Claire de Lune

SOLAR LAMP CHALLENGE; BURKINA FASO

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Solar lamps. 

Learn more about the Solar Lamp Challenge and how these lamps create enormous benefits for developing world families.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Evidence suggests that remittances play an important role in African culture (remittances continue to be a large component of M-Pesa's mobile money transfer business), with poor households receiving a percentages of their monthly income from both international and domestic remittances. Claire de Lune will tap into this market by targeting customers who are wealthier, employed individuals living in regional capitals with rural family members. These customers will be incentivized through promotions and deals that will allow them to purchase solar lights for rural family members and use the well-established bus routes to ship the lights to their families.

Claire de Lune will employ pull marketing by exposing rural communities to the benefits of the lights in order to build demand. The campaign will revolve around getting poorer, rural households to take action by asking wealthier family members for solar lights sold at bus stations, mirroring the current cash or in-kind remittance distribution network. Claire de Lune will build a distribution network of private bus companies that have an international or national bus route; they will help with logistics, product storage in existing and secure storage facilities, and demonstrate customer value through product integration. Bus stations and rural bust stops will serve as demonstration centers to show the lights to create work of mouth marketing and to show off the product benefits to those customers including cell phone charging, brighter lighting, and long-term affordability.  

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Sell 400 solar lamps during the pilot phase

• Sell 3,000 solar lamps by the end of 6 months

• Work with 3 partner bus lines by the end of 6 months

• Ship 50% of products to rural destinations by the end of year 1

• Sell 8,000 solar lamps by the end of year 1

• Partner with 8 bus lines by the end of year 1

FOUNDING TEAM

Andrew Lala - Co-Founder 

Tommy Galloway - Co-Founder

Pulse

CUSTOM CHALLENGE; INDIA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

A mobile phone deposit system similar to popular talktime top-up methods to help low income families put aside money for household needs. 

Learn more about the Custom Challenge and why we only fund ideas that focus on distributing proven poverty interventions.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Through a network of certified Pulse vendors, users can 'save on impulse' and create a buffer of funds that serve as an insurance against emergencies and unexpected expenses. Furthermore, it provides a solution to the common issue of insufficient physical change, in which customers receive their change back in the form of candy rather than cash, a common occurrence in many developing countries. 

Pulse offers an electronic system that is more convenient for beneficiaries. Importantly, since the service is not tied to any particular carrier, it works on any mobile phone, and enables instant access to the service for all users. 

The customer experience: customer deposits leftover change or surplus income by buying a Pulse prepaid scratch card or leaving change with the shop owner and requesting an electronic deposit into the Pulse account; shop owner and customer receive an sms confirmation of the transaction with current balance; customer spends or withdraws their savings at any vendor in the Pulse network when needed. 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Sign up 1,000 Pulse savers during the pilot phase

FOUNDING TEAM

Karl Oskar Teien - Product Development 

Mandy Vidalis - Business Operations and Finance 

Niketa R. Malhotra - Implementation and Technology 

Saul Alexander Minkoff - Management and Business Development 

LiTe Africa

COOK STOVE CHALLENGE; UGANDA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Energy efficient cook stoves. 

Learn more about the Cook Stove Challenge and how clean cook stoves reduce health and safety risks, lower fuel expenses, and help reduce poverty.  

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

LiTe Africa overcomes obstacles preventing wide distribution of energy efficient products by putting solar lanterns and energy efficient cook stoves in the hands of rural end users by utilizing the existing small retail and mobile money shop network not commonly used for these products. Rural, family-run shops draw low income consumers with basic essentials and mobile airtime. Customers visit these shops every day, creating a trust-based relationship with the retailer. Rural retailers currently do not know about, have access to, or know how to provide adequate service for energy efficient technologies. 

