost for baby delivery and commision on hearing aid dispensed through our method.

Sustainability

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Tell us about your partnerships

We are currently partnered with the following institutions:

Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (Brazilian university)
They have 4 public hospital (Onofre Lopes University Hospital,
Ana Bezerra University Hospital, Januário Cicco Maternity School
Children Hospital) very interested in providing support for the scaling of the project.

On the development side, we have some audiologist from Harvard's Children Hospital willing to help us guide the initial pilot phase of the app.

Are you currently targeting other specific populations, locations, or markets for your innovation? If so, where and why?

No yet.

What type of operating environment and internal organizational factors make your innovation successful?

Organizations open for trying new methods and wanting to minimize costs.
Environment where the health care worker has autonomy
Good mobile network connectivity
Basic familiarity with cell phones and computers
Audiologist willing to try new technologies and an tracking system based on electronic medical record system

Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list

We are willing to share our open-sour software with anyone who thinks this might be useful for their project as well.

Pepsodent Dentibus & School Program

Created on 02/12/2012 by Naheyan Hye

Pepsodent Dentibus and School Program is a social project to increase awareness on the importance of oral health among the mass people of Bangladesh

About You

Organization: Unilever Bangladesh Limited Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hide

About You

First Name

Abdullah Mohammed Naheyan

Last Name

Hye

About Your Organization

Organization Name

Unilever Bangladesh Limited

Organization Website

Organization Country

Bangladesh, DHA, Dhaka

Country where this project is creating social impact

Bangladesh, Rolled out at a national scale

Is your organization a

For‐profit

How long has your organization been operating?

More than 5 years

Has the organization received awards or honors? Please tell us about them

Unilever Bangladesh Limited has been awarded by leading organizations in the country. It received the prestigious Daily Star Bangladesh Business Awards in the special achievement segment in 2004. The Bangladesh Association of Software & Information Services (BASIS) has also awarded the company for its role in excellent implementation of IT. HR agencies have also awarded the company as the best employer in the country on several occasions.
Internally within the Unilever world, Unilever Bangladesh Limited has been awarded the best operating company in 2010.

References - Please provide two references with a two-sentence biography, email address, and phone number for each

• Sami Ashraf
Product Group Manager – Skin Cleansing, Unilever Bangladesh Limited. He has been working in Unilever for the last 8 years in the Brand Building function.
Email: sami.ashraf@unilever.com Mobile: +8801730001816

• Abdullah Rashed Mahmud
Company Activation Manager, Unilever Bangladesh Limited. He has been working for more than 8 years and has cross functional experience. After serving the sales and the brand building teams, he currently looks after the activation projects in the company.
Email: Abdullah-rashed.mahmud@unilever.com Mobile: +8801714047211

The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..

Innovation

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Select the stage that best applies to your solution

Established (past the previous stages and has demonstrated success)

How long have you been in operation?

Operating for more than 5 years

Which of the following best describes the barrier(s) your innovation addresses? Choose up to two

Access, Cost.

The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?

Most people in Bangladesh do not have proper oral health & hygiene practice awareness. In rural Bangladesh, the most common format of oral care product is toothpowder. Few years ago, it was black toothpowder (powder made mainly from ash). These black toothpowder provided whiteness to teeth by “rubbing off” the enamel of the teeth. As a result, people would lose their teeth and suffer from all sorts of oral health complexities.
Often, these complexities would lead to other health problems. By the time they realize they require treatment, the ailment has already reached an advanced stage and the high cost of the treatment cannot be borne by them.

The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!

The primary objective of the Pepsodent Dentibus & School Program is to communicate the importance of oral health awareness, together with the proper oral hygiene practices, such as using toothpaste, using toothbrush, brushing twice a day, visiting a dentist, dietary habits, etc to the mass people of Bangladesh.
Dentibus is a bus equipped with all modern dental amenities with a dentist on board, which travels to the deep rural areas of Bangladesh to provide free dental checkups to the mass people of the country , who otherwise do not have access to basic health care facilities.

The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities

We believe behavioural change has to be inculcated from an early age. The best media to mould young minds is teaching at schools.
The Pepsodent Dentibus and School Program team goes to specific geographies of the country and approaches the schools in that locality. Then a team of dental experts narrates an interactive story to the students in a classroom. Through that story, students are taught about dental anatomy, common oral care practices – such as brushing with toothpaste twice a day, and avoiding betel leaf and other tobacco product consumption that may harm their oral health. As the whole exercise is done in a classroom environment, it is taken in as knowledge and accepted with strong credibility. Then a classroom quiz is taken of all the students to check if the message has been transferred. After the quiz, brochures and class routine stickers are given to the students so that the messages transmitted in the classroom are also available to them in a tangible form.
Post the classroom session, a free dental check up is given to the students at the dentibus and students with good oral health are given a certificate from the dentibus.
After the school sessions, the team heads towards bazaars (small marketplaces) within that community, where people gather for socialising. During these sessions in the bazaars, the whole exercise is repeated, only this time the target audience are adults. This way, we ensure when a child goes home after attending the Pepsodent School Program, the parents can relate to the knowledge being shared with them.

The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?

Currently, no other peers or competitors operate to address oral health issues and promote oral hygiene in Bangladesh. However, there are other activities carried out by Pepsodent such as oral health week where dental health camps are set up all around the country and free dental checkups are given, courtesy of the support from Bangladesh Dental Society.

This Entry is about (Issues)

Social Impact

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Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world.

The Pepsodent Dentibus and school program was launched way back in 2005. Back then, toothpaste usage in Bangladesh was very low and household penetration was among the lowest in Asia. The idea was to come up with an innovative media to communicate with the media dark rural population (due to very low levels of electricity penetration) of Bangladesh. Therefore, choosing any mass communication tools (such as TV or radio) wouldn’t have been effective. We had to physically reach our target audience. As presence of dentists in most of rural Bangladesh was very low, it was important that an actual dentist with dental facilities be present during the program. Therefore, the “Aha” idea was to have a mini dental chamber on wheels that could access all parts of the country. The power of the idea was immediately realized as its scalability and potential to be adapted in different parts of Bangladesh and in other countries made the idea even more practical.

Please describe the goal of your initiative; outline what you are trying to achieve

The objective of the program is to increase awareness of oral health and hygiene and conversion from tooth-powder to toothpastes.
In terms of what we are trying to achieve can be outlined in two ways:
1. Penetration increase of toothpaste and toothbrush
2. Reduction in the degree of oral health related diseases

What has been the impact of your solution to date?

To date the program has managed to achieve its most important deliverable: penetration increase of toothpaste. Since the beginning of the Pepsodent Dentibus and School Program to date, the household penetration rate has tripled.
In terms of qualitative parameters, research shows that students attending the Pepsodent School Program go home and share their learning with their family members (mostly parents) and influence their product purchase and harmful product consumption decisions.

What is your projected impact over the next five years?

Over the next five years penetration is expected to further increase to take it up to a respectable level. The project will also work to promote twice a day brushing, which is still a message that has not been well established among the recipients.
Moving forward, once the importance of brushing with a fluoridated toothpaste twice a day is established, the people will also be informed of other advanced oral health care facilities and practices they may avail to maintain their oral health.

What barriers might hinder the success of your project? How do you plan to overcome them?

Due to lack of funds, scaling up the project has not been possible. Under the current modalities, one person becomes the recipient of the project once every 2 - 3 years. However, for a message to be firmly established in a person's mind, it has to be repetitively communicated.
The current project infrastructure and funding does not allow for such an expansion.
Support is being actively sought from government and non government organizations to help scale up the project or to come up with similar projects. However, to date, no support has been received and the entire project is being funded by Unilever Bangladesh Limited alone.

Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact

Reaching 1 million people all over Bangladesh within 6 months with a multiple contact modality.

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone

Task 1

Develop a communication platform to ensure multiple contact is possible.

Task 2

Increasing the number of teams by developing new human resource to ensure quantitative target of 1 million people is contacted.

Task 3

Developing modalities to enter people's homes to deliver the message, rather than delivering at in public places.

Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone

Penetration increase of toothpaste and toothbrush

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone

Task 1

Scaling up the project with the introduction of further teams and 2 additional Dentibuses.

Task 2

Going beyond schools and bazaars to other educational institutes (such as - madrasah, orphanages, etc) and places of work

Task 3

Ensuring availability of affordable toothpaste and toothbrush to generate trial

Sustainability

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Tell us about your partnerships

Pepsodent is the only oral care brand recommended by Bangladesh Dental Society and recognized by FDI – World Dental Federation.
Through partnerships with Bangladesh Dental Society, Pepsodent has been working for over a decade to improve oral health and hygiene in Bangladesh.

Are you currently targeting other specific populations, locations, or markets for your innovation? If so, where and why?

The geographic scope of this project is currently limited to Bangladesh only. However, we strongly feel the model can be easily adapted across countries and for various causes (other than oral health & hygiene) with minimal effort.

What type of operating environment and internal organizational factors make your innovation successful?

The existing team have a very good understanding of the specific region wise requirements of the project by gathering the experience over the years. Also, they have developed a very good network with the schools all around Bangladesh making it accessible for the project in the future.

Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list

The biggest offer from our end is the experience, which we have accumulated over the years in running this project. Moreover, research data relevant to Pepsodent Dentibus and School Program can also be shared, which will help to clarify the impact of the project.
With established modalities, the marketing plan to promote the project can also be easily adapted.

Changeshop

This project also has a Changeshop where you can read more about its latest progress.
Go to Changeshop: OneHeartWW.

OneHeartWW

Created on 02/7/2012 by OneHeartWW

OHW saves lives of women and children in rural, underserved communities. We focus on education and training in maternal child health and facility improvements.

About You

Organization: One Heart World-Wide Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hide

About You

First Name

Arlene

Last Name

Samen

About Your Organization

Organization Name

One Heart World-Wide

Organization Website

Organization Country

United States, CA, San Francisco, San Francisco County

Country where this project is creating social impact

Nepal, XX, Dolpa Do

Is your organization a

Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization

How long has your organization been operating?

More than 5 years

Has the organization received awards or honors? Please tell us about them

Arlene Samen, One Heart World-Wide Founder and President, has received many awards, including being selected one of the 50 Unsung Heroes for Acts of Compassion in 2001, a Soroptomist Women Making a Difference Award and as a CNN “Hero” of the week in 2008. In 2009, she was a Rainer Arnhold Fellow with the Mulago Foundation and is a current member of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI). On June 4th, 2011 she was a TEDxSF guest speaker.

References - Please provide two references with a two-sentence biography, email address, and phone number for each

Ann Down is the founder of good works - she has known and supported ohw since we started. Over the years her foundation has been one of our biggest funding agencies. She is very familiar with our operations and with Arlene

anndown@yahoo.com

Tim Dye is a Professor Obstetrics at the University of Hawaii. He has been collaborating with us on research projects in Tibet and is currently developing a collaborating agreement for us to partner with University of Hawaii in Nepal

dyet@hawaii.edu
585-758-7812

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Innovation

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Select the stage that best applies to your solution

Scaling (the next step will be growing impact on a regional or even global scale)

How long have you been in operation?

Operating for more than 5 years

Which of the following best describes the barrier(s) your innovation addresses? Choose up to two

Access, Cost.

The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?

Every year, half a million women die in pregnancy and childbirth, 4 million infants are stillborn and another 4 million will die before they are one month old. Death rates of women and children in remote districts of northwestern Nepal are among the highest in the world. Up to one in twenty mothers and one of three newborns do not survive childbirth. To date no other organization has been able to deliver a sustainable maternal child health program to these areas. One Heart World-Wide (OHW) is seeking to implement a comprehensive maternal child health program through its Network of Safety model in ten of the least developed and underserved districts in northwestern Nepal.

The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!

OHW has established the Network of Safety, an effective, replicable and sustainable model to reduce preventable deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth among vulnerable indigenous populations. The OHW model improves the health and wellbeing of pregnant women and newborns that may not otherwise have access to health services due to socio-cultural barriers, limited personal resources, or living in remote locations. Essential to the OHW model are integration of local resources, collaboration with local communities and providers, and respect for cultural norms and practices. The Network of Safety is a community-based participatory model aiming to build local capacity (training and equipment) at various levels. OHW works simultaneously with local communities and local health care providers to raise awareness, teach good practices and distribute essential supplies to ensure that mothers and babies survive pregnancy, delivery, and the first months of life.

The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities

Though she is only 15 years old, Victoria Cienega Castro has already been helping mothers in her community. She joined the OHW Network of Safety to help her realize her dream of nursing. As one of the volunteers we have trained, Victoria serves an area consisting of 13 communities. Victoria currently oversees 6 pregnant women. She gives them safe motherhood messages during and after pregnancy, prenatal vitamins, and clean birth kits. OHW provides Victoria with training and equipment to be able to measure blood pressure and heart rate, as well as recognize the danger signs of pregnancy and delivery before a complication occurs. At this point, Victoria is the only consistent medically trained person in her community. With the skills she has learned, she has helped evacuate a pregnant woman with preeclampsia and a baby with complications. Since her training, Victoria has attended two deliveries for mothers who could not reach the clinic on time. Victoria told us, "we had to walk two hours to reach her only to find it was too late and she had to deliver at home." Because of the unsanitary conditions the mother was in, Victoria had to use OHW's clean birth kit. "Her delivery was successful without any complications," she said to us proudly. Victoria's community admires her dedication to her people. Our model has allowed Victoria to contribute to her community, educate people about proper maternal health practices, and ultimately - save lives.

The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?

There are a number of organizations working to reduce infant and maternal mortality rates. What sets us apart is that we are working where no one else dares, and where need is the greatest. While more accesible areas are saturated with Maternal Child Health programs, the populations we target are hard to reach and therefore often forgotten by similar MCH intervention programs. Our model has been proven to be successful, replicable and sustainable.
Competition over funding sources would be the only challenge that our peers might pose. However, OHW does not see these organizations as threats to our success, as we are all working toward the same goal - to provide every woman with a safe birth experience and to help infants survive childbirth and the first months of life.

This Entry is about (Issues)

Social Impact

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Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world.

In 1997, Arlene Samen had a life-changing encounter with the Dalai Lama. He asked Arlene to help the many women and infants who were dying in childbirth. In her travels she learned about the plight of pregnant women and newborns in developing countries and in particular Tibet, where one out of ten newborns died due to preventable causes. She set out on a mission to understand the local traditions, religious, and cultural beliefs in order to develop a culturally sensitive model to reduce maternal and infant mortality. Soon after her meeting with the Dalai Lama, she founded One H.E.A.R.T (Health Education And Research in Tibet) and set up a model in which community members, health care professionals, and new mothers were trained in life-saving skills and taught safe birthing practices in rural, underserved areas of Tibet. After ten years of successfully working in Tibet, Arlene and OHW expanded their programs into remote regions of Nepal and Mexico.

Please describe the goal of your initiative; outline what you are trying to achieve

One Heart’s longterm goal is to expand our culturally sensitive and sustainable Network of Safety model beyond our current project locations to other regions of Mexico and Nepal and to other regions of the world where populations lack access to care for pregnancy and delivery services. The Nepali and Mexican governments have shown a keen interest in a wider implementation of the Network of Safety within their borders. The Nepali government has recently approached One Heart to incorporate their Newborn and Birth Preparedness Packages within the Network of Safety and as a result, One Heart is poised to make a significant difference by allowing the Nepali Government to reach their Millennium Development Goals in maternal child health for the Baglung and Dolpa Districts.

What has been the impact of your solution to date?

