Designers on a Mission - from Dadaab to Kabul to the World??
Esta presentción ha sido seleccionada como finalista del desafío
Sport for a Better World .
Design culturally appropriate sports apparel for muslim refugee sporting girls that could be made in the community as a livelihood, skill building opportunity.
Sobre ti
Ubicación
Project Street Address
Project City
Project Province/State
Project Postal/Zip Code
Project Country
tu idea
Sport
Otro
Year the initative began (yyyy)
2005
Project URL (include HTTP://)
Posicionamiento de tu iniciativa en el diagrama del mosaico:
Which of these barriers is the primary focus of your work?
Stereotyping that excludes
Which of the principles is the primary focus of your work?
Include through sport
If you believe some other barrier or principle should be included in the mosaic, please describe it and how it would affect the positioning of your initiative in the mosaic:
This field has not been completed
Name Your Project
Designers on a Mission - from Dadaab to Kabul to the World??
Describe Your Idea
Design culturally appropriate sports apparel for muslim refugee sporting girls that could be made in the community as a livelihood, skill building opportunity.
Innovación
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence?
Design culturally appropriate sports apparel for muslim refugee sporting girls that could be made in the community as a livelihood, skill building opportunity.
Describe your innovation. What makes your idea unique and different than others doing work in the field?
Our research of what was in the public domain and available commercially showed that muslim women (professionals and non professionals) struggle to find sports apparel that meets cultural requirements and is designed for sports performance. We applied our corporate assets (employee design, tailoring and materials skills/knowledge) and with insights from the community we created simple designs and patterns for sports apparel that could be made by the community (rather than being flown in); would perform for sports; would be fun; and would survive harsh environmental conditions of a refugee camp (temperature and wash conditions).
What are the existing barriers, the biggest problem, your innovation is hoping to address/change?
The lack of simple, easy, cost effective, available solutions/tools to the barrier that muslim women and girls can face just getting onto the playing field. Do not underestimate how big this barrier is. How important and fundamental it is in these communities for sports clothing that at all times provides (and is seen as providing) appropriate cover and adherance to important cultural protocols that will otherwise prevent women and girls from even starting.
Delivery Model: How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing?
After the Mission we created a packet of patterns and simple "How to"" Instructions, Guidelines and Recommendations for any community to make and adapt these uniforms to their circumstances. There is also a small contract (rembember this is a a community donation and not a money making acitivity for Nike) and we do not want for these sports apparel designs or made apparel to be sold and/or for any Nike branding to be put on them. Other than that this packet is available and ready to scale up and help to address this real barrier to muslim women and girls participating in sports. It probably needs some reworking to make it more professional but the basics are there.
How do you plan to grow your innovation?
The innovation itself is simple and needs to be kept that way. What needs to grow is availability/accessibility of the intellectual capital and tools that were created following the Mission so that many and not the few can access and take advantage - create/make their own appropriate sports apparel for muslim women and girls. One way to do that could be via a partnership. This can be as simple as you want it to be.
Impacto
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact.
This fun, different and culturally appropriate and community co-designed and accepted sports apparel enables excluded refugee girls to participate joyfully, with great benefit in sports.
What impact has your innovation had to date/or what is your intended impact? Exactly who are the beneficiaries?
Gives girls something fun, different to sport in that is designed for sports performance. They loved it. The work to make the sports apparel for these girls continued. We provided the cash to buy sufficient material to provide one set for each sporting girl for one year. Then in November 2005 there were devastating floods in Dadaab life was threatened and Together for Girls was put on hold. Now the Together for Girls project is about to be funded by the Nike Foundation via ninemillion.org. So the girls of Dadaab are again about to be able to access sports and its benefits.
How many people have you served directly?
Girls in Together for Girls: 521 (2004-2005)
Tailors/Seamstresses - capacity built: 40 (at a guess!)
How many people have you served indirectly?
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Please list any other measures reflective of the impact of your innovation?
Contributed to the fact that Together for Girls (as the umbrella education programme in which sports will happen) now has significant funding from Nike Foundation. Of which provision of this sports apparel for girls must be an integral part.
What are the main barriers to creating or achieving your impact?
Time and money to create a better package of Instructions and Tools and Advice that can be mass produced and made available to anyone that wants it - globally. With more thought and strategic focus we could also potentially find ways to engage other employees to go UNHCR refugee camps to help build capacity to cut and sew the sports apparel designs. For this piece the barrier is money and management support. Digital strategies and storytelling.
Esta presentación se trata de
Sustenibilidad
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)?
This field has not been completed
If known, provide information on your finances and organization.
This field has not been completed
What is the potential demand for your innovation?
Huge. Any and all muslim communities around the world where women and girls are not able to participate in sports and can not therefore access the life skills building that sports offers and therefore may remain excluded. This is easy to do and should be made available and accessible.
What are the main barriers to financial sustainability?
1. The type of material needed to make the sports apparel is not easy to access in Dadaab (and some other communities) and is expensive.
2. The environmental conditions are so harsh that sports apparel continually need to be made for new girls to participate in sports and to replace worn outfits.
3. Building the tailoring skills in the community - creating the market and enhancing livelihoods - challenging
4. Something for the boys - in this forgotten community
La historia
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story.
October 2004. A trip. To the refugee camps in Dadaab (North East Kenya). To see first hand how the Nike UNHCR partnership and programme ''Together for Girls'' was succeeding in using sports as a tool to address barriers that refugee girls face in enrolling and STAYING in school. Imagine: overbearing 40 degree heat, red dust and not much else except (very importantly) homes to nearly 100k, mostly Somalian, refugees - many of whom have been there for nearly 15 years. Imagine: seeing refugee girls playing sports (volleyball) against all odds and in their conservative (very) daily/school clothing. Their determination and passion for playing overcoming many barriers. Imagine: thinking ''wouldn't it be great to bring Nike design employees here to work with the community to design and make their own appropriate sports apparel for them to play in''. Take those imagined things and make them reality. That is what we did. Excite and engage our apparel design and development function to run a competition to find 4 employees with the skills to design for and with this community. After a lot of pre-work and research we arrived in Dadaab on MISSION with 3 prototypes. After talking to the girls (alone) to get their feedback and then meeting with the community an amended design was chosen. We then sat in a sewing centre and made the new uniforms for 2 hot and exhilarating days!
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material.
An environmental scientist by education and an environmental lawyer by profession I moved to Nike in the Netherlands in July 1996. I established and drove the creation of the systems for compliance with environmental laws for products, packaging and operations in the European region. Now I manage strategies for employee inspiration and engagement in community projects (by skill transfer) and community partnerships in Northern Europe.
How did you hear about this contest and what is your main incentive to participate? (this is confidential)
Nike sponsored. This entry is for the Nike Employee Challenge
Affiliation (please list all that apply)
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| Adjunto | Tamaño |
|---|---|
| FT Jan 26.pdf | 401.3 KB |
| Final Agreed Design Drawing.pdf | 253.95 KB |
| muslimicon.jpg | 2.71 KB |