In Uganda there are currently over 40,000 mobile money shops. Tapping into both the mobile and retail shop networks will help LiTe Africa reash the broadest consumer audience. LiTe Africa will sell cook stoves at a low cost and utilize Angaza's pay-as-you-go service for solar lamps. Payment in small increments has been proven to be not only popular and affordable among low-income households but drives up sales significantly. LiTe Africa will purchase products at wholesale through Ugastove, Angaza, and Greenlight Planet's distribution partners in Uganda, Small Solutions. The sales team will demonstrate products to retail and mobile money shop owners, training them on marketing techniques. The products are sold to shop owners at a price slightly above wholesale. Retailers will also be trained on pay-as-you-go operations and will explain the method to consumers and help them conduct monthly installments. 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Partner with 36 retailers during the pilot phase

• Sell 380 solar lamps and 500 cook stoves during the pilot phase

• Partner with up to 170 retailers by the end of year 1

• Expand to 10 more surrounding villages and semi-urban locations by the end of year 2

• Sell 20,000 cook stoves and 17,000 solar lamps by the end of year 2

FOUNDING TEAM

Alyse Daunis - Co-Founder

Hashim Mutanje - Co-Founder

Pay2Africa

CUSTOM CHALLENGE; ETHIOPIA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

An online and mobile platform that provides a fast, reliable, low-cost, and convenient way to send money to loved ones from the United States to Ethiopia. 

Learn more about the Custom Challenge and why we only fund ideas that focus on distributing proven poverty interventions.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Due to a lack of competition and a weak knowledge of the market, MoneyGram and Western Union - two major money transfer companies which charge high fees - have continued to dominate the remittance landscape in much of Africa. The only other option for customers looking to send money to Ethiopia is to use illegal hawala operators. 

Pay2Africa's vision is to become the leading online and mobile platform application used by the Ethiopian diaspora to send money from the US to Ethiopia. The website will allow senders to wire funds directly to a recipient's bank account or for cash pickup at one of over 750 partner bank branch locations spread throughout Ethiopia. Pay2Africa is both a website and a mobile platform application that integrates the latest encryption technology with a secure remittance software platform that addresses all Anti-Money Laundering Act and Bank Secrecy Act laws and regulations. The end result is a user-friendly platform designed for the target demographic, the Ethiopian diaspora. 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Send $300,000 in transfers by 2015

• Save customers $10,000 in fees by the end of year 2

 

FOUNDING TEAM

Zacharias Teshome - Founder and President

Youth Impact

SUGAR DADDY AWARENESS CHALLENGE; BOTSWANA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Sugar daddy awareness classes. 

Learn more about the Sugar Daddy Awareness Challenge and how a simple, one-hour “sugar daddy awareness” training could help countless girls avoid pregnancy while still in school, which can lead to entrenched poverty, and build a better life.

 

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

As of 2011, Botswana had the second highest rate of HIV in the world. Despite numerous condom programs, free anti-retroviral drugs, national curricula emphasizing abstinence and other efforts to curb the spread of HIV, the disease remains pervasive. 

Youth Impact (who won D-Prize as “Young 1ove” before changing their name) uses a four-pronged approach to connect youth to life-saving information about HIV. First, they find HIV education programs that work. Second, they centralize materials from effective programs on the website and at headquarters in Gaborone, Botswana. Third, they disseminate with four central approaches to remain effective: top down, grass roots, mass media, and institutional. Finally, they measure impact by making HIV surveys and assessments available and helping to administer them. 

Youth Impact will scale the sugar daddy curriculum across Botswana, starting in Gaborone and selected villages, with a plan to reach 200 schools between March and May, 2014. In addition to making a suite of proven materials, they will also crunch the numbers. Their team has produced graphs from existing national HIV data in Botswana and they will supplement the sugar daddy material and make it relevant to the Botswana context. 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Reach 200 schools during the three month pilot phase

• Reach 500 schools at the end of year 1

• Conduct 2,000 sugar daddy workshops by the end of year 1

• Decrease teenage pregnancy by 40% by the end of year 2

• Decreasing HIV by 15% by the end of year 2

FOUNDING TEAM

Noam Angrist - Co-founder & Executive Director 

Moitshepi Matsheng -  Co-founder & Managing Director

Maisha Meds

PATIENT IDENTIFICATION CHALLENGE; KENYA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Technology that provides high-quality, affordable, and consistent treatment for patients in the form of an android-based system that tracks sales, manages inventory, and automates reordering of pharmaceuticals. 