During our time in Tibet, One Heart experienced a number of significant successes. In collaboration with the local Health Bureau, One Heart was able to decrease unattended home births from 85% to 20% over the last ten years, mostly by ensuring the presence of a skilled attendant at delivery. In 2008, in the two counties where One Heart was working, the Lhasa Prefecture Health Bureau reported no maternal deaths and newborn death rates dropped from 10% to 3%, over the 10 years since the start of our project. In 2008, to ensure long-term program sustainability, One Heart turned over the responsibility of continuing our life-saving programs to our local Tibetan team. This group of dedicated and well-trained Tibetan colleagues have established themselves as the Lhasa Prefecture Maternal Child Health Association (LPMCHA) and registered as a local non-profit organization. To this day, the LPMCHA successfully continues to implement One Heart programs and models in Tibet.

What is your projected impact over the next five years?

Our projected impact is to reduce maternal mortality by 50% in our program areas. OHW will work to improve the knowledge, skills and attitudes of volunteer trainees. We want to implement community outreach programs by trained FCHW. FCHW will distribute educational materials, clean birth kits and prenatal supplement to pregnant women. Certified volunteers and professionals will increase prenatal visits and the number of women taking prenatal supplements by 30%. We hope to increase by 20% the presence of a skilled birth attendant during delivery. We want to increase the number of women delivering with a clean and safe birth kit by 50% (among home births). We hope to meet 2015 MGDs in maternal health in all of our districts.

What barriers might hinder the success of your project? How do you plan to overcome them?

Political uprisings and working in remote areas and can hinder the success of our projects. In 2008, due to governmental issues, OHW had to leave Tibet. The sustainability of our model allowed us to overcome this obstacle. Our local Tibetan staff and volunteers were able to use our programs to form their own NGO and to this day they continue to implement our model through the infrastructure we left behind. We work in some of the most remote areas of the world, the Himalayas in Nepal and the Copper Canyons in Mexico. To deal with the remoteness of these areas, we have set up health clinics nearby so that medical supplies and treatment are more readily accessible. We provide immediate transportation units and trained staff to assist in emergency evacuations of distressed pregnant women.

Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact

Expand our reach by increasing the number of trained health workers/volunteers

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone

Task 1

Train community health workers

Task 2

Train Skilled Birth Attendants (SBA)

Task 3

Train referral hospital staff

Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone

Increase skilled attendance at birth

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone

Task 1

Implement community outreach program

Task 2

Equip accessible birthing centers and place the trained Skilled Birth Attendants

Task 3

Provide support to trained Skilled Birth Attendants

Sustainability

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Tell us about your partnerships

One Heart World-Wide has been a member of the Clinton Global Initiative since 2009. Other partners include Direct Relief International, Global Healing Foundation, Good Works Foundation, Jasmine Charitable Trust, The Greenbaum Foundation, The Mulago Foundation, The Bridge Fund, Ashton Family Foundation, George Family Foundation, Barry Hershey Family Foundation, Vitamin Angels, Conservation Food and Health, The Tides Foundation, Rancho Feliz, JNF, Ronald Mcdonald House Charities, among others. Previous donors include March of Dimes, CDC, and the US State Department.

Are you currently targeting other specific populations, locations, or markets for your innovation? If so, where and why?

In 2011 the Nepali Ministry of Health asked us to expand our Network of Safety to areas of western Nepal where there is an unequal distribution of MCH interventions. In the most remote areas, the need for intervention remains high. The 11 districts selected have the worst MCH care indicators in all of Nepal. In Mexico, the region in which we currently work has maternal and infant mortality rates nearly ten times higher that of the rest of Mexico. We have been asked to expand our programs there to neighboring municipalities. In China and Liberia we have been asked to consult on MCH projects.

What type of operating environment and internal organizational factors make your innovation successful?

Our team is comprised of a combination of doctors, nurses, public health scientists and administrators. Under the guidance of our talented in-country program managers, our local staff in each of our sites make our programs successful. Our growing network of community health workers and volunteer health professionals make our work possible by bringing our program model into communities nestled deep in the most remote regions of the Himalayan Foothills and the Canyons of the Sierra Madre in Mexico. Our President, Founder and CEO and COO are able to perform their duties from the US knowing that their programs are running smoothly on the ground. Cultural sensitivity is important for all involved as each program is developed specifically to meet the needs of the population being addressed.

Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list

We offer technical assistance to organizations that wish to implement our model within their own programs. We share our innovation, ideas, and research with interested partners. We are always open forming new partnerships that will benefit vulnerable populations of women and infants. We also continue to incorporate new innovations in technology and medical equipment into our program model.

Babalung Apnea Monitor

Created on 02/4/2012 by BreathAlert

50% of premature babies will stop breathing at night. We have designed a $20 monitor to detect neonatal apnea, suitable for the developing world.

About You

Organization: Breath Alert Team, Rice University Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hide

About You

First Name

Jordan

Last Name

Schermerhorn

About Your Organization

Organization Name

Breath Alert Team, Rice University

Organization Website

Organization Country

United States, TX, Houston, Harris County

Country where this project is creating social impact

Malawi, XX, Namitete

Is your organization a

Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization

How long has your organization been operating?

Less than a year

Has the organization received awards or honors? Please tell us about them

2nd place, Rice Alliance Business Pitch Competition

References - Please provide two references with a two-sentence biography, email address, and phone number for each

1. Dr. Maria Oden, moden@rice.edu, 713-348-4156. Professor in the Practice of Engineering at Rice University, Director of Oshmann Engineering Design Kitchen.

2. Dr. Gary Woods, gary.woods@rice.edu, 713-348-3599. Professor in the Practice, Electrical Engineering, Rice University.

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Innovation

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Select the stage that best applies to your solution

Idea (you're poised to launch)

How long have you been in operation?

Still in idea phase, but looking to launch soon

Which of the following best describes the barrier(s) your innovation addresses? Choose up to two

Cost, Quality.

The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?

Apnea is common in premature infants, who often lack the neurological and muscular development to breathe correctly on their own. Maternal malnutrition is a major risk factor for premature delivery, and nearly half of 12 million premature babies born in developing countries experience apneic episodes. Monitors used in hospitals the United States are power-intensive and extraordinarily expensive, leaving primary health care centers in the developing world relying on nurses to keep vigil. Major cost, power, and personnel constraints in these settings motivated a desire to develop a simple way to tackle this problem at a ward-based level with the dual purpose of easing the burden on overworked healthcare professionals and providing long-term patient respiratory data to doctors.

The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!

Our team has constructed a durable prototype capable of detecting apnea in premature infants for under $20, powered by self-sustaining RFID technology. The Babalung monitor combines diagnosis and treatment, including a stimulatory element intended to automatically stir the baby out of the apneic episode without professional intervention. Radio integration automatically logs hourly respiratory rates and instances of abnormal breathing, accessible by a mobile phone.

The modification central to our vital signs monitor is an automated treatment response to irregular breathing. Respiratory distress in premature infants usually results from neurological underdevelopment; our light vibration system activates a more conscious response, comparable to the current treatment of having a nurse tap the foot. The combination of diagnosis, treatment, and data collection saves lives while conserving the valuable time of nursing staffs strained far beyond capacity.

The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities

Oxygen deprivation for neonates has significant long-term consequence. In addition to serving as an indicator for sudden infant death syndrome, regular apneic episodes in neonates force the heart to work harder, often causing cor pulmonale (failure of the right side of the heart). More burdensome effects are compiled under the umbrella term "failure to thrive": an inability to meet physical and mental developmental milestones strongly associated with poverty later on in life.

These episodes frequently go undetected, as current diagnosis relies on constant observation - impossible in busy wards with such tremendously low nurse-to-patient ratios. Giving nurses the ability to identify infants in respiratory distress allows for patient triage, and logging respiratory rate automatically allows doctors and nurses to track a patient's growth and disease progress over time.

Our solution will also make a significant difference in the mental health of neonatal nurses. Respiratory rate is usually logged by observation: a nurse will examine a baby for 60 seconds, counting breaths. With 35 patients per nurse, this task is grossly unfeasible to complete on an hourly basis. By providing an system to log data they typically do by hand, they can focus on other aspects of their jobs while feeling a sense of greater security regarding the health of their patients.

The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?

Our competitors right now are few: teams from other universities have attempted to tackle the problem of neonatal vital monitoring, but none of these devices have caught on. Our user-friendly mobile interface, built-in treatment system, and lower cost ($20 vs. $42 for the most affordable alternative) differentiate us from the competition: these key changes can push us over the adoption hurdle.

We hope to begin with field tests at a Rice University partner hospital - St. Gabriel's in Malawi - this summer. After incorporating user feedback, we hope to expand to other Rice clinical partners, each run by a different nonprofit. Our secondary phase of growth will be expansion to other clinics run by those nonprofits, with the primary challenges of funding and infrastructure.

This Entry is about (Issues)

Social Impact

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Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world.

This venture began as a class project, but our "aha!" moment came when we realized just how many similar projects - many of which won competitions and accolades here in the U.S. - had somehow failed. In thinking of unique ways we could alter the product to improve adoption by hospitals and clinics in the developing world, we had an epiphany. In over to overcome the struggles medical practicioners face when dealing with new technologies, we needed to provide an additional incentive for THEM - not just for the health of the patient.

Please describe the goal of your initiative; outline what you are trying to achieve

We hope to cut instances of death from apnea in premature infants by 40% in wards that have adopted our system, improve the diagnostic capacity of doctors in rural clinics, and increase ward productivity by saving time in vital sign collection.

What has been the impact of your solution to date?

Most of our time to date has been spent in actual device production: as engineering students, we stared from scratch in October and at present we have a functional prototype. We've assessed the mechanical durability of our sensors and the limitations of battery life, network capacity, and product life, and we've conducted informal tests of both vibratory stimulation and respiratory data collection on healthy full-term infants - both to great success. On the business front, we've constructed a concrete plan for launch and expansion and we have addressed regulatory conditions for testing and sales of medical devices in the U.S. and abroad.

What is your projected impact over the next five years?

Over the next year we hope to conduct field testing and obtain approval to begin a clinical trial. Should a conclusive, replicable study indicate that our device improves diagnosis and reduces infant deaths over the standard of care (visual monitoring & foot tapping), we will have a basis for mass production. Our goal within five years is to have 500 neonatal wards fully equipped with an army of our monitors throughout Africa and Latin America, with at least one government partner.

What barriers might hinder the success of your project? How do you plan to overcome them?

Our team consists entirely of engineers, and in order to effectively implement this health innovation, we're going to need to expand our skill sets to include some business acumen. While there's no substitute for learning-by-doing, several of our team members are spending their final year in school taking courses on engineering economics, marketing, and design. We also attended a social innovation start-up workshop as a team this January.

Working with unreliable nonprofit partners would be a significant barrier; we hope to distribute our device through proven channels. Far more nonprofits are focused on neonatal health than directly on technology transfer, and we believe these would be more receptive to working with us.

Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact

Complete modifications based on feedback from field testing in preparation for clinical trial.

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone

Task 1

Complete app development for three platforms (text-based mobile phone, smartphone, and tablet)

Task 2

Successfully obtain funding for summer field testing in Malawi

Task 3

Achieve IRB approval and file patent application

Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone

Begin clinical trial at one project site, with early distribution to 3 others.

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone

Task 1

Refine device into final form suitable for mass production.

Task 2

Identify distribution channels and long-term cost profile.

Task 3

Forge relationships with partner nonprofits for post-trial distribution.

Sustainability

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Tell us about your partnerships

Rice University has provided us access to partner clinics for field testing, including St. Gabriel's hospital in Malawi and centers run by the Baylor College of Medicine Pediatric AIDS Initiative in Botswana, Lesotho, and Swaziland.

Are you currently targeting other specific populations, locations, or markets for your innovation? If so, where and why?

Our innovation is not location-specific - it could be implemented anywhere. We intend to begin by targeting mid-sized hospitals and clinics with flexible, trained staff in the Least Developed Countries, where need for such a device is greatest.

What type of operating environment and internal organizational factors make your innovation successful?

Our technical expertise and clinical experience are our prime advantages: we can make changes to our software, applications, and physical structure on the fly, and we have a strong intuitive grasp of user needs. We're beginning as students with university support, and can therefore afford to advance the project without a steady revenue stream for three more months.

Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list

We could also offer technical expertise.

Styrofoam Box for Keeping Newborns Warm

Created on 02/4/2012 by subhashdaga

Styrofoam Box for Keeping Newborns Warm

About You

Organization: MIMER Medical College Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hide

About You

First Name

Subhashchandra

Last Name

Daga

About Your Organization

Organization Name

MIMER Medical College

Organization Website

Organization Country

India, MM, Pune

Country where this project is creating social impact

India, MM, Pune

Is your organization a

Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization

How long has your organization been operating?

More than 5 years

Has the organization received awards or honors? Please tell us about them

None

References - Please provide two references with a two-sentence biography, email address, and phone number for each

1. Prof Sanjay Patole, MD, DCH, FRACP, MSC, DrPH
Department of Neonatal Paediatrics, KEM Hospital for Women, University of Western Australia, Perth.
Tel: 61-8-93401260, Fax: 1266
Office e-mail: sanjay.patole@health.wa.gov.au
He has done his medical education in India. He has seen the functioning of Styrofoam box from a close distance. Currently, he is working in Australia, at a large perinatal centre and in a responsible position. He is in a good position to visualise the usefulness of Styrofoam box in a larger context.

2. Mr. D.T. Joseph
Formerly Secretary Public Health, Government of Maharashtra, India.
He was secretary to the Government of Maharashtra when Styrofoam box was used in rural areas of Maharashtra, under the Rural Neonatal Care Programme. Hence, he is conversant with public health issues related to child survival in a developing country.
dtjoseph@gmail.com +91-9819671186

The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..

Innovation

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Select the stage that best applies to your solution

Scaling (the next step will be growing impact on a regional or even global scale)

How long have you been in operation?

Operating for more than 5 years

Which of the following best describes the barrier(s) your innovation addresses? Choose up to two

Access, Equity.

The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?

Each year an estimated 3.6 million newborn deaths occur worldwide.Reducing neonatal deaths is an integral part of the Millennium Development Goal for child survival (1). The World Health Organization has adopted thermal control among the essential components of newborn care considering the contribution of hypothermia to neonatal mortality and morbidity (4). UNICEF has recognized that prevention and management of hypothermia has the potential to reduce neonatal mortality or morbidity by 18%-42% (5). Almost all neonatal deaths occur in low resources settings, and hypothermia at birth alone could increase the risk of neonatal death regardless of weight and gestational age (2). We are providing solution to the problem of neonatal hypothermia in low resource set up around the world.

The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!

We propose a Styrofoam box as an innovative solution to prevent neonatal hypothermia in low resource setting. This is a simple, inexpensive(costs USD 4) and low/no maintenance device that does not run on electricity.It is suitable for the rural areas of developing countries where most newborn deaths occur. This versatile device can be washed and reused.Besides, it thwarts bacterial growth being a non-vegetative material. It is well received by the community as it goes well with culturally accepted belief of keeping a baby warm (see video). An illiterate village birth attendant can be trained to use the box (6). Styrofoam box is also an able adjunct to kangaroo care (7). We have used it to prevent neonatal hypothermia at the place of birth, during transportation and as a home incubator to maintain the ‘warm chain’ (Figure 1, 2, 3). The potential of this innovative device has recently been appreciated by conferring the BMJ Group Award 2011 for innovations in health care (8).

The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities

• The classic situation where this solution makes a difference is when a baby needs transfer to a higher facility for specialised care. All efforts in shifting the baby will be futile if the baby becomes cold and her condition worsens during transportation. Attempts to revive such a baby may take massive efforts at the referral centre, and may not be successful. Styrofoam box offers the extremely important thermal protection during transport.
• Another situation is when a very low birth weight baby is discharged from the hospital. Her metabolic processes may have normalized but the threat of cold stress persists. Styrofoam box can be used as a home incubator. After feeding the baby can sleep in the box.
• In rural areas of developing countries, there is reluctance to admit a low birth weight baby to a hospital for longer duration. Loss of wages and the need for looking after other children at home are the frequently stated reasons. Styrofoam box can keep low birth weight babies warm at home with the overall care supervised by the community nurse.

