Technologies for Life
Make available suitable technologies to improve the quality of life of the most vulnerable people and communities.
About You
Location
Project Street Address
Project City
Project Province/State
Project Postal/Zip Code
Project Country
Your idea
Field of Work
Water
Year the initative began (yyyy)
2006
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Web site (url)
Positioning of your initiative on the mosaic diagram:
Which of these barriers is the primary focus of your work?
Lack of access to equity/credit in the sector
Which of the principles is the primary focus of your work?
Move people up the sanitation ladder
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
Technologies for Life
Describe Your Idea
Make available suitable technologies to improve the quality of life of the most vulnerable people and communities.
Innovation
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence?
Make available suitable technologies to improve the quality of life of the most vulnerable people and communities.
Describe your innovation. What makes your idea unique and different than others doing work in the field?
Enterprise Technologies for Life is a project born from Foundation Nueva Gente that has great experience in working in poor communities and the set up of networks. The initiative intends to provide services to improve the quality of life vulnerable sectors. The innovation consists in developing a framework with private and public organizations (NGO´s) so that the appliances reach the real beneficiaries are distributed and spread across the geography of the country. We aim for feedback so that products are offered and demands are received. Also alliances with institutes of investigation they are carried out, centers of technological development and universities so that they provide the necessary knowledge for the design of solutions. Those appliances ( such as the rope pump for water extraction) that need to be built, are assembled in the Nueva Gente workshops they work vulnerable youths.
Delivery Model: How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing?
The rope water extraction pumps are produced in the Nueva Gente ETV/FOUNDATION workshops. What is innovative about this model of diffusion is that is done through the association with private and public organizations that are in contact with the potential beneficiaries constituting a framework that permits to arrive at the place of the need. The organizations are trained in the installation of appropriate technologies and to be agents to research for new demands. Thus training diffusion, distribution and demand networks are created. For example through the access to water, which remains in the places of development. We try to form a network of production and commercialization with private features so that these sectors have access technologies.
How do you plan to expand your innovation?
The work has to go beyond the local community. We seek private and public organizations that are in contact with the beneficiaries from different areas of the country. We take two to three ares at the same time and there we exhaust all the possibilities of alliances and associations to satisfy the potential demand. According to the demand of technologies of the areas we already have done improvements to the rope pump so that for example it works with solar energy or in a Aeolian way. The production has been planned so that it responds promptly to the demand of orders and arrangements have been done for the complex logistics.
Do you have any existing partnerships, and if so, how do you create them?
We have several partnerships:
Atomic center Bariloche: Research team in appropriate technologies. It is part since the start of the project and they provide investigation and development of prototypes
Invap Engineering: Hours of engineering for design
Amanco Argentina: provision of pipes and promotion of products. I generated this partnership due in the idea of carrying products to vulnerable sectors
Teknicampo: Social enterprise dedicated to the production and sale of products for small producers. We contacted themto produce a catalogue
Fundapaz: Ngo that works in rural communities in the north of the country and collaborates in the promotion in the areas of Salta and Santiago of the Estero
Warmis: Ngo that works in rural communities of the highland of Jujuy and collaborates in the promotion
Partnerships provincial and national institutions that have a big impact
Partnerships with logistic companies for the distribution
Partnerships with investors for the start up phase
Impact
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact.
To effectively improve the quality of life of poor communities that need to manually pump water.
What are the main barriers to creating or achieving your impact?
To reach suitable organizations for the alliance
To keep a good communication level with the partnering organizations
The long distanes thatv we need to cover which difficult the out reach of the organizations.
To find the much needed funding
How many people have you served or plan to serve?
Till this moment we have served 300 people and we plan to reach 150,000 people.
Directly
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Indirectly
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Please list any other measures of the impact of your innovation?
Activation of solidary mechanisms of credit Set up of a logistics system for the distribution of technologies.
Is there a policy intervention element to your innovation, if so please describe?
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Exactly who are the beneficiaries of your innovation?
The beneficiaries are the small rural producers, indigenous communities who manually access the water through wells, perforations or reservoirs. These are in general poor communities in a situation of confinement.
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)?
At the moment we receive seeding funds to set up the production system and to produce a pump from the prototypes of the different models to a commercial product. We have incomes from the the sale of pumps , which supports the shop and its workers.
We need funds to finish the system set up and for promotional purposes.
Provide information on your finances and organization:
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What is the potential demand for your innovation?
The basic demand is about 300,000 pumps based on the census og wells. This does not include the more secluded areas and the new wells to be built. We have estimated the demand bases on official data.
What are the main barriers to financial sustainability?
According to our calculations we could reach economic sustainability after the first four years. Foreseeing increasing sales of the rope water pump and the incorporation of other products. The barrier is to be able to find and incorporate enough funding to reach a situation of equilibrium. The minimum investment require for this is USD 74,000.
The Story
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story.
This project was born of the confluence of my different passions: The engineering and the will to solve social problems. As an engineer I worked in research and development institute and at the university and I saw that many solutions that would serve to the most vulnerable sectors remained in the sketches and laboratory or they won some prize of innovation, but did not arrive to the real beneficiaries. The social work allowed me to know in depth those beneficiaries
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material
As a nuclear engineer I also started working with poor communities from the city of through Fundación Gente Nueva, which I preside and together we have managed 10 schools and a number of regional programs.
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