Learn more about the Patient Identification Challenge and why identifying individuals in need of treatment suffering from health conditions such as obstetric fistula, cervical cancer, clubfoot, and cataracts which can be corrected with cost-effective interventions, could save lives.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Maisha Meds improves distribution of pharmaceutical medication in Kenya by developing and implementing a technology platform that supports pharmacists (called chemists in Kenya), nurses, and other healthcare providers to manage their business and make better choices as they reorder medication. Supply of pharmaceutical drugs can be difficult in Kenya, as distance to suppliers and intermittent communication pose challenges for the distribution of medication. With an estimated 1/3 of medication in East Africa being sub-standard or counterfeit, uncertainty about quality of medication supply chain creates additional complexity for providers hoping to stock high-quality medication. 

In the first year of operation, with funding from Stanford University, Maisha Meds built a team of strategists, technologists, and implementers focused on building systems for scale; and the team has conducted extensive market research on the technology needs of the health sector in East Africa. Using the information from this research, the team has developed an Android-based application and we have begun testing it in chemist shops. The system includes the following components: 

• Android-based system that tracks sales, manages inventory, and automates reordering to streamline supply chains and optimize business practices

• Technology systems and random spot-checks to monitor and provide information on quality of medication throughout the supply chain

Maisha Meds intends to pilot the cost-recovery sales model that they will use at scale, as well as test and refine the quality-control component in partnership with 3-5 small scale distributors of medication in Kenya. This model will include a monthly subscription service to pay for the tablet, application, stand, data plan, and warranty, as well as ad sales integrated into the application to partially fund management and overhead cost for the organization. For more, please see this fact sheet.

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Sell or lease the android system to 20 providers during the pilot phase

• Sell or lease the android system to 200 providers at the end of year 1

• Work in partnership with 10 distributors by the end of year 1

• Randomly test 5% of medication available by the end of year 2

• Operate in 15,000 chemist shops and clinics as well as serve over 200 suppliers in five countries in five years

FOUNDING TEAM

Jessica Vernon - Team Lead 

Benjamin Jenson - Business Development 

Tammu Guo - Product Development

Nick Singer - Operations 

Margaret Mumbi - Special Projects 

Michael Jurka - Technology 

EarthEnable

CUSTOM CHALLENGE; RWANDA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

EarthEnable is helping masons install $30 earthen floors, a much healthier alternative to dirt floors and a much more affordable than concrete alternatives.

Learn more about the Custom Challenge and why we only fund ideas that focus on distributing proven poverty interventions.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Vision to provide floors for at least 1 million individuals by the end of 2015

 

FOUNDING TEAM

CleanTap

CUSTOM CHALLENGE; INDIA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

"Tippy Tap" handwashing station. 

Learn more about the Custom Challenge and why we only fund ideas that focus on distributing proven poverty interventions.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Street food is an integral part of Indian cities. Unofficial government estimates state that there are over a hundred million street food vendors in India. However, lack of infrastructure and awareness about food safety and handling among street food vendors makes it a significant contributor to food borne diseases. Through CleanTap, the organization aims to provide an easy, portable, DIY solution to the sanitation infrastructure challenge and combine it with an effective social marketing strategy to promote behavior change. 