The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?

To best of my knowledge, there is no one working to offer Styrofoam box to keep babies warm.
Electronic devices such as incubators are used for neonatal transport in developed countries.

This Entry is about (Issues)

Social Impact

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Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world.

2. First we used Styrofoam box for taking a baby to the radiology department since we did not have portable x- ray machines then. We found that the baby’s temperature before and after x-ray did not differ much. Thus, usefulness of the box for transportation requiring around one hour was established. We then used it for getting a CT-scan that required 3-4 hours. Soon, the situation arose for the ‘Aha’ moment. A very-low-birth-weight baby was ready to go home after spending 35 days in our hospital. All of us were anxious, anticipating a re-admission, since the baby was unlikely to remain warm in the slum dwelling. After explaining the mother, we kept the baby in the box from morning to evening and later through night. We kept close vigil. She maintained her temperature in the box. Aha moment had finally arrived!! At home, she was in styrofoam box,the home incubator! On follow up we realised that we had achieved what we wanted to. We knew this simple device had large scale implications.

Please describe the goal of your initiative; outline what you are trying to achieve

We should like to see Styrofoam box developing in to: i) a transport incubator- for transport from home to hospital and from primary health centre to a referral hospital and ii) a home incubator- for low birth weight babies.

What has been the impact of your solution to date?

There is widespread awareness about this device.Observational studies about its effectiveness are published in medical literature.

What is your projected impact over the next five years?

I do not see any significant progress happening without randomised study comparing the box with radiant warmer being undertaken.

What barriers might hinder the success of your project? How do you plan to overcome them?

]As of today the evidence for effectiveness of Styrofoam box is largely based on observational studies. Randomised controlled studies comparing effectiveness with the conventional radiant warmer will leapfrog the acceptance and propagation of this device.

Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact

presentation at state health directorate, two presentations at district level and four presentations at PHC.

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone

Task 1

As above

Task 2

As above

Task 3

As above

Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone

Use of Styrofoam box appears in the teaching and training material of the state health department.

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone

Task 1

Use of Styrofoam box appears in the teaching and training material of the state health department.

Task 2

To get funding for conducting a trial comparing Styrofoam box and radiant warmer (conventional method).

Task 3

conduct the trial

Sustainability

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Tell us about your partnerships

None

Are you currently targeting other specific populations, locations, or markets for your innovation? If so, where and why?

No

What type of operating environment and internal organizational factors make your innovation successful?

Not applicable at present

Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list

None

Away From It All - Sustainable Glamping

Created on 02/2/2012 by away-from-it-all

Our intention is to offer an unique holiday experience based on sustainable principles.

About You

Organization: Away From It All Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hide

Background Information

First Name

Pryderi

Last Name

ap Rhisiart

The competition is only open to people between 18-34 years-old and resident in UK, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark or the Netherlands. Does this apply to you

Country of residence of entrepreneur

UK

Tell us about your personal background. Why are you passionate about this issue? Making an idea a reality takes innovation, dedication and strong leadership. Do you have the necessary entrepreneurial skills to realize your vision?

Born and raised on a small farm in Wales (UK), with 3 brothers I have always been interested in sustainable development and how agriculture can contribute in a positive manner towards sustainability. Having established phase one of the ethical glamping business with my partner we are driven and passionate about developing it further and sharing our vision, passion and principles with the world !

About Your Organization

Organization Name

Away From It All

Organization Website

Organization Country

United Kingdom, GWN, Pwllheli

Country where this project is creating social impact

United Kingdom, GWN, Pwllheli

Is your organization a

For‐profit

Innovation

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The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?

Tourism is a key part of the Welsh economy but it does have its problems. Environmental issues, cultural challanges, and issues around holiday homes, homes for local people and language issues are all issues that are atributed to an area that's popular for tourism.

The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!

By developing true sustainable tourism we overcome the issues and secure a sustainable economic platform for our region. Educate tourists, showcase the best that the area has to offer, use environmentaly friendly solutions for energy, water and waste, showcase history, culture, language , support small rural businesses.

The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities

When people stay with us they are greeted with a hamper of local produce, some of them from our farm - we explain the food miles involved in the welcome platter. We offer full re-cycling facilities, the dome accomodations have a low environmental impact, we provide cycles for sustainable travel for tourists whilst on holiday, the domes are heated with wood, we educate the visitors about the dangers of second homes to the communities in the area, we use a composting toilet to reduce water consumption. In the morning visitors collect their own eggs and we encourage them to consider the lessons learnt on their departure. We have a farm trail around the farm showcasing biodiversity, history and culture - people are emersed without being forced to consume. All of our marketing material and information is produced bi-lingually as we strive to support the Welsh Language. We sell art and crafts from local artists as part of the business - supporting small producers and artists. We also offer free accomodation to young carers, young people who care for adults within their families. We also encourage composting and even produce our own cider for the guests.Even our coffee and blankets are ethically sourced.

The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?

We do have competitors for "Glamping" accomodation. They offer an experience of staying in a nice/posh tent, teepee or yurt. What they don't do is base this on sustainable principles, above all else. We are passionate about this and feedback has been great. We need to share the vision, the lessons learnt and we need to expand our eco provision.

Select the stage that best applies to your business

Operating for 1-5 years

This Entry is about (Issues)

Social Impact

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What is the social impact you have had to date and how you measure it?

We've seen other businesses in the area take interest in the way we do business, the way we market the provision and are now considering some of our principles. We do need to shout from the rooftops to make sure that this is shared with the wider "tourism" sector, let's change the sector for the better for ever and make a change that will effect the area in a positive manner for years to come.

What barriers might hinder the success of your business? How do you plan to overcome them?

We need to develop the business, there are other locations that we would like to expand to but in doing this we don't want to exploit other areas. We would prefer to work with another community, farmers or landowners to do this and support them with marketing, information and sustainable principles. We've had interest from several people who are interested in doing the same thing as we do but in other locations - a great opportunity to share the ethos. Barriers are cost, planning restrictions and finding people who share a passion.

Sustainability

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How does your model address financial, social, and environmental sustainability?

The model in itself is financialy sustainable - there is a proven market for what we offer. The imidiate community are all supported economicaly as we sell their arts, crafts and food products. It supports the area socially by limiting second homes - allowing young people to stay in the area, speaking their native language. Environmantal sustainability is at the core of the business, we educate people on how they can be eco fridndly whilst staying with us. Traveling with the bikes that we provide (including a tandem!) , composting toilets, re-cycling, composting, lower food miles and the use of timber for heating. We sell art and crafts from local artists as part of the business.
We only allow a limited number of Domes per site to avoid the over development of our rural areas. We aim to work with local farmers so that the business supplements their Farm business supporting the social fabric of the area. We provide opportunities to learn about local heritage and culture. Doing all of this whilst providing a fantastic holiday experience.

Awareness & learning

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How do you see social entrepreneurship contributing to the improvement of developing countries?

We HAVE to move towards social entreprenership if the world is to survive. For too long we've been using the world's resources without a thought for sustainability and ethical consumption - this is especially true in third world countries. Lets ensure that communities take control and develop sustainable solutions to suite the specific issues of developing countries.

What aspects of your stay in Uganda as part of the competition do you think you will find most challenging and rewarding?

I was born and bread on a small farm in Wales, UK. I would find the trip interesting and I am sure I would learn a lot from the visit. I would find sharing my background and experiences with the people of Uganda most rewarding whilst realising the strife and struggles that they face on a daily basis would be hard.

Making Dreams A Reality

Created on 01/27/2012 by MLamb

The University of Lethbridge has a rich heritage as a leader in First Nations, Métis and Inuit education. Situated on Blackfoot land in southern Alberta, the University strives to build strong relationships and relevant programs for all First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities. The Faculty of Health Sciences’ commitment to our First Nations, Métis and Inuit students remains a central feature of its programming, and the Faculty strives to maintain relationships that are positive, mutually respectful, culturally appropriate and productive.

About You

Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hide

About You

First Name

Marilyn

Last Name

Lamb

Confirm a user name that will be displayed publicly to identify your entry

MLamb

About You, Your Group, or Your Organization

Name

University of Lethbridge

Website

Country

Canada

Please confirm that this project could benefit First Nations, Métis and Inuit Peoples

Yes

Twitter URL

Facebook URL

Youtube URL

What categories best describe who your group or organization serves (check all that apply)

First Nations people, Métis people, Inuit people, First Nations, Métis and Inuit people, Other.

What best describes your group or organization

University, Technical Institute or College.

How long have you, your group, or your organization been operating?

More than 5 years

Innovation

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Name Your Project.

Making Dreams A Reality

Tell us the story of your idea or project

The University of Lethbridge has a rich heritage as a leader in First Nations, Métis and Inuit education. Situated on Blackfoot land in southern Alberta, the University strives to build strong relationships and relevant programs for all First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities. The Faculty of Health Sciences’ commitment to our First Nations, Métis and Inuit students remains a central feature of its programming, and the Faculty strives to maintain relationships that are positive, mutually respectful, culturally appropriate and productive.

Our quest is to support First Nations, Métis and Inuit students to navigate the post-secondary education experience. The goal is not only to personally support students so they can successfully complete their degrees and return to work in their home communities, but also to improve cultural sensitivity and cross-cultural education that complements the growing interest in the ways that traditional protocols influence contemporary practices.

The idea of creating a targeted support program for Aboriginal students in nursing stemmed from discussions amongst the Blood Tribe Department of Health, the University of Lethbridge, Red Crow Community College, Piikani Health Services, Siksika Health Services, and the Blackfoot Confederacy in 2007. Through these discussions, the Support Program for Aboriginal Nursing Students (SPANS) evolved. In 2010, in addition to providing support for baccalaureate nursing students, the Faculty of Health Sciences extended support services to all First Nations, Métis and Inuit students in the Bachelor of Health Sciences Addictions Counseling and Public Health degree programs. This comprehensive program changed its name from SPANS to Support Services for Aboriginal Students in Health Sciences.

Support Services for Aboriginal Students in Health Sciences is intended to provide: support to students by offering support in the often challenging transition from home and family life to university, mentorship programs with elders and aboriginal health care professionals as well as tutoring and counselling support. In addition, social networking opportunities are provided as well as assistance with scholarship and bursary applications.

First Nations, Métis and Inuit people have a long tradition of caring for the ill and helping people stay well, yet the shortage of health care professionals is particularly evident in First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities across Canada. Poverty, addictions, substance abuse and other health issues have placed tremendous stress on community health care resources. Communities are challenged to increase the number of Aboriginal people entering health care disciplines such as nursing, addictions counseling, and public health.

Before the support services were in place, enrolment and retention were low, with only a handful of students spread across the four-year Bachelor of Nursing and Bachelor of Health Sciences programs. However, with targeted support, these numbers have steadily increased. Sixty plus students are currently enrolled for the 2011/2012 school year and continued growth is anticipated. Correspondingly, graduation rates of First Nations, Métis and Inuit students have also increased.

Canada’s Aboriginal population is growing faster than the general population. Education is a critical factor in ensuring that First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples have success within the workforce. This new generation of health care professionals will address the health issues experienced amongst our peoples and provide appropriate health services to families living on the nation’s reserves and in its urban centers. Increasing the number of Aboriginal health care professionals is crucial to: enhancing the capacity of communities, positively influencing effective and efficient health care delivery, and making dreams a reality.

Define your idea / project in 1-2 short sentences

The Faculty of Health Sciences is committed to personally supporting students to achieve success by providing access to Elders, mentors, tutors and counselors.

Select the stage that best applies to your solution

Expanding (it has been running for a while, has grown, you know it is making a difference and now you want to expand)

Social Impact

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This Entry is about (Issues)

Please tell us about the social impact of your idea or proect

First Nations, Métis and Inuit people have a long tradition of caring for the ill, yet health issues have placed tremendous stress on community health care resources. Education is a critical factor in ensuring that First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples have success within the workforce. Increasing the number of Aboriginal health care professionals is crucial to enhancing the capacity of communities and positively influencing effective and efficient health care delivery. This new generation of health care professionals will address the health issues experienced amongst our peoples and provide appropriate health services to families living on the nation’s reserves and in its urban centers.

Your Future Goal(s): Tell us what you hope to achieve with your idea or project in the next year

To help students succeed in their post-secondary health care education so they can return to work in their home communities.

In 5 years, what will be different as a result of your idea/project?

According to the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC), 8 percent of Aboriginal Canadians have achieved a University degree. Those who do achieve a bachelor’s degree earn more and significantly more likely to be employed.
The Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Lethbridge will continue to be excited about contributing to the next generation of health care professionals and improving the health of our First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples. The number of First Nations, Métis and Inuit students enrolled at the University of Lethbridge in the Faculty of Health Sciences will see a significant increase, and these students will have the ability, the credentials, and the confidence to share their knowledge with their communities.

Sustainability

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Tell us about the people/ partnerships that are already involved and why they are important to your idea or project.

Blood Tribe Department of Health, the University of Lethbridge, Red Crow Community College, Piikani Health Services, Siksika Health Services, and the Blackfoot Confederacy

If there are other people/partners that you will reach out to tell us who they are and why they will be important to your idea or project.

Approximately 100 words left (800 characters).

Describe the kinds of support you receive (other than money) or will need to support your idea or project (e.g.: donated, space, equipment and volunteers)

The University of Lethbridge is committed to supporting its First Nations, Metis and Inuit students.

Do you currently have funding for your idea or project?

Yes (answer the next two questions)

Changeshop

This project also has a Changeshop where you can read more about its latest progress.
Go to Changeshop: dnpproject.

dnpproject

Created on 01/24/2012 by dnpproject

Approximately 20 words left (160 characters).

About You

Organization: University of San Francisco, californis more ↓↑ hide↑ hide

About You

First Name

Sandra

Last Name

Odiase

About Your Organization

Organization Name

University of San Francisco, californis

Organization Website

Organization Country

United States, CA

Country where this project is creating social impact

United States, CA, Yuba County

Is your organization a

Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization

How long has your organization been operating?

More than 5 years

Has the organization received awards or honors? Please tell us about them

Yes,The Department of Defense $1.7 million for simulation study.

References - Please provide two references with a two-sentence biography, email address, and phone number for each

Dr Judith Lambton
Professor at the university of San Francisco, she is the PI of the dept of defense grant.

Dr Judith Karshmer
Dean at the USF school of nursing for 5 years and she is nationally known.

Innovation

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Select the stage that best applies to your solution

Idea (you're poised to launch)

How long have you been in operation?

Operating for less than a year

Which of the following best describes the barrier(s) your innovation addresses? Choose up to two

Access, Cost.

The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?

The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!

The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities

The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?

This Entry is about (Issues)

Social Impact

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Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world.

Please describe the goal of your initiative; outline what you are trying to achieve

What has been the impact of your solution to date?

What is your projected impact over the next five years?

What barriers might hinder the success of your project? How do you plan to overcome them?

Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone

Task 1

Task 2

Task 3

Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone

Task 1

Task 2

Task 3

Sustainability

read more↓↑ hide↑ hide

Tell us about your partnerships

Are you currently targeting other specific populations, locations, or markets for your innovation? If so, where and why?

What type of operating environment and internal organizational factors make your innovation successful?

Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list

CLAP: monitoring quality of life parameters

Created on 01/7/2012 by pantelis

CLAP is a low-cost infrastructure agnostic platform bringing patient empowering technology to isolated communities of developing nations.