A Tippy Tap is an easy, portable, low-cost device that encourages hard washing and saves water. It can be made with scraps of readily available local material. The apparatus involves a container that holds water with a hole on tap where the water flows out from. The flow of water is controlled by a foot lever. Their design of the Tippy Tap for food carts focuses heavily on portability. On average, a tippy tap involves a $1 investment per person to promote hand washing. It has been successfully deployed as a standalone product in rural areas of India. 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Launch pilot with 25 street food vendors 
• Provide hand washing for 1500 customers in Mumbai

 

FOUNDING TEAM

Prerna Seth - Co-Founder

Molly Daniell - Co-Founder

Joel Putnam - Co-Founder

Phoenix Solar

SOLAR LAMP; NIGERIA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Solar lamps with built-in phone charging capabilities. 

Learn more about the Solar Lamp Challenge and how these lamps create enormous benefits for developing world families.

 

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Phoenix Solar will distribute affordable solar lamps that provide lighting and mobile phone charging to rural households in five off-grid villages outside of Ibadan South Weest Nigeria. The organization will work closely with women's savings and loans groups and youth corps members who conduct their mandatory national youth service program in remote off-grid communities. 

Youth corps members participating in the National Youth Service Program will be recruited for this last mile distribution strategy to identify women's savings collectives popularly called Esusu. In Nigeria, college graduates are expected to work for one year in various parts of the country to help bridge the skills gap particularly in remote locations that have lost manpower due to rural urban migration. They will be trained on the distribution model, marketing to undeserved communities, and communicating behavioral change to potential customers.

Orders will be communicated via text messages or phone calls to Phoenix Solar's operational center in Ibadan. Orders received will be dispatched via buses that ply the routes leading to the pilot villages bi-weekly. Phoenix Solar will form an arrangement with the local bus union to negotiate standard charges for delivering the solar lamps at different locations. Solar lamps will be sold in bulk to the Esusu groups with an option for a bulk discount. They will also be sold directly to group members with an installment payment option with payments guaranteed by the group. 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Sell 500 solar lamps in 6 months
• Distribute lamps in 5 locations in 6 months 
• Reach 1,500 individuals during the pilot phase 

FOUNDING TEAM

Adedotun Eyinade - Director

Sola Fagorusi - Strategy Officer

Bright Renewables

SOLAR LAMP CHALLENGE; ZIMBABWE

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Solar lamps and solar energy products. 

Learn more about the Solar Lamp Challenge and how these lamps create enormous benefits for developing world families.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Bright Renewables (BR) will enter the market by distributing high-quality, pico-solar products from a Lighting Africa approved supplier, d.light design to households and small businesses direct sales through a direct sales model. Informed by preliminary market research, the priority of the pilot is to invest in building the brand, trust, and perception of BR's name within communities. 

BR's target customer segment is women. Women make the financial decisions for household needs. 10 sales agents will be trained during the pilot; the sales agent distribution model shortens channel length in a price-sensitive market, educates consumers about the products, and allows consumers an opportunity to interface directly with a person who can answer their questions and note their concerns. BR will recruit youth through church networks which have a strong and respected status in communities and play a key role in organizing community resources to support members' business and opportunities for youth. A two-day training for sales agents will focus on: expectations and core business values, product technical details, responses to customer concerns, sales pitching, sales ethics, leadership, financial literacy, and record-keeping. 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Distribute 400 products by the end of the pilot phase
• Reach 10,000 households by the end of year 1 
• reach 30,000 households by the end of year 2

FOUNDING TEAM

Allison Lee - Co-Founder

Tinotenda Ganga - Co-Founder

Kouzin Dlo

CUSTOM CHALLENGE; HAITI

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Affordable water purification technology with chlorine. 

Learn more about the Custom Challenge and why we only fund ideas that focus on distributing proven poverty interventions.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Kouzin Dlo is a social enterprise combating the spread of cholera by increasing access to affordable water purification technology in Haiti. The organization is building a network of clean water entrepreneurs across the country to provide clean water for Haitians by Haitians. 

Kouzin Dlo entrepreneurs are trained in household water treatment, clean water and hygiene education, and marketing techniques. First, the entrepreneurs identify households in their communities to recruit as customers. They conduct door-to-door outreach to introduce potential customers to the benefits of chlorination, each them how to treat their own water supply, and sell chlorine. In addition, entrepreneurs will teach families about safe water storage and provide 5-gallon buckets with lids and taps for purchase. Entrepreneurs will return to families every two weeks to provide bottles of chlorine and answer any questions. Kouzin Dlo entrepreneurs can ear additional income by recruiting new entrepreneurs as the program grows and demand increases. The referring individual receives a percentage of the revenue of the chlorine purchased by the new agent from Kouzin Dlo. 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Establish two hubs with 15-20 agents each during the pilot phase
• Expand to 6 communities during the pilot phase 
• Reach 500 households within the pilot phase 
• Build a nationwide network of 110 hubs within 3-5 years 

FOUNDING TEAM

Jessica Laporte - Founder and Director

 

Qorax

SOLAR LAMP CHALLENGE; SOMALIA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Solar lamps. 

Learn more about the Solar Lamp Challenge and how these lamps create enormous benefits for developing world families.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Qorax  (“ko-rah") enters the Somaliland energy sector with a partnership-based model emphasizing education and a local brand as the basis for establishing trust, rapid adoption and long-term stewardship for domestic solar lighting products. Qorax will address both the distribution and capacity building challenges by functioning as a holding company, investing in and providing technical support to locally branded subsidiaries in East Africa, first in Somaliland. 

By distributing solar lanterns direct to consumers using a local sales team that is already familiar with the primary market data, Qorax's local commercial entity called EnerSom will help address the critical energy needs of Somaliland's population. EnerSom will handle inventory control, trasportation, customer service, and order processing through cash and mobile payment services. A university partner has agreed to provide a secure room for initial inventory and an office space for the team. 

EnerSom will build and manage a network of company-owned outlets, with the future potential to establish small, company-owned kiosks in existing retail outlets in urban centers and establish regional small offices to serve additional rural communities. Working from the central store in Hargeisa, the sales team will visit sub-communities locally, including the livestock market, and identify key community influencers - clan leaders, business people, and political leaders - to demonstrate the solar lighting products and communicate the value and benefits. 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• The Hargeisa retail outlet will sell 150 GLP Sun King Eco lanterns and 150 GLP Sun King PRo 2 lanterns during the pilot phase
• Sell 2,625 Sun King Eco lanters and 2,625 GLP Sun King Pro 2 lanterns by the end of year 1 
• EnerSom will open additional stores in Burco, Berbera, and Booroma to sell 25,000 lanterns by the end of year 2

 

FOUNDING TEAM

Nigel A. Carr - Co-Chief Executive Officer, Qorax

Christian Nicolas Desrosiers - Co-Chief Executive Officer, Qorax 

Abdishakur Mohamoud - Chief Operations Officer, Qorax and Chief Executive Officer, EnerSom

Eric Verploegen - Chief Technology Officer, Qorax 

1Room

FLIPPED CLASSROOM CHALLENGE; KENYA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

A self-directed, digital learning program. 

Learn more about the Flipped Classroom Challenge and why new education models, like flipping the classroom or deskilling a class curriculum, offer a solution to the vast teacher shortages in the developing world.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

1Room will operate modular learning pods where students pursue individual study plans using tablet PCs and other media, under the guidance of a pod leader. 1Room's pods will be albe to operate in rural and remote environments with limited infrastructur and at half the cost of regular high schools. 

1Room's approach is guided by departures from traditional education: 1. students will study at a content level and pace that is right for them; 2. student activities and responses to questions will be recorded digitally and inform educational decision-making at an individual and institutional level through cutting-edge data analytics; 3. staff decisions on scheduling access to study resources, scheduling one-on-one time, and assigning study content will be supported by data-rich models and optimization methods accessible with a few clicks on a smart phone; 4. staff compensation will be linked to objective measures of effort and effectiveness. 