About You

Organization: VIDAVO Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hide

About You

First Name

Pantelis

Last Name

Angelidis

About Your Organization

Organization Name

VIDAVO

Organization Website

Organization Country

Greece, Thessaloniki

Country where this project is creating social impact

South Africa

Is your organization a

For‐profit

How long has your organization been operating?

More than 5 years

Has the organization received awards or honors? Please tell us about them

Innovative idea award within the framework of the "Excellence in Central Macedonia" Programme Innovation and enterpreneurship case study of the students of the University of Macedonia. (2003)

Innotender Innovation Competition Award (Innovation EC programme). (2005)
 
Case study Pilot for the effective health monitoring in remote areas has been selected as week's ePractice.eu Editor's Choice
The Editor's Choice is a label which distinguishes good practice cases that are particularly interesting to the ePractice.eu community due to the quality and extent of the information provided, the scope of the project, its innovation and relevance for the sector. (2009)

"European Seal of E-Εxcellense 2011".
The European Seal of e-Excellence rewards ICT and Digital Media companies with an excellent track record in innovation marketing. Awarded annually since 2003 by EMF and its Partner Organisations, the Seal is widely known for distinguishing companies with innovative products & services and outstanding marketing. (2011)

References - Please provide two references with a two-sentence biography, email address, and phone number for each

Alec P. Karys, is currently Mentor at MassChallenge, Mentor at TechStars of Boston and CEO at Genesis Inc.
Interested in Board of Advisor (BOA) opportunities with advanced technology start ups with disruptive, next generation business models and socially responsible initiatives . Presently on Board of Advisors of ClickDiagnostics ( www.clickdiagnostics.com) , a socially responsible telemedicine company for emerging countries, Intelen ( www.intelen.gr) , building web 2.0 innovative energy management systems, ArcBazar ( www.arcbazar.com ), a competition platform for architectural, landscape , interior design projects, Senexx (www.senexx.com), a smart Q&A platform for companies, and MaterNova (michael@digimix.us), providing lifesaving tools to new mothers and newborns. . Previously on Board of Advisors of SpiderSplat (www.spidersplat.com), an e-marketing and SEO/SEM/Social Media company.
Public Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/alec-p-karys/0/150/aa7
Tel: +1508 (875) 7336
Mob: +1617 (957) 6068

Michail Bletsas is a Research Scientist at the MIT Media Lab, since 2010, whereas for 3 years he served as Director of Computing in the same institution. In the past, he served as a member of the Board of Directors at the Hellenic Telecommunications Organization S.A.
Public Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/michail-bletsas/1/448/363
Tel: +16173319666
Mob: +16174525650

The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..

Innovation

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Select the stage that best applies to your solution

Start-Up (a pilot that has just begun operating)

How long have you been in operation?

Operating for less than a year

Which of the following best describes the barrier(s) your innovation addresses? Choose up to two

Cost, Quality.

The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?

In most of the developing countries today, often the governments do not have the means to reliable and timely gather information on the population whereabouts regarding health and the environment especially for the rural areas.Αs most of the rural areas are either hard-to-reach or technologically lagging, their population cannot get most of the benefits offered by the government. In some cases, rural areas are deprived of good education facilities, health care, food and nutrition, disaster relief etc. Acquiring exact and timely data from these rural areas is a crucial task which could assist the government to extend their development activities as well as to provide the rural areas with the facilities to fulfill the basic needs for living.

The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!

Our main aim is to benefit from low-cost, low-power wireless technologies to facilitate bridging this gap by bringing rural areas closer to their government and governments of developing countries closer to the technological level of the developed world in an ICT4D manner. These self-organising, highly robust and energy efficient networks interface the physical world with smart communication and processing devices thereby creating a profound flexibility for awareness, emergency alerting and remote controlling.

The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities

Our framework consists of four interacting clouds. In cloud A sensors are deployed in crucial parts of the rural areas, that range from river banks, geographically challenging parts, schools, gathering places, homes, down to individuals. The sensor networks collect various critical data and send them to gateways referred as cloud B. A cloud B acts as a store & forward facility for the acquired data. It may also support the collection of other useful data like demographic data, health care information, agricultural information. Cloud B is implemented by networked communities that pre-exist for some other reason or are formed for this particular case. Examples of such network communities may be found in a OLPC equipped village, a mobile phones carrying community or a hospital on wheels, a vehicle mounted medical facility with wireless access functionality. A cloud B may move around the rural areas and serve many cloud A implementations or may be attached to only one and collect data only from them. Data communication from a cloud B to the outer world is performed by facilities referred as cloud C. The major task of a cloud C implementation is to ensure reliable acquisition and delivery of data from the rural areas to a centrally located center referred as cloud D.

The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?

Sana (www.sanamobile.org) represents an excellent example of peers. We are currently working with them in a diabeτic foot project in Greece and we understand that we share a common vision on mhealth interventions in the underserved areas of the world. We also team up with patient organisations in Europe both for product design and evaluation. In terms of competition, UN organisations have vastly funded over the years many corporations and NGOs to provide mhealth solution, albeit with minimum impact. We aim to patient empowerment through participation and low-cost sustainable solutions. That's what makes us different.

This Entry is about (Issues)

Social Impact

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Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world.

At the beginning it was the OLPC. Everyone thought of it as a technology project; it was actually an education project. How can we make a similar health project? Then it was the mobile phones and the mhealth fuzz and buzz. Nice but too much donor depended and big investments on backbone infrastructure required. What can we do about it? Low-cost, low-power, infrastructure free techology is the solution. Aha! There you have it: CLAP

Please describe the goal of your initiative; outline what you are trying to achieve

The goals are materialised through a pilot study to assess the performance of the development of a new telecare service for rural areas in Greece. The network was established in 25 remote and isolated rural municipalities of Greece, 10 of them located in islands. The local primary health services were equipped with the CLAP solution. At these points the family physicians record the vital signs of the patients suffering from chronic diseases. The data collected by various vital signs sensor devices (Cloud A), are transferred through IEEE 802.15.2 (Cloud B) and are finally transmitted over GPRS (Cloud C) to a central webserver. In total 777 different tele-consultations, evaluating vital signs transferred, and 2206 logins in the online patients’ health records database took place.

What has been the impact of your solution to date?

A retrospective evaluation study was designed to evaluate the initial 6 months of the network being fully operational. Evaluation criteria measuring the adoption and the outcomes of the implementation of the specific telecare service were based on the recommendations of the WONCA on ICT to Improve Rural Health Care. The study showed that monitoring patients at home for chronic conditions dramatically improves survival rates. In addition, evidence shows that strict adherence to a medication regime is essential for effective treatment of a variety of health conditions, from Heart failure to diabetes. CLAP applications consists of one- or two-way communications to monitor health conditions, maintain environmental logs, ensure medication regimen adherence, enable awarness and self-education on hugiene and public health.

What is your projected impact over the next five years?

Remote monitoring opens new possibilities for treating patients in an outpatient setting, a crucial capability in developing countries where access to hospital beds and clinics is limited. Applications that include inpatient and out-patient sensors for monitoring multiple conditions show striking results in terms of mortality and quality of life. As the benefits of these applications are documented in the developed world, remote monitoring is expected to become widespread and significantly improve health outcomes for a wide range of communicable and chronic diseases in developing countries, only if low-cost infrastructure-agnostic implementations are possible. CLAP achieves exactly that.

What barriers might hinder the success of your project? How do you plan to overcome them?

Physical barriers: increased flexibility as a result of the wireless solutions adopted
Technical barriers: connectivity retry-on-fail approach
Organisational barriers: Obtain the “commitment” of local authorities. Recruiting the right people that will carry out the work and achieving consent of high-level administrators, are essential
Scaling barriers: CLAP is fully scalable and flexible, so scalability limitations are easily confronted
Resource barriers: CLAP design takes into account technology and energy limitations in given settings
Cultural barriers: local peculiarities and inhabitants attitudes towards health and technology including language are taken into account, to safeguard smooth project implementation. Each environment is studied independently.

Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact

One pilot running in a developing country.

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone

Task 1

Create a strong local community of volunteers to act as "champions' to advocate for the project

Task 2

Secure enough funding to support sizeable impact that will ensure project sustainability

Task 3

Create international interest and focus, thus mobilizing additional resources and positive publicity

Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone

Attract interest of a company’s Social Corporate Responsibility division, to fund further expansion

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone

Task 1

Setup an education/training, support and problem solving facility

Task 2

Kick-off project respecting the solid planning

Task 3

Begin evaluating impact and retrospective redesign

Sustainability

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Tell us about your partnerships

MIT MediaLab New Media Medicine group (http://newmed.media.mit.edu/) is offering a lot of insightful ideas on the design and impact issues.
University of W. Macedonia in Greece (http://users.uowm.gr/paggelidis/index-en.html) is supporting with sensor and telecom expertise.
Sana is supporting through their open source mhealth solution
Altsys (http://www.altysgroup.com/) is managing the operations in South Africa and mobilising local resources, volunteers and supporters

Are you currently targeting other specific populations, locations, or markets for your innovation? If so, where and why?

CLAP is targeting populations in developing countries, and, especially in rural areas, which are technologically lagging. The main attributes of CLAP are summarized in the easy-to-use, low power and, still, reliable technology and, to this end, it is targeting isolated populations who would benefit from having access to quality health services.

What type of operating environment and internal organizational factors make your innovation successful?

An open space environment with many external collaborators invited and mingled in and many participations in public events; no worries about IP and background knowledge protection; mobilisation of resources from volunteers and collaborators; nimble product design, easily readapted to external demand changes

Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list

The efficient implementation of CLAP requires capital and also, knowledge of the local targeted communities. Therefore, investement to address initial set up costs, marketing to promote the concept, collaboration with local actors and mentorship for the localization are required.
On the other hand, our expertise in m-health and innovation management can be helpful to other mhealth teams.

Access

Created on 01/6/2012 by Shirish

A non-profit research organization working towards solutions and advocacy with the mission of health, awareness, growth and empowerment.

About You

Organization: CHANGE Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hide

About You

First Name

Shirish

Last Name

Ghadi

About Your Organization

Organization Name

CHANGE

Organization Website

Organization Country

India, KA

Country where this project is creating social impact

India, KA

Is your organization a

Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization

How long has your organization been operating?

1‐5 years

Has the organization received awards or honors? Please tell us about them

GCE round 7 grant from Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.

References - Please provide two references with a two-sentence biography, email address, and phone number for each

1) Adithya V.
Principal investigator of FINGO the project which won the prestigious GCE award.
adithya@ngochange.org
9980949281

2) Dr. P.V. Bhandari
A consulting psychiatrist and medical director of Dr. A. V. Baliga charitable hospital with immense experience in de-addiction and mental health.
venkatarayabhandary@gmail.com
9242124621

The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..

Innovation

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Select the stage that best applies to your solution

Idea (you're poised to launch)

How long have you been in operation?

Still in idea phase, but looking to launch soon

Which of the following best describes the barrier(s) your innovation addresses? Choose up to two

Access, Cost, Equity.

The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?

Through this study we'll be trying to address the issues of providing access to healthcare to every household. This will have an indirect effect as this will reduce the cost of travelling to the far off health care facility as well as equity with respect to access to health care

The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!

We propose the use of Geomatics/ Geoinformatics to map the domestic structures as well as health care facilities and other public structures of importance from health care aspect with the public participation.

The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities

The three tier health care delivery system operating currently in India uses population norms for setting up an health care facility. We propose to map the domestic structures and other infrastructures in the locality which will help in advocating setting up of new health care facilities based on the area covered and the geographic terrain of the locality.

The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?

The competitors will be the private practitioners and quacks as setting up new government facility will definitely affect their patient load if not completely but to some extent.

This Entry is about (Issues)

Social Impact

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Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world.

During the masters thesis I realized how easy it was to get an informed consent from the study participants wherein if the study was conducted by a student from a reputed university and accompanied by the government health worker the people blindly participated in the study without knowing what the study aims to do or for what purpose the data collected will be used, it was then I realized how important participatory research was. This will help in empowering the rural communities by making them a part of the research as well as voicing their concern for access to health care.

Please describe the goal of your initiative; outline what you are trying to achieve

The goal of the initiative is to improve the accessibility to health care facility by providing the burden through the use of geomatics.

What has been the impact of your solution to date?

None yet as it is still in the ideation phase.

What is your projected impact over the next five years?

The study will help in knowing the burden over the government health care facilities and thus help in providing solutions and advocacy towards establishing new health care facilities.

What barriers might hinder the success of your project? How do you plan to overcome them?

The barrier faced will be related to the novice population and resistance from the community as the mapping procedure may be confused with land acquisition. This can be overcome by an effective community engagement strategy and participatory research.

Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone

Task 1

Devising and developing of software for mapping

Task 2

Training of rural volunteers or ASHA workers or other novice users to handle the high-tech devices.

Task 3

Community engagement

Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone

Task 1

Mapping of all the physical infrastructure

Task 2

Analysis with regards to the accessibility to the health care faciltiy

Task 3

Advocacy

Sustainability

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Tell us about your partnerships

There aren't any partnerships as of now but are funded by the Bill and Melinda gates foundation. Have applied for CSR to a leading cellular phone manufacturing company. Have also been working with a few independent collaborators who provide their expertise on ethical and legal parts of the study. For execution of the projects are in talks with a research organization, a teaching hospital and a charitable hospital.

Are you currently targeting other specific populations, locations, or markets for your innovation? If so, where and why?

What type of operating environment and internal organizational factors make your innovation successful?

Community participation and multi-disciplinary appraoch.

Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list

Being a start-up research organization and short on funds investment is needed. Being short on funds also doesn't allow to engage more human resource expertise. With regards to research although having a background in the same its always beneficial to involve more brains in the research. Collaborations will help us in reducing the burden on the little human resource which we have at our disposal.

Helping women access health care - the Women's Health Fund

Created on 12/11/2011 by subhasrib

The revolving Women's Health Fund provides women with ready access to cash funds for accessing health care whenever they need it.

About You

Organization: Rural Women's Social Education Centre Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hide

About You

First Name

subhasri

Last Name

balakrishnan

About Your Organization

Organization Name

Rural Women's Social Education Centre

Organization Website

Organization Country

India, TN

Country where this project is creating social impact

India, TN

Is your organization a

Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization

How long has your organization been operating?

More than 5 years

Has the organization received awards or honors? Please tell us about them

No

References - Please provide two references with a two-sentence biography, email address, and phone number for each

Renu Khanna - Renu is a feminist with special interest in women's health issues. She is a part of several national level networks including CommonHealth and People's Health Movement.
Email: sahajbrc@yahoo.com
Phone: +91 9427054006

Padmini Swaminathan - Padmini is an economist with special interest in Women's development and labour issues. She is a Retired Professor of Madras Institute of Development Studies.
Email: pads78@yahoo.com
Phone: +91 9444018484

The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..

Innovation

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Select the stage that best applies to your solution

Growth (your pilot is up and running, and starting to expand)

How long have you been in operation?

Operating for 1‐5 years

Which of the following best describes the barrier(s) your innovation addresses? Choose up to two

Access, Cost.

The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?

Expenditure on health care is one of the major causes of indebtedness in rural India. Given existing gender hierarchies, households often prioritize meagre resources on more valued members of the family - male children, male head of the household and male members. While several attempts have been made through innovative financing mechanisms to support households in accessing health care, only a very small number of these have focused on improving access to care of the most marginalized person in the household - the woman. In spite of the fact that women have a high burden of disease, women are less likely to seek appropriate and early care for disease. Women also internalize their subordinate status and often suffer illnesses, especially of the reproductive organs, in silence.

The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!

To improve rural women's access to health care through providing them with financial resources for the same, we created a revolving Women's Health Fund. This Fund is operated through already existent self help groups and held in a separate bank account in the group's name. Women members of the group borrow from this Fund at very low interest rates for health care and pay back in installments. This provides women with ready access to cash funds that is under their control and can be used for accessing health care whenever they need it. This prevents them from falling into high interest debts to meet health care expenses or worse still, not access health care at all for lack of funds. Women could also seek care for reproductive illnesses - they otherwise do not disclose these to male heads of households who control funds as they feel shameful about it. This also provides women increased standing in their families and communities as they have financial resources under their control.

The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities

To each of ten chosen self help groups, RUWSEC provided an initial small sum as the Women's Health Fund. The group added a small contribution to this and this amount was put in a separate bank account in the group's name and was designated to be the Women's Health Fund. The members of the group could then borrow money from this Fund whenever a need for health care arose - the amount was to be repaid in a maximum of 4 installments at a low interest rate of 1% every month. Women could access health care using this amount from any provider of their choice - public or private. A cap on the maximum amount that could be borrowed was laid so everyone had access to the Fund, group members were asked to prioritize health care needs when more than one person needed the fund and a small amount was held in cash by the president of the group for emergency needs.

Over the last 5 years, funds have been borrowed from the Health Fund for treatment of more than 1000 illness episodes by women in the 10 self help groups in the programme. These illnesses have been of a varied range - from common illnesses like viral infections to surgeries, tuberculosis, reproductive infections and also in emergencies like accidents, suicidal poisoning and snakebites.
Women have innovated with the modalities of functioning with the Fund - they have functioned democratically within the group to prioritize health care needs of different women, arranged for emergency funds when necessary, ensured repayment of the loan and maintained records of all of this.

The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?

The self help group (SHG) movement is strong in Tamil Nadu. The mainstream SHG funds are often used for health care - but this is usually for large amounts and has now moved to being beyond the control of women themselves. While our Fund is operated through SHGs, by being prioritized for illnesses specific to women, it provides greater access to women to health care.

Health insurance is another financing mechanism being explored recently in rural India. However, this is usually for large, in patient expenses in large, recognized facilities. Poor rural women often need cash for outpatient care in small facilities or indirect expenses in public facilities. By providing them a financial resource for this and giving them choice of facility, our Fund fulfills this large gap in their needs.

This Entry is about (Issues)

Social Impact

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Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world.

RUWSEC has worked with rural women on health issues for over 3 decades. Our work has been to raise women's awareness on health and change their health seeking behaviour, work with the health system to improve quality of care and make it more sensitive to women's needs and provide services through a small clinic offering women sensitive care.

Throughout, we have found that finances are a major roadblock to women to seek health care. We have seen several women who have postponed seeking health care or waited till illnesses could no longer be borne. A past research study by us on women living with prolapse uterus documents their inability to seek timely medical help. We have also seen that prevalent patriarchal values in society preclude women from using even meagre resources available to them.

This led us to look at alternative models of financing that would put control of resources in women's hands and adapt existing models into the Women's Health Fund.

Please describe the goal of your initiative; outline what you are trying to achieve

RUWSEC has worked from the beginning with the conviction that for women to become agents of social change addressing other issues of oppression, they had to start by dealing with, and transforming, their lack of control over their bodies, and the sense of powerlessness that this led to. The organization's strategy, which has evolved over several years, aims to bring changes in four areas: women’s ‘being,’ women’s ‘consciousness,’ women’s health-seeking behaviour, and the health care system’s commitment and ability to meet women’s health needs.

The Women's Health Fund hopes to change women's "being" and their health seeking behaviour and thus give them more control over resources in order to gain more control over their bodies, health and lives.

What has been the impact of your solution to date?

On analysis of data for three years, the amount borrowed was used to treat the woman's own illness in 57% of the total borrowings. These illnesses have been of a varied range and varied amounts of money have been borrowed by women depending on the type of illness. Pregnancy, delivery, abortion and other reproductive morbidities constituted 14% of the illnesses for which the amount was borrowed. The amount was used to treat illnesses of women in the reproductive age group in 74% of the borrowings. Treatment was sought from government facilities for 70% of the illness episodes. Repayment has also sometimes been in many more than the originally stipulated 4 instalments but there have been very few defaulters.

Women have generally welcomed this initiative - they have reported a decrease in reliance on alternative means of raising money, either at high interest or through mortgaging/sales of assets. The low interest rate and the flexible repayment option have also been welcomed.

What is your projected impact over the next five years?

Over the next five years, we expect the Women's Health Fund to increase women's access to health care, especially for reproductive illnesses: increase women's ability to make decisions and act on issues related to their own bodies and health: increase women's standing in society by increase in control of financial resources; and increase women's voice on issues related to their health and their lives.

What barriers might hinder the success of your project? How do you plan to overcome them?

We mainly see two barriers:
Use of funds to access irrational medical care. We are already seeing some evidence of this. We plan to address this by having specific sessions with women on rational care. A larger campaign in the community on the dangers of irrational care is also planned and in a start up phase. We also plan to work with health care providers towards promoting more ethical, evidence based care.
Existing patriarchal system undermining women's control of the Fund. This will be addressed by our larger work with women on gender and changing their "consciousness". RUWSEC's existing work with men, women, adolescent boys and girls in the community on the interface between gender and reproductive health and rights will also contribute towards this.

Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact

Upscale the Women's Health Fund to ten more groups and start a documentation and costing component.

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone

Task 1

Provide ten more groups with the Women's Health Fund

Task 2

Hold sessions with women on gender and health and start a community based campaign on rational care.

Task 3

Start rigorous process documentation and work out components of costing the programme

Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone

Have more self help groups asking for and starting the Women's Health Fund

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone

Task 1

Start the Women's Health Fund for at least ten more groups

Task 2

Evaluation of the model and a detailed costing

Task 3

Develop a group of grassroots women aware of the model and spreading the message horizontally.

Sustainability

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Tell us about your partnerships

We partner with women through our grassroots contact and the self help movement. We also partner with some young men in the community who help us work with men on issues of gender and health. We also partner at present with our donors who have helped us set up the Fund. We hope to partner in the future with health care providers in providing better quality care.

Are you currently targeting other specific populations, locations, or markets for your innovation? If so, where and why?

We are presently moving beyond an initial exploratory phase to establishing the model in the rural community that we already work in.

What type of operating environment and internal organizational factors make your innovation successful?

The very grassroots led nature of our organization helps us understand the needs of women and address and adapt our solutions to their needs.

Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list

RUWSEC has an experience over thirty years of working with marginalized women on health issues. Women centred research has been one of our strengths. Much of our work has also been documented by us. We would be willing to share insights gained from these with others who want such information.

Community Health Initiative, Maharashtra

Created on 12/6/2011 by Neelam Kshirsagar

Impact India Foundation is an International Initiative Against Avoidable Disablement. It is a catalyst for Action Today to prevent Disability Tomorrow.

About You

Organization: Impact India Foundation (IIF) Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hide

About You

First Name

Zelma

Last Name

Lazarus

About Your Organization

Organization Name

Impact India Foundation (IIF)

Organization Website

Organization Country

India, MM

Country where this project is creating social impact

India, MM

Is your organization a

Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization

How long has your organization been operating?

More than 5 years

Has the organization received awards or honors? Please tell us about them

1993: The United Nations Grand Award and the IPRA Golden World Award for
Excellence in Public Service worldwide.
1994 : Rotary Club of Bombay honours Impact India’s Mrs. Zelma Lazarus
with a Public Award for her leadership in creating India’s first mobile hospital on
track – the Lifeline Express.
2000: Expo Award Hannover, Germany.
2009: National Postage stamp and First Day Cover released by the
Government of India honouring the Lifeline Express.
2010: Honoured with the AmeriCares Spirit of Humanity 2010 – Jury’s
Choice Award for outstanding contribution towards improving health care and
empowering a healthier and stronger society....and more.

References - Please provide two references with a two-sentence biography, email address, and phone number for each

(1)Mr. K. R. Sreenath, CEO, Volkart Foundation, Mumbai 400 021.
Email: krsreenath@volkartfoundation.in
Tel: +91 22 2283 6336 / 2283 6338
Mr. Sreenath's experience in the Social Development sector is in the field of women and Children, health and welfare, income generation and empowerment of women and vocational training for youth. He was for 12 years with All India Radio and Song and Drama Division of Government of India's Information & Broadcasting Ministry, 26 years with Family Planning Association of India, and the past 8 years serving at Volkart Foundation.

2.) Mr. Girish Mittal,
Past President (2007-2008), Rotary Club of Mumbai, Borivali East.
1305 Dhruv, Ashok Van, Borivali East, Mumbai 400 066
Email:mittalgirish@gmail.com
M:9323462428
Mr. Girish Mittal is a BTech in Engg and is currently running a small software company specializing in mathematical and statistical modeling.

He is very interested in societal issues and invests considerable amount of time and energy in issues such as availability of low cost health care, water & sanitation etc. He is also involved in improving the governance structure of the Government and corporate sector. His new hobby is training hard to run a 21 kms-marathon in Mumbai in early January, 2012.

The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..

Innovation

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Select the stage that best applies to your solution

Established (past the previous stages and has demonstrated success)

How long have you been in operation?

Operating for more than 5 years

Which of the following best describes the barrier(s) your innovation addresses? Choose up to two

Access, Cost.

The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?

The rural disabled population in poor countries is neglected and seen as a social and economic burden. Rarely do persons living in India's remote villages have access to qualified medical and surgical health care... a distant, unachievable dream. They end up relying on the dubious methods of local traditional medicine practitioners and quacks. The end result: a silent and depressed acceptance of life; a fatalistic and self-defeating outlook.

A Baseline Survey commissioned by IIF and conducted by a leading social research agency in 2004 in Maharashtra revealed - Infant Mortality Rate: 80 per 1000 live births; Child Births at home: 84.80%; Child Malnutrition: 62.40%. Distribution of the disabled were: 37% Orthopaedic disability, 32.8% hearing loss, and 28.4% vision impairment.

The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!

In 2005 Impact India Foundation (IIF) launched an ambitious project in Thane District of Maharashtra - the Community Health Initiative (CHI) in eight, remote, tribal blocks covering an area of over 6000 square kilometers and a population of almost two million. IIF is creating a replicable and sustainable model for the Government’s National Rural Health Mission using available delivery systems and existing infrastructure, developing appropriate monitoring systems and methodologies.
This is in support of the Government’s goal to set up a sustainable, fully functional, community-owned health delivery system.

The CHI reinforces the Right To Health for vulnerable communities in deprived under-served areas, by creating a demand for better health services and addressing gaps in the Government's health delivery system.

After an independent Evaluation and a professional Process Document by Tata Consultancy Services, the CHI is planned for replication by the Government throughout India.

The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities

The Community Health Initiative aims at disability reduction through cure and prevention.

Curative programmes include restoration of sight, hearing, locomotion and repair of facial deformities in partnership with nearby hospitals for surgery and follow up, as well as, distribution of Aids & Appliances: spectacles, hearing aids, braces, calipers etc. All services at Government and partner hospitals are free of cost to the beneficiaries.

Preventive programmes include reduction in Infant and Maternal Mortality Rates - Ante and Post Natal Care; Immunisation against childhood disease to achieve 100% coverage of the Government's programme; Information, Education & Communication or Health education using diverse media: posters, films, street plays in the local Warli art form for change of behavior; Home Gardens focusing on low-cost nutrition, distribution of seeds, saplings and horticultural training to promote the use of fresh vegetables in schools and households for much-needed micro-nutrients to control Anaemia; Health check-ups for school children through the School Health Monitor programme for early detection of signs of illness; De-worming for anaemic adolescent girls, in addition to conducting Haemoglobin estimation and holding talks on Nutrition and Health; Water Management: IIF builds check dams, trenches, repairs wells, cordons springs etc. to raise the ground water table and provides drinking water systems with community participation.

Capacity building of Government health staff and community volunteers is ongoing and vital for project sustainability.

The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?

In Thane District no other organisation is working on as many health components on this scale. IIF's unique role and biggest challenge is in being an effective catalyst, bringing together the Government, corporate sector, NGOs, professionals and the community in large replicable health projects. In the Community Health Initiative IIF has mobilised Foundations (Volkart, Mattel Children's Foundation) Rotary & Lions Clubs, companies (HDFC Bank, HPCL, Tata Consultancy Services, Syngenta..) NGOs (Vatsalya, Population First, Tulsi Eye Hospital & Charitable Trust..)and medical professionals (Opthalmologists, Paediatric Orthopaedic Surgeons, Nutritionists, ENT Surgeons etc.) to reduce existing disabilities by 65% and is firmly addressing future disabilities through systemic preventive programmes.

This Entry is about (Issues)

Social Impact

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Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world.

The unprecedented success of IIF's other major project, the Lifeline Express - the world's first hospital train, has medically served (from July 1991 till December 2011) more than 700,000 rural disabled over 130 projects in 91 Districts across 17 States of India, underscored the reality that disability needs to be addressed - in terms of both: cure and prevention. The magnitude of the Lifeline Express's success is small in relation to the extent of prevailing disabilities. At least 70 million persons in India are disabled and a major portion of this disability could have been prevented.

Hence, late Mr. A. H. Tobaccowala, Chairman of Impact India Foundation, (1983 to 2010) conceived the Community Health Initiative in 2004 as a dramatic, replicable pilot model for disability reduction through prevention and cure, using available infrastructure and existing delivery mechanisms, in partnership with the community, NGOs and the Government, as a comprehensive solution to disability.

Please describe the goal of your initiative; outline what you are trying to achieve

Earlier termed the "Disability Reduction Project" the project was re-named "Community Health Initiative" (CHI) as its activities ensure the health of the community as a whole. The objectives of CHI are:
-Reduction by one-half in the incidence of future disability through prevention.
-Reduction by one-half of existing disability through curative measures.
- To develop systems, methodologies and monitoring arrangements that can be successfully replicated in India and developing countries.

The areas of concentration include Safe motherhood, Nutrition, Immunisation, Water quality, Health education and community mobilisation.

Goal: Provision of integrated, primary health care in rural areas to improve the health of future generations, and thereby social inclusion in India's progress.

What has been the impact of your solution to date?

To measure the impact of CHI activities, India's leading I.T. major, Tata Consultancy Services, designed an online Management Information System. Achievements against targets (calculated against a fresh Baseline Survey)showed that reduction of existing disabilities was dramatic (till June, 2011): Almost 80% in correction of vision impairment, 60% in correction of hearing loss, 100% in cleft lip and palate repair and 25% in orthopaedic impairment (multi-phase treatment). To this, add 60% in Dental treatment, focusing on students in Ashramshalas (tribal residential schools).
Prevention activities conducted in selected Primary Health Sub Centre areas showed achievements as: 90% in immunisation, 99% in Ante Natal Care, 70% in Anaemia Control, and 60% in IEC or Health Education.

IIF's Lifeline Express Mobile Clinics (Diagnostic Vans) in the CHI screened & referred over 91,000 persons for vision problems.

Direct CHI beneficiaries number 208,788; more than half are female.

What is your projected impact over the next five years?

Over the next five years IIF seeks to reduce existing disability through
Cure: 100% in vision and hearing impairment, 50% in orthopaedic (multi-phase & transport-challenged areas)
Prevention: 90% increase in institutional child births, 100% pregnant women complete four ante natal check ups, 90% anaemia reduction in adolescent girls (Hb>10gms/dl),100% immunisation of infants against disease, 50% malnutrition controlled through Health education and Kitchen Gardens, 1800 health education sessions for 500,000 attendees resulting slowly in behaviour modification;
50% success in Capacity building of Government and community volunteers to sustain health gains - improved public health delivery mechanisms and improved belief in healthcare priorities.
See IIF' brochure: www.impactindia.org

What barriers might hinder the success of your project? How do you plan to overcome them?

The barriers: (1) Access to health care for remote villages with no transport to Health Centres. IIF will enlist private sector to provide Emergency Ambulances and simultaneously move Rotary Clubs etc. to lobby for enhanced connectivity through increased frequency of Govt public transport; (2) Belief in Bhagats or Traditional Medicine Practitioners. IIF will increase medical camps by Specialists (Paediatricians, Gynaecologists, Orthopaedicians etc) to diagnose and treat with demonstrated results. (3) Capacity building of Government service providers. IIF is intensely engaging with Government from field to policy level for health cooperation, use Public, Private Partnerships to upgrade health facilities (4) Mobilise community through patience and perseverance creating health volunteers.

Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact

Reduction of existing disabilities by above 15%; increase in institutional child births by 20%.

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone

Task 1

Motivate the private sector to actively support the rural disabled in remote areas addressing gaps in Public Health

Task 2

Mobilise the community to place health as a priority and a prerequisite to improved livelihood

Task 3

Enlist active Government partcipation to upgrade Health Centres and delivery mechanisms.

Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone

Reduction of existing disability by 30%; increase in institutional births by 40%: improved health care

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone

Task 1

Community is motivated and has increased access to Government's primary health centres

Task 2

Government is upgrading Health Centres: manpower, equipment, infrastructure and services

Task 3

Systems for health care delivery are being put in place.

Sustainability

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Tell us about your partnerships

Impact India Foundation acts as a catalyst to bring together business houses, NGOs, the Government and the community to implement health programmes of national priority. The Community Health Initiative (CHI)comprises partnerships with private sector, supported by Government health machinery, NGOs, medical professionals and community (Gram Sabhas).

The CHI uses available delivery systems and existing infrastructure, for sustainability, in support of the Government’s National Rural Health Mission's goal to establish a fully functional, community owned, integrated, health-delivery system.

Are you currently targeting other specific populations, locations, or markets for your innovation? If so, where and why?

The Community Health Initiative (CHI) was launched in 2005 in five Blocks of Thane District, Maharashtra and was later expanded to seven Blocks. Impressed by its success the Government requested IIF to extend the CHI to an additional eighth tribal Block thereby expanding its coverage to a population of nearly two million.

Private Trusts have already demonstrated interest in replicating the project in other under-served Districts of Maharashtra. In addition, IIF will present the CHI Process Document to the Government of India for the project's replication in deprived areas of the country.

What type of operating environment and internal organizational factors make your innovation successful?

An open door policy followed by the Chief Executive Officer welcomes ideas; the presence of a Brainwave Box calls out for new ways of doing; we have flexible work hours, when required; a policy of high written appreciation exists; we have supportive, active and appreciative Trustees who also actively fund raise and suggest avenues.

An overall atmosphere of giving and helping exists, seeking consensus and expressing gratitude rather than censure and being punitive, which helps a lot. Clear Management practices are enunciated in Impact India's HR document "Ten Commandments" citing honesty, transparency and integrity, gender parity and mutual respect.

IIF actively seeks and promotes community participation and ownership, embodying the role of a facilitator and enabler, for community.

Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list

IIF has immeasurable in-house Talent in Public Relations.
IIF's tracking of individual cases, such as pregnant mothers through Ante Natal Care, child births and Post Natal Care, provide data for research.
Collaboration/Networking with other NGOs working on health related issues (water/horticulture)
IIF staff is always available to brainstorm on ideas for health issues of national priority.

Ship Surplus Mobility Devices to those in dire need.

Created on 11/3/2011 by Mobility4All

Crutches 4 Africa enables the physically disabled people in dire need to begin life again with hope for the future.

About You

Organization: Crutches 4 Africa Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hide

About You

First Name

Candice

Last Name

Talbot

About Your Organization

Organization Name

Crutches 4 Africa

Organization Website

Organization Country

United States

Country where this project is creating social impact

Kenya

Is your organization a

Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization

How long has your organization been operating?

More than 5 years

Has the organization received awards or honors? Please tell us about them

References - Please provide two references with a two-sentence biography, email address, and phone number for each

Chad Hills long time friend, Works for Focus on the Family fighting gambling and encouraging abstinence.
chad.hills@citizenlink.com
719-648-0319

Maxwell Marx
•Director at Marx Consulting International
Youth and Policy Consultant (Rwanda) at USAID
Director and ex-officio at Global Education in Action Inc
Consultant - HIV and AIDS Branch at UNFPA

Friend and distributor of crutches for our organization since 2009
: (202) 437-9722 (US) (+254) (729) 774909 (Kenya)
e-mails: Maxwell.marx@gmail.com disabilitydevelopment@gmail.com

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Innovation

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Select the stage that best applies to your solution

Growth (your pilot is up and running, and starting to expand)

How long have you been in operation?

Operating for more than 5 years

Which of the following best describes the barrier(s) your innovation addresses? Choose up to two

Access, Cost.

The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?

Funding the containers we fill. We are able to get people to see the need to recycle their devices and we have hundreds of volunteers willing to gather them, but short term storage and shipping funds are lacking. We have 4 states collecting and we have to travel to them all to get the devices gathered to a central shipping port.

The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!

The solution we believe is letting people know what we are trying to do and garnering their financial support for ongoing costs.
We believe there are multi millionaires who could fund us with their interest being shifted to our non-profit for a year. The loaner donor solution. We need three million dollars to get the project well organized, and the verification of recipients and follow up covered.
Gathering devices is expensive and storing them is becoming a problem. We see the answer is funding so we can rent space and trucks to do the work needed.

The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities

Funding will allow us to branch out to every state in the country, and store and ship the items efficiently. Time is everything to those who are waiting for a device to help them integrate into their communities.
Primary activity is letting people know not to discard their surplus items. Recycling these keeps our landfills cleaner. Moving them to a storage shed, barn, warehouse or other space that has been donated has been a blessing, but is very temporary and unreliable. Renting a warehouse or a storage unit would make so much sense.
Finding truckers willing to pick up small amounts of devices has been a problem. We need to find people (via internet or direct mail) who are willing to pick these up and get them to a local warehouse or storage unit.

The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?

no one is doing what we are.
There are wheelchair donating organizations, but canes walkers and crutches are ignored. We are also looking into creating new devices as we see unique needs in the African communities we have seen already where none of the devices we have to offer will work. Engineers at the Colorado school of Mines is working to develop a wheeled cart for those who are so twisted by polio and other birth defects so as to be unable to even utilize a wheelchair.

This Entry is about (Issues)

Social Impact

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Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world.

When we went to Uganda to help Hope4Kids International we saw the need for mobility devices as people were dragging themselves to church on their hands, or using a tree branch to hop along. When we were editing the footage we taped for a DVD intended to promote the H4KI project we were again impressed that there was something we COULD do.

Please describe the goal of your initiative; outline what you are trying to achieve

Get mobility devices to everyone who needs them, by redistributing surplus items found worldwide.

What has been the impact of your solution to date?

We have gathered and distributed over thirty thousand devices since 2006.
Countries who have benefited include Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Togo, Nigeria, Senegal, Christmas Island, Viet Nam, Bangladesh, and Ghana.

What is your projected impact over the next five years?

We grew from 10,000 devices in 5 years to 30,000 in the 6th year.
This is growing exponentially as manufacturers of devices find that we can take their outdated models, and surplus and utilize it abroad. I feel that we can keep the landfills free of this material and cause many people to gain independence, diginity, and common respect in their communities. I have seen first hand how a person can change and become productive and proud of their achievements in a very short time when they are free to move about.
Education, health, voting, respect, jobs, the list is endless. Right now the people who are disabled are so marginalized as to be chained in huts, never to see the light of day or go to a toilet. This has to change.

What barriers might hinder the success of your project? How do you plan to overcome them?

The only barriers are ignorance and apathy. We plan to have a campaign in place within a year that will address both. Hopefully online and television.
We are primarily film makers and photographers and feel our skills will be utilized well in acheiving this goal.

Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact

Have enough money in the bank to fund the project for one full year. $127,000.00

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone

Task 1

Educate the public

Task 2

Itentify ways to have successful fundraisers.

Task 3

Create a video production that will encourage empathy, giving and volunteerism.

Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone

Have a million three dollar donors

Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone

Task 1

Educate the public internationally and viral style

Task 2

Have such a strong online presence that we will be recognized around the world

Task 3

Contact schools, and churches nationwide to have assemblies, and awareness days.

Sustainability

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Tell us about your partnerships

We are partnered with our local church Lookout Mountain Community Church who gives us $500 a month.
Carex is a manufacturing and distribution company who has donated thousands of items for us to give away.
NOVA orthomed has also contributed many items we have given away.
Project C.U.R.E. helps us store and ship items when they have something going out.
We partner with Rotary Clubs wherever possible worldwide to promote what we are doing and to collect and distribute when possible.

Are you currently targeting other specific populations, locations, or markets for your innovation? If so, where and why?

Yes we believe that the teenagers of America have the most disposable income of all the demographics in the nation.
They also have a desire to help, an innate will to make this world a greener and better place, and have a heart for the less fortunate.
We plan to take teens to Africa to see in person the difference one walker can make, and plan to start fundraisers, and awareness days in schools and churches around the nation.

What type of operating environment and internal organizational factors make your innovation successful?

Keeping it simple is very important to us. Get what others need from those who have too much. Not really Robin Hood, but hey, there are billions of used mobility devices, or excess production locally, or overstock that needs to be diminished. Clean, fast, turnaround is our goal. This year has been exceptional in those areas and with help we know that the future holds fabulous success in reaching our goals.

Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list

We can go and make videos of the projects in situ.
We can do photography of items, ideas, products, people who need imaging.
We can create marketing tools including brocures, business cards, promotional materials, and are willing to offer art for auctions and fundraising.

SwasthyaSEWA: Mobile based rural Healthcare Information Service

Created on 09/20/2011 by subhashperuvaje

SwáSthya(in Sanskrit,self-dependence,health,soundstate,comfort and satisfaction),Project Idea improve awareness, education about various healthcare and wellness issues in the rural areas of India and other emerging/ developing countries;
Target women who are members of Self Help Groups (SHGs) and micro entrepreneurs in the rural areas,enable them to get expert advice using mobile technologies;
Spread and influence the entire community through SHG to help scale up the education process in the immediate neighborhoods due to their better awareness and social standing;

About You

Organization: sasken communcation technologies ltd Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hide

About You

First Name

subhash

Last Name

peruvaje

Twitter

Facebook Profile

About Your Organization

Organization Name

sasken communcation technologies ltd

Organization Website

Organization Phone

+9180 39811035

Organization Address

139/25 Domlur Ring Road, Bangalore Karnataka India - 560071

Organization Country

India, KA

Country where this project is creating social impact

India, KA

Is your organization a

For‐profit

How long has your organization been operating?

More than 5 years

Is the project that you are entering related to this organization?

Yes

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Innovation

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Entry Form title

SwasthyaSEWA: Mobile based rural Healthcare Information Service

What change do you want to bring to the world?

SwáSthya(in Sanskrit,self-dependence,health,soundstate,comfort and satisfaction),Project Idea improve awareness, education about various healthcare and wellness issues in the rural areas of India and other emerging/ developing countries;
Target women who are members of Self Help Groups (SHGs) and micro entrepreneurs in the rural areas,enable them to get expert advice using mobile technologies;
Spread and influence the entire community through SHG to help scale up the education process in the immediate neighborhoods due to their better awareness and social standing;
Use mobile phones and associated technologies to accomplish (i) so that the service is easily accessible at their door steps, in a personalized way in the local context, in their vernacular language.

What are the primary activities of your project?

i.We will build a mobile Value Added Service, hereafter referred to as SwasthyaSEWA that has capabilities of Interactive Voice Response (IVR), outbound dialing and SMS sends, and configurable.
ii.Select rural women who are members of SHGs will be registered in our mobile Value Added Service (mVAS) system, referred to as SwasthyaSEWA, along with mobile phone number, demographic, family and current health details.
iii.The registrants will be configured as per different defined categories such as pregnant women, women with infants, women with children, older women, families with many children, families with Person with Disabilities in SwasthyaSEWA. The participants can also register for a one-to-call with experts on select topics of interest.
iv.SwasthyaSEWA, will deliver healthcare and wellness messages to the registered mobile phones of the rural women SHG members, through an outbound voice call in their native language, at designated times, on topics of their interest. Thus the power is given to the rural SHG women to choose their preference for information which would serve their needs.
v.Once in a week the registered participants can speak to identified medical practitioners and experts, in close confidence. Both the experts and participants will be connected through SwasthyaSEWA system for one-to-one calls.

What is innovative about your initiative? How is it a new contribution to the field?

i.Accessibility: Mobile is ubiquitous and is available with most of the SHG members even in rural areas are very much conversant with the usege. The mVAS system is scheduled to dial outbound messages during the period the women are free.
ii.Vernacular Support: Currently available many SMS based service are “push based”. The target audience if illiterate and semi-literate do not read them at all. SwasthyaSEWA through its IVR provides vernacular support. For example, in Kannada during the pilot project and later in Hindi/Tamil/Malayalam depending on participants location. Hence this option bridges the language and literacy gap.
The SMS and IVR calls are delivered outbound and the one-to-one talk with the expert is done through SwasthyaSEWA system server; hence the recipients of the service do not pay any usage charges. In future we will look at advertisements, ring tones or registration fees to recover the fixed cost.
iii.Personalization: SwasthyaSEWA identifies individual SHG members through their registered mobile SIM. Hence our system can possibly provide individualized/ group enabled information. For example, women with infants will get tips on prevention of infant disease while pregnant women will get pre-birth advice. Similarly the one-to-one call will be enabled with experts depending on the category to which the registrants belong:
iv. Localization: Based on the local conditions system SwasthyaSEWA distributes information relating to disease and epidemic out breaks, occupational hazards, and other health information as appropriate.

What stage is your project in?

Idea phase

Tell us about the community that you engage? eg. economic conditions, political structures, norms and values, demographic trends, history, and experience with engagement efforts.

i.Poor access to health care, lack of awareness and fear of social ostracization are factors which prevent the rural women in India from receiving timely and appropriate care. Many are unaware of government programs targeted at rural population. Old customs and beliefs also act as barriers for rural women to seek appropriate advice and treatment from health professionals, especially for diseases such as epilepsy, chickenpox, and dementia.
ii.We target rural women Self Help Groups (SHGs) who are micro entrepreneurs having homogenous social and economic backgrounds. Because of their entrepreneurial attitude the SHG women, are in general found to be responsible, socially active in their neighborhood and respected. They will act as catalysts in spreading the messages not only within their family but also educate others in their neighborhood; thus leading to a broader social awareness.
iii.By educating women in family about healthcare issue we can address her needs, her children and family needs as well.
iv.There are 2.2 million SHGs in India, representing about 33 million members. By targeting specifically at this audience base, we hope to reap the benefits of economies of scale and thus reduce the average cost of the service per subscriber to bare minimum.
v.Sasken has been involved in a business service targeted at rural women SHGs in a current project and hope to leverage on the experience for this project as well.

Share the story of the founder and what inspired the founder to start this project

i.The ground work started in July 2008 when Sasken CEO Rajiv C Mody, asked the team to ideate a theme based offering on inclusion and mass market appeal. Studies indicated a positive causation between mobile penetration and economic and social well being. It was identified that adoption of mobile services can support rural groups in their economic as well as other areas including health. With this, emerged the idea of establishing connect between the women in rural areas through a mobile based ecosystem.
ii.Sasken has always believed in the power of technology – especially in the way it levels the playing field. Sasken has reaped the benefits of the new flat world in which an engineer based in India can participate in the creation of world beating products. Can we then not find technology solutions to bridge the urban-rural divide? More specifically, is there a technology solution that will unshackle the divide and provide essential services such as access to market and health information.
iii.The part of the project that dealt with the market and business processes is referred to as VyapaarSEWA. The health information service was coined SwasthyaSEWA.
iv.VyapaarSEWA is in PoC stage. SwasthyaSEWA is in incubation stage.
v.These and other associated services using the mobile technology platform developed by us will help realize Sasken’s vision.
vi.Meanwhile the officials of KSHSRC showed high interest to make this as a public private partnership initiative.

Social Impact

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This Entry is about (Issues)

Please describe how your project has been successful and how that success is measured

Approximately 200 words left (1600 characters).

How many people have been impacted by your project?

Fewer than 100

How many people could be impacted by your project in the next three years?

More than 10,000

Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact

Demonstrate technology PoC in 3 weeks to DHSFW Govt of karnataka,Sign a formal contract with KSHSRC for health content and experts.Start a 6-monts pilot project and include about 1,000 beneficiaries

Task 1

Identify SHG members; register their mobiles and other demographic information;

Task 2

Setup server infrastructure and telecommunications connectivity;

Task 3

Configure the server for different outbound messages

Identify your 12-month impact milestone

i.Explore NGOs to hand hold the project for sustainability.
ii.Start main project and scale up to about 3,000 beneficiaries in the first year

Task 1

Study the pilot results and include any gaps both in technology and administration

Task 2

Scale up and register about 2,000 more beneficiaries

Task 3

How will your project evolve over the next three years?

Developing the POC to be shown to the Department of Health Services and Family Welfare (DHSFW), Government of Karnataka, India.We have initiated a Public Private Partnership (PPP) project proposal with Karnataka State Health Services Resource Centre (KSHSRC), State of Karnataka, India to do a pilot project on SwasthyaSEWA in the state. The health information and expert medical practitioners for one-to-one call will be provided from the repositories of KSHSRC. Sasken will develop SwasthyaSEWA platform and configure it for the mVAS service.We plan to enroll about 100,000 women SHG members in the state in 3 years and integrate SwasthyaSEWA with VyapaarSEWATM so that the health information service can be provided across pan India in the years to come.

Sustainability

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What barriers might hinder the success of your project and how do you plan to overcome them?

i.The beneficiaries may not find our health information meeting their expectations and hence may not adopt. We plan to conduct in-depth survey and interviews of the beneficiaries during PoC and pilot so that we can closely customize the messages to the requirements.
ii.The government resource center that we have approached for content and experts might delay the project and might not even sign for the project. We plan to develop our own network of healthcare and wellness experts to mitigate this risk.
iii.Identifying the Mobile operators with the tariff plans that suits our low cost budget since most of the operators are increasing tariff for mobile services. We will try to overcome this problem by combining SwasthyaSEWA with our incumbent VyapaarSEWA project to take advantage of economies of scale and scope.
iv.Part of the cost of the project has to be sponsored by Sasken as its Corporate Social Responsibility budget. If it does not come through we plan to levy a nominal subscription charge to the beneficiaries. However the content in that case should add enough value.
v.Though we have tested outbound messages from the mVAS technology platform, we are yet to test whether for the one-to-one call we can patch it from the server so that the beneficiaries are not charged. We will explore conferencing solutions if patching of calls does not work.
vi.At the ground level there may be technology and adoption problems. We plan to tie up with NGOs so that they can haldhold the beneficiaries during the stage to overcome initial teething problems.

Tell us about your partnerships

i.Tie-up with Karnataka State Health Service Resource Centre (KSHSRC), Government of Karnataka, India for providing health information content and health experts – in progress
ii.Tie-up with mobile operator who has good telecom coverage, connectivity and a god tariff plan in the State of Karnataka, India for providing the mVAS services – in progress
iii.Tie-up with an mVAS platform provider for configuring SwasthyaSEWA – already in place
iv.Tie-up with State Government of Karnataka on procuring the particulars of SHGs in the State – in progress
v.Tie-up with NGOs in the State to conduct survey of SHG members and handhold on them in the initial stages – in progress
vi.To tie-up with National Health System Resource Centrem Government of India to scale up it across the country – to initiate

Current annual budget of project, in US dollars

$50,001‐100,000

Explain your selections

i.The KSHSRC under the National Rural Health Mission, Government of Karnataka, has approached us to provide a solution for disseminating health information services to rural areas. The center will provide the required health messages and also identify experts to work with us.
ii.Some of the large NGOs in India such as Society for the Promotion of Youth and Masses (SPYM) are interested in working with us to provide health information services to SHGs they manage. They also expressed their initial willingness to hand hold the beneficiaries.
iii.Some mobile operators are interested in providing VAS services as indicated in the project in rural areas to check subscriber churn. We have been working collaboratively with a mobile operator on the VyapaarSEWA TM project.

How do you plan to strengthen your project in the next three years?

i.After the PoC and Pilot in the first 6 months, we plan to provide the service to all the potential beneficiaries in the State of Karnataka. Plan to link with the National Health System Resource Centre, Government of India for both content and experts.
ii.After the first year, we plan to have similar tie-ups with the Health System Resource Centres in other states: Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Maharashtra in the second year; Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab, and Assam states in India in the third year to almost reach pan-India level by the third year.
iii.Integrate SwasthyaSEWA service as part of the other related VyapaarSEWA project.
iv.Include expert based consulting sessions in which even preliminary diagnosis of the beneficiaries health problems be addressed. For example using camera captured image sent from the mobile phone of a problem area on the beneficiaries bodies (e.g. sore throat), initial diagnosis and prescription of medication can be done.
v.Involve more NGOs to handhold the beneficiaries and technology training.
vi.Approach government and other private sources for the required funding.

Challenges

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Which barriers to health and well-being does your innovation address?
Please select up to three in order of relevancy to your project.

PRIMARY

Lack of access to targeted health information and education

SECONDARY

Limited diagnosis/detection of diseases

TERTIARY

Limited access to preventative tools or resources

Please describe how your innovation specifically tackles the barriers listed above.

The Primary Health Care centres are at distant places from rural villages. The healthcare workers visit only at the stipulated time. Our initiative will overcome the above distance and availability problem to provide health information and education at the door steps of the beneficiaries.In the one-to-one call service provided by SwasthyaSEWA with the expert, who can advise on the required preventive set ups and also give localized information depending upon the ground conditions such as epidemics present in that area at that specific time.In the one-to-one call service provided by SwasthyaSEWA with the expert, the patient can explain the symptoms of the health problems she/he has and the expert can prescribe over –the-counter medication for easily detectable and curable diseases.

How are you growing the impact of your organization or initiative?
Please select up to three potential pathways in order of relevancy to you.

PRIMARY

Enhanced existing impact through addition of complementary services

SECONDARY

Grown geographic reach: Within host country

TERTIARY

Grown geographic reach: Multi-country

Please describe which of your growth activities are current or planned for the immediate future.

i.As outlined we propose to increase the number of beneficiaries from PoC to 1,000 in 6 months; 3,000 in one year within the state and to 100,000 in 3 years across pan India.
ii.We plan to include prevention tips, and remote diagnosis from experts apart from simple health information service and hence provide more and more value added service offerings.
iii.We plan to integrate this with our business service platform to provide a synergistic information service to target beneficiaries – the rural women SHG members

Do you collaborate with any of the following: (Check all that apply)

Government, NGOs/Nonprofits.

If yes, how have these collaborations helped your innovation to succeed?

i.The beneficiaries who are rural women SHG members are very active and provide the required impetus for the whole programme. They will help spread the health information amongst their family members as well as nearby communities thus improving the social welfare.
ii.The government State Health System Resource Centre with its huge army of experts and amount of specialized health content, will provide the required support for SwasthyaSEWA to scale.
iii.The NGOs will provide the required hand holding of the beneficiaries and collaborate with us as incubating partners for new ideas and service offerings.

The Potential Of Video Narrowcasting: Farmer Generated Extension Services in India

Created on 09/14/2011 by ranaghose

Farming is a risky livelihood. Video narrowcasts allow farmers themselves to mitigate risk and help other farmers. Who else can?

About You

Organization: REProductions Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hide

About You

First Name

Rana

Last Name

Ghose

Twitter URL

Facebook URL

About Your Organization

Organization Name

REProductions

Organization Website

Organization Country

India, DL

Country where this project is creating social impact

India, MM

Is your organization a

For‐profit

How long has your organization been operating?

More than 5 years

The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..

Innovation

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Entry Form title

The Potential Of Video Narrowcasting: Farmer Generated Extension Services in India

Select the stage that best applies to your solution

Idea (you're poised to launch)

How long have you been in operation?

Operating for 1‐5 years

THE NEED: Describe the need for your solution and the size/dynamic of the community (ies) you will engage

While new varieties of technologies for agriculture are many and varied, access to information among farmers on how best to use them is often limited. Though state mandated extension services exist, the private sector is a more prevalent source of information, especially in the context of - but not limited to - new varieties of genetically modified crops such as Bt cotton, along with the wealth of new farm inputs that have flooded rural markets. Farmers themselves adhere to a combination of information gleaned from the state and their own traditional practice, but primarily from the seed shop, an agent who pursues his or her own financial incentives. As a result, there is a real need to facilitate a disinterested exchange of common challenges, successes, and failures held by farmers in using these new technologies to ensure higher rates of success, as that space does not exist. The location is the Vidharba region of eastern Maharashtra in India, the center of the ongoing "agrarian crisis", with the pilot being the village where I conducted my PhD research, Chikhali; a community of 700 people, and the aim is to scale up the model to other communities in the region.

THE SOLUTION: Please explain what your solution offers and how it is innovative. How will you put your solution into the hands of users or beneficiaries? Be specific!

Digital video presents an ideal, pragmatic means by which to share this knowledge, counter the current lack of expertise, and tap into local knowledge. The objective is to engage farmers to create and broadcast their own “extension” service to other farmers at a district level, using the production skills that those farmers working with the author have, and the existing broadcast infrastructure that Doodarshan (DD), India's state broadcaster, has in place. The application here is to train farmers to shoot their own "how-to" videos based on their local, applied knowledge, and to share them via existing state owned terrestrial cable television lines that are capable of broadcasting - or given the limited reach that reflects the cables, narrowcasting. Video capture devices are becoming nearly ubiquitous on mobile phones, and so capturing the content is perfectly feasible. My 7 years of experience in training others on the basics of digital video production provides a pedagogical framework to do it. And my established background on the issues at hand - agriculture and new technologies in India (http://ranaghose.com/thesisvideo) - are perfectly suited to make this solution a reality. I have lived in these areas over the course of two years and have a team of farmers who are keen to work with me and make this solution take off. By virtue of the fact that farmers will be content creators, ownership dynamics will ensure sustainability. It is an innovative and unique meshing of new media, real challenges faced by farmers, and participatory dynamics in solving these challenges.

THE MODEL: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference through use of information technology and media

The model is rooted in a combination of my own observations of how farmers access information, and thus "regulate" their own practice, and my seven years of experience as a video trainer. Along with the more typical elements of academic research, I have trained members of Chikhali how to shoot and edit video for the purposes of his research (http://ranaghose.com/research/i4d.pdf). I have formed a working link with Video Volunteers (http://www.videovolunteers.org) to set up a Community Video Unit within the community, along with logistical and financial support for this endeavor. As such, the community (and some of the surrounding communities) are well placed and able to produce content - to shoot short videos about how to deal with new biotic and abiotic stressors and new farm inputs. With regards to technical narrowcast logistics, a meeting with Sajan Venniyoor in December 2007 revealed the technical possibility of de-linking DD’s satellite link to the content server for a brief period on a weekly basis to narrowcast content from a laptop or similar device. The objective is thus to engage farmers to create and broadcast their own “extension” service to other farmers at a district level, using the production skills that those farmers working with the author have, and the existing broadcast infrastructure that DD has in place. Once this is established in Chikhali, the narrowcasting model can be extended based on DD's networks to a far wider network of districts, with those trained training others to replicate the model.

THE MARKETPLACE: Who are your peers and competitors? What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?

The model differs from other efforts at using mobile phones in such a context, as these efforts were targeted towards price quotations in real time from local markets (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reuters_Market_Light). While successful in other regions, RML failed to scale up in Vidharba due to the fee structure. Digital Green (http://digitalgreen.org) has done similar work as what I am proposing, but with a lacking focus on GM technologies, which is poised to become a more and more prevalent source of confusion for farmers. As of now, there is only one GM crop in India - Bt cotton - which now accounts for 95% of all the cotton grown in India. If that is any indication of the kind of adoption rates among farmers, the GM food crops currently in the pipeline will likely be adopted in a similar fashion. However, in my observations over the course of my PhD, the main challenge here is useful information to mitigate risk. Narrowcasting extension services sets itself from apart from what others are doing due to its ease of application, pragmatic need, and involvement with the community members.

Social Impact

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This Entry is about (Issues)

FOUNDING STORY: We want to hear about your “Aha!” moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution’s potential to change the world.

My "aha" moment occurred in observing the kinds of extension services that farmers had access to over the course of my PhD fieldwork. First were NGOs promoting organic agriculture by bringing a team of "model farmers" to visit other villages. However, I soon came to know that in reality, these model farmers all grew GM cotton! Clearly, this means of sharing information did not resonate. Second was state extension officers, who ironically are mandated to not provide information on private sector varieties - varieties that most farmers use! Complicating that is a historical mistrust of these officers. And finally were the seed sellers, who - over the course of my growing my own 2 acres of GM cotton - clearly were motivated by profit as opposed to the overall welfare of farmers. I know farmers collectively possess the expertise to address their own challenges. It just needs to be shared. So, in combination with my experience in training others to shoot video and my keen awareness of farmer decision making dynamics, this model presented an obvious solution, one that can apply to farming communities facing similar challenges worldwide.

Specify both the depth and scale of your solution’s social impact to date

Kiran and Manoj were two of the model farmers I encountered, traveling with a local NGO to proselytize about the benefits of organic methods. Over the course of my two years there, many conversations with them led me to realize that this solution is not only viable in my eyes, but something that they see tremendous value in. I had trained them both in video production, and they shot a number of videos on issues that informed my research (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2433872512476512635). This particular example served to catalyze a series of efforts among other farmers to better understand why farmers were committing suicide, and to address a way to better ensure similar dynamics did not arise in their community. But, it also made many of the farmers involved in the production of the impact of the medium. The phase now is to scale up beyond the 150 farming households in Chikhali, and actually begin to produce a series on the kind of extension services that they feel are best suited to their local realities and contexts in the region and beyond.

What is your projected impact within the next 1-5 years? Is your idea replicable? If so, how?

The first three months would focus on producing 10 short videos to address the common challenges faced by farmers, something that would be determined by farmers themselves. These videos would reach farmers not only in Chikhali, but given the nature of DD's infrastructure, about 16 other villages in the area. After that, those who shot the ten videos would then travel to surrounding districts, in cooperation with a local organization, VJAS (http://vidarbhatimes.blogspot.com). DD's network would be used, as would the contacts and influence of VJAS. After this first year, a broader rollout across India would begin. The aim is to, within 3 years, sensitize Indian farmers to the model, and then beyond that, to secure more resources and support to roll it out to other communities worldwide.

Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and mark growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact

The aim is to launch it within the area surrounding Chikhali within the first 3 months, and to roll it out to Vidharba in 6.

Six-Month Tasks

Task 1

Work with Kiran and Manoj to get a team of farmers to script the 10 videos they want to make.

Task 2

Shoot all 10 and to start getting them narrowcasted with DD by the 5th episode.

Task 3

Work with VJAS to identify other communities in Vidharba to scale up to by the end of the 6th month.

Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone

After the first 6 months, the next target is India. Working with the DD network, this model should roll out in 3 more states.

12-Month Tasks

Task 1

Liase with the state, NGOs, and the private sector to identify markets and communities to approach.

Task 2

Secure participation in three states based on the connections I have made with these three parties over my research.

Task 3

At the end of the first year, look into other Indian markets, and gauge where the need and logistics are best suited.

How many people have been impacted by your project?

101 - 1,000

How many people could be impacted by your project in the next three years?

More than 10,000

Sustainability

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Explain how your company, program, service or product is structured

Hybrid model

What barriers have hindered the success of your project to date? How do you plan to overcome these and other challenges as you grow your solution?

The main challenges to date have been my prioritizing the PhD as the main thing I had to attend to. I could not devote the time required to make this model and vision manifest. However, with the PhD complete, now is the time. There was also the challenges of resources - video capture devices in particular along with a simple PC for editing - but the availability of both has changed in Chikhali and, as I have noticed, in other farming communities in India. I think that the combination of my ability to fully commit to this now - though of course my prioritizing the PhD first allowed the insights that generate this model - and the availability of farmer owned video capture devices, presents the ideal platform now for this model to jump off from.

How do you see the information-technology and media sectors shifting over the next decade? How will your solution adapt to and/or drive that changing environment?

In India, 3G connectivity, massive mobile phone penetration and the increasing sophistication of these phones, and the onslaught of new farming technologies all present a space where farmer led extension narrowcasting can lead a new frontier. Within the decade, all these trends will increase exponentially. The model addresses a pragmatic need, but does so in perfect alignment with technology and media trends, and as it is generated by farmer knowledge, it is sustainable and easily replicated.

Failure is not always an option. If your solution fails to gain traction in the next two years, what other applications of the idea could you explore?

There is no shortage of ways by which community created media content can be used. By training farmers how to use the technology, and by establishing links with DD, Video Volunteers, and other organizations, a broader series of opportunities and applications of the model are inbuilt. The nature of the moving image is visceral, immediate, and easily understood. And community created content is becoming the norm in a post web 2.0 world. Whatever happens, the skills, stories, and sustainability of the project will always find an application.

Expand on your selections, explaining how you will sustain funding

I have secured a partnership with Video Volunteers to begin rolling out the model. Their assistance is mostly in kind in terms of training modules and their vast experience. Financially, I will begin with a combination of my own resources, this award, a variety of crowdsourcing/funding platforms, and my own connections. KK Narayanan, the founder of MetaHelix (http://www.meta-helix.com), a biotech startup in Bangalore, express a keen interest in this model. He wanted to collaborate in the future based on his interest in my research when we first met in 2009. Similarly, the Department of Biotechnology (http://dbtindia.nic.in/index.asp) has also expressed an interest, given the connections I have made over the course of my interacting with them over the course of the PhD.

Tell us about your partnerships

I have known Video Volunteers since 2007, when I first met Jessica Mayberry in Gujarat. We had both trained women at SEWA (http://www.sewa.org) on video production in the past, and we both realized our common interests. Her current partner, Stalin K, also shares an enthusiasm to work together. Sajan Venniyoor and I met at GK3 (http://www.gkpeventsonthefuture.org/gk3/compiled/p704.htm) in December 2007 as we were both on a panel about community media. We also realized our common interests and a shared desire to collaborate.

What type of team (staff, volunteers, etc.) will ensure that you achieve the growth milestones identified in the Social Impact section?

The staff will be primarily Kiran Raut and Manoj Chikhalkar from, Chikhali to begin with, as they both have expressed a keen interest in the model. Beyond that, we have had a three year long working relationship, and they are my friends - we share a mutual respect for each others work. As the project scales up, the network of those affected will grow, and more and more farmers will get involved. It will be a process of working with partners through VJAS, my, and Kiran and Manoj's networks to best identify who we can work with.

Changemakers is a collaborative and supportive space. Please specify any community resources you would need to grow and sustain your initiative. Select all that apply

Investment, Marketing or media, Mentorship.

Specify any resources you might offer to support other initiatives. Select all that apply

Marketing or media, Pro-bono help (legal, financial, etc.), Innovation or ideas.

Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren’t specified within the list

I have had a long working relationship with IDRC (http://www.idrc.ca) first as an intern in 2003, then as a consultant to the present day. IDRC has always been remarkably supportive of my work, and within the organization lies amazing creativity and mentorship. Their experience in working with new technologies in a developing country context is long and storied, and in the context of this model, potentially invaluable.

Summary

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Define your company, program, service or product in 1-2 short sentences

Reflexivity lies at the core of my work. My goal in life is to generate and share perspectives and narratives towards solutions.

Identify what is innovative about your solution in 1-2 short sentences

Farming is a risky livelihood. Video narrowcasts allow farmers themselves to mitigate risk and help other farmers. Who else can?

Changeshop

This project also has a Changeshop where you can read more about its latest progress.
Go to Changeshop: CGNet Swara.

CGNet Swara: Voice Portal for Community Media in India

Created on 09/11/2011 by arjunvenkatraman

Phone Accessible Voice Portal for Community Media to Enable Participation in Democracy through Communication and Dialogue.

About You

Organization: CGNet Swara Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hide

About You

First Name

Arjun

Last Name

Venkatraman

Twitter URL

Facebook URL

About Your Organization

Organization Name

CGNet Swara

Organization Website

Organization Country

India, DL

Country where this project is creating social impact

India, CT

Is your organization a

Not registered

How long has your organization been operating?

More than 5 years

The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..

Innovation

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Entry Form title

CGNet Swara: Voice Portal for Community Media in India

Select the stage that best applies to your solution

Scaling (the next step will be growing impact on a regional or even global scale)

How long have you been in operation?

Operating for 1‐5 years

THE NEED: Describe the need for your solution and the size/dynamic of the community (ies) you will engage

Information sharing and communication are keys to participation in democracy. However, many communities across the world are deprived of media and communication mechanisms, rendering them voiceless and therefore vulnerable to exploitation. Mainstream media content is biased towards what sells rather than what is balanced or relevant.
e.g. Even with a tribal population of 90 million in Central India there are no newspapers, television channels or radio programs in tribal languages. Community radio is strictly regulated, rendering it out of reach for most communities. The internet and television are out of reach since both education and infrastructure are at a premium.
In this landscape, mobile phones provide a ubiquitous medium that utilizes oral traditions already practiced by many of these communities.
With 850 million cellphone subscribers, India is a prime market for voice based content platforms accessible via mass market cellphones.

THE SOLUTION: Please explain what your solution offers and how it is innovative. How will you put your solution into the hands of users or beneficiaries? Be specific!

CGNet Swara is a voice-based portal, freely accessible via mobile phone that allows anyone to report and listen to stories of local interest. Reported stories are moderated by trained journalists and made available for playback online as well as over the phone.
CGNet Swara is the first portal of its kind, where users can both listen AND record their own content. This 2-way interface allows for quick reports and reactions from the ground about issues that affect communities.
Mobile penetration in the region is much higher than internet, television or print media and the ability to use the mobile phone as an information sharing tool has taken off well. With a one year pilot started in Feb 2010 in Chhattisgarh, we now receive 300+ phone calls a day from across the country, primarily from the Central Tribal Region.
Swara was initially developed as an extension of the CGNet discussion group, also started by Shubhranshu Choudhary, which has been active since 2004. The aim was to extend the reach of CGNet into areas where there is no Internet and television.

THE MODEL: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference through use of information technology and media

The solution uses open source components, the core of which was developed as a student project in MIT. It consists of a server connected to a telephony interface, running a software PBX system. The PBX directs all incoming calls to a very simple (2 option) IVR interface. Users can choose to record new content, or listen to recordings left by other people that have been published by the moderators.
Since the interface is almost completely voice based and in a local language, the user does not have to be literate or specially trained to use it.
Once the content is recorded, it is filtered by trained journalists who frequently call the contributor back to check and verify details. Once the story has been verified, the moderator releases it to the web and the IVR. The web link is also published to subscribed mailing lists and social media. The target user group on the IVR are grassroots workers and rural activists. The target group for the Web are urban activists, international development/ human rights organizations and the administration.
Swara also helps forge partnerships between urban and rural activists based on reports and carries out training programmes for moderators and citizen journalists.

THE MARKETPLACE: Who are your peers and competitors? What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?

While we have no direct competitors, several groups are also working with voice services.
(Gramvani, Awaz.de,Gaon Ki Awaz).
We are looking to forge partnerships with these organizations with the long term view of standardizing a platform for mobile content sharing, similar to a voice-web. In the short term we are looking to collaborate with GramVani to pool our resources and expand our reach.
What we bring to the table is several years of experience in journalism and building grassroots partnerships. What differentiates Swara is the fact that we have spent over 5 years building strong networks in both urban and rural areas. Just reporting is not enough, action must follow and that requires a solid presence at both the administrative as well as grassroots level.

Social Impact

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This Entry is about (Issues)

FOUNDING STORY: We want to hear about your “Aha!” moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution’s potential to change the world.

Shu Choudhary was researching a book in the conflict regions of Central India (Chhattisgarh/Andhra Pradesh/Orissa). While talking to Maoists, tribals and the mainstream population, Shubhranshu realized that the conflict was less because of politics and more because of a gap in communication between people.
Looking for ways to open communication channels, he first explored Community Radio, but realized that restrictive regulations prevented it from being a viable tool for conflict resolution. TV was ruled out, since much of this region barely has electricity. Shu first explored the Internet as an option and started CGNet, an email discussion group that has over 2000 members today. However, this still represented only the areas with Internet penetration. The question was how to get the people not on internet to join the conversation. Shu noticed that even people in the deep interiors carried mobile phones and found ways to use them. On his return to the city, he began talking to technologists about designing a mobile solution. Bill Thies at Microsoft Research and his academic colleagues at MIT stepped up to the task, designed the initial platform and helped Shu set up the pilot.

Specify both the depth and scale of your solution’s social impact to date

Since Feb 2010, we have received 58,000+ calls from 7,000+ unique phone numbers and have published about 900 reports. 71% of our calls are from Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, 11% from Jharkhand and Bihar, the rest from Rajasthan, Delhi etc.
Many of these reports have been picked up by the national and international press, some with credit. Moreover, our follow-up network has been proven capable of tracking stories about one individual or issue by multiple sources. E.g. the case of Mr. Pitbasu Bhoi, a labourer who was not paid by the MNREGA scheme was reported by two independent journalists and later picked up by mainstream media
Swara has also helped empower our citizen journalists, by providing training, support and exposure to mainstream media.
We have also carried out training programmes for citizen journalists and moderators, the last one in collaboration with the Indian Ministry of Culture’s Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti.

What is your projected impact within the next 1-5 years? Is your idea replicable? If so, how?

Over the next 5 years we envision connecting communities across the country using a network of phone and web accessible audio channels, allowing users to create and access audio content from their cellphones, creating a “voice-web”. To this end we plan to develop an open technology platform that can be leveraged by communities everywhere to build their own applications and manage their own content.
We also plan to develop a partnership and training program to get communities started with the platform and how to use it to spark and sustain follow up action on issues raised by the community.

Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and mark growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact

Expand reach by starting 3 regional chanels with training for users and moderators in partnership with like-minded organizations

Six-Month Tasks

Task 1

Set up channels with independent moderators in Jharkhand, Orissa and MP

Task 2

Set up partnerships with organizations such as GramVani to share content and resources

Task 3

Host 3 citizen journalism workshops to train contributors, one for each channel

Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone

Design & standardize technology/proceses that comunities can use to conect to a netwrk of linkd voice chanels that share content

12-Month Tasks

Task 1

Work in collaboration with GramVani and others to merge features and design an open, community supported, technology platform

Task 2

Work with grassroots partners, citizen journalists and activists to develop a training program for citizen journalists, moderato

Task 3

Raise funds to provide running costs and training and technology support for communities for free or at subsidized rates

How many people have been impacted by your project?

1,001 - 10,000

How many people could be impacted by your project in the next three years?

More than 10,000

Sustainability

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Explain how your company, program, service or product is structured

Undefined

What barriers have hindered the success of your project to date? How do you plan to overcome these and other challenges as you grow your solution?

1.Scaling up moderation: Moderation requires time and commitment, often difficult to sustain at no cost. Moderators have to verify news reports with the community and this requires training. We plan to distribute the task by having separate channels per language, each with a paid moderator. To sustain this, communities could eventually contribute to support the moderator.
2. Call costs: To popularize the service, we began calling users back after they leave a missed call. We are reducing this cost by setting up efficient call routing and encouraging users who can afford it to pay for their own calls.

How do you see the information-technology and media sectors shifting over the next decade? How will your solution adapt to and/or drive that changing environment?

We envision an upsurge in the number of people in India with access to the Internet and that media will evolve to this new consumer model. The primary mode of information consumption and exchange will be the mobile phone. By being well connected to the community at the forefront of the adoption curve in rural and semi-urban India, we feel that we are uniquely positioned to create the maximum impact

Failure is not always an option. If your solution fails to gain traction in the next two years, what other applications of the idea could you explore?

Given that smartphone penetration in rural India is set to shoot up, with companies like Micromax and Lava bringing out feature and smartphones at mass market prices. Irrespective of whether voice gains traction, we will be targeting that wave early on to find other applications for the same platform.
By making the project open source, we are ensuring that innovation will continue from the community regardless of our success

Expand on your selections, explaining how you will sustain funding

We are currently grant and donation funded. However, in the long term, we see a possibility of a revenue stream from a hosting service model, where in communities interested in running an audio platform will be able to sign up for an account and manage their own content from an administration interface. We could also supplement this revenue stream by providing paid training programs in citizen journalism and audio content management. A tertiary revenue stream could be advertising and content syndication, where in mainstream media could sponsor some citizen journalists in an area that they are interested in.

Tell us about your partnerships

Our core funding is through the Knight International Journalism Felowship Program, managed by the International Center for Journalists. We aditionaly work with other organizations at a program level basis, e.g. Ministry of Culture’s Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti recently hosted one training program with us and we have another lined up at the end of September with another agency
We also have many grasroots partners including Sitara and Prasoon. Our grasroots partners help mobilize citizen journalists and folow up on isues raised by the comunity.

What type of team (staff, volunteers, etc.) will ensure that you achieve the growth milestones identified in the Social Impact section?

We invite people with a passion for empowering communities through technology to work with us, particularly individuals and organizations interested in partnering with us on technology, to develop new features for the platform, multilingual people who speak at least one language from the region to moderate and translate messages and finally people interested in following up on messages in action.

Changemakers is a collaborative and supportive space. Please specify any community resources you would need to grow and sustain your initiative. Select all that apply

Investment, Human resources or talent, Marketing or media, Research or information, Collaboration or networking, Pro-bono help (legal, financial, etc.), Innovation or ideas, Mentorship.

Specify any resources you might offer to support other initiatives. Select all that apply

Human resources or talent, Research or information, Collaboration or networking, Innovation or ideas, Mentorship.

Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren’t specified within the list

Summary

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Define your company, program, service or product in 1-2 short sentences

CGNet Swara: Call 08041137280 and speak to the world in your own voice, from wherever you are, using tools you already have.

Identify what is innovative about your solution in 1-2 short sentences

Phone Accessible Voice Portal for Community Media to Enable Participation in Democracy through Communication and Dialogue.

India Unheard

Created: 08/04/11 by anmol dharmadhikari

Location

Goa,India
India

Video Volunteers is an organization who is training and disseminating content generated by their around 100 community correspondents all over India.

Write3.com: Your Words for a Better Community

Created on 07/26/2011 by ashrafabir

Creating global base information of the society and empowering individuals to raise their voices for a better community.

About You

Organization: MCC LTD Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hide

About You

First Name

Suny Md Ashraf

Last Name

Khan

Twitter URL

Facebook URL