We will curate our content library and eventually develop original content in close partnership with two research labs in India which are pioneering table and phone-based education for students in developing countries. Pod Leaders will help students set goals, form study plans, offer remedial teaching when students hit difficulties, and deliver certain content not covered sufficiently by othe rresources. Geographically proximate clusters of 8-12 pods or classrooms with students using our tech enabled education at various levels, will be supervised by a cluster manager. 

 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Reach 400 students during pilot phase 
• Scale to more than 450 students after year 1 
• Reach 50,000 students by year 4 

FOUNDING TEAM

Michael Beeler - Founder and Director

Julius Tapper - Strategy and Business Design 

Sadia Rafiquddin - Resource Development 

ALTech

SOLAR LAMP CHALLENGE; DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Solar lamps and other clean energy solutions. 

Learn more about the Solar Lamp Challenge and how these lamps create enormous benefits for developing world families.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

About 90% of the population of the DRC does not have access to electricity. It is estimated that the country hosts more than 11 million off-grid households and 2 million under-electrified households, encompassing about 70 million people. The less than 15 percent grid-connected population experiences over 17 power blackouts per month. 

ALTech has designed and developed a community-based pay-as-you-go business model for the distribution of modern energy solutions that provide the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) energy poor with clean, safe, affordable energy for lighting, phone charging, and power, leading to steady increases in household incomes and tangible improvements in health, education, and environmental outcomes. 

ALTech will distribute d.light $100, a multi-function solar lamp. The venture will recruit sales agents and area sales managers as well as solar community ambassadors, offer trainings, pay commissions to sales agents, and offer after-sales services. The venture uses an innovative distribution model that consists of on-lending clean energy solutions to primary and secondary school teachers, health workers, health centers, and hospitals. The model also involves reaching out to pregnant women, nursing mothers, and students’ parents.

 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Operate in four provinces of the DRC 

• Distribute more than 50,000 clean energy solutions prior to pilot phase 

• Reach 5 million households within 5 years 

 

FOUNDING TEAM

Malango Washikala - Co-Director and Co-Founder, Business Development, Finance, and People

Iongwa Mashango - Co-Director and Co-Founder, Logistics and Operations

 

Novotera

COOK STOVE CHALLENGE; VIETNAM

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Rua clean cook stoves. 

Learn more about the Cook Stove Challenge and how clean cook stoves reduce health and safety risks, lower fuel expenses, and help reduce poverty.  

 

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

The popular Rua Cook Stove will be promoted through the Novotera sales force and distribution network. To maximize distribution and to meet different budgets, customers will have the option of different stove grades (high grade stove, low grade stove, refurbishment of existing stove) and different payment plans at fair market prices. Novotera will utilize the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstove's verified selling startegy: use the stove for a few weeks and then return it or purchase it if satisfied. Customers will also have the option to purchase a stove on credit. 

Distribution will rely on door-to-door sale-by-motorcycle which as previously proven effective as a sales system in Northern Vietnam. Group sales will take place in markets and in stores. Network partners will reach out to informal dealers in villages and stores. The Rua Stove will be promoted through visually rich flyers and stove demonstrations in outdoor markets where salted popcorn (unfamiliar in Vietnam) will be handed out to attract attention. A salesforce will be trained to speak about every aspect of the stove including its ability to produce biochar, to operate on rice husk, and to replace a rice cooker. An emphasis will be put on an after-sale service were customers can call in or have a broken stove repaired. A monitoring system using three key metrics will be put in place to better evaluate progress and projections. 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Reach 250 households during the pilot phase 
• Sell 920 stoves per month by the end of year 1 
• Have 25,000 low-income households using the Rua Stove by the end of year 2 
• Employ 15 sales people with their own motorcycles by the end of year 2 

FOUNDING TEAM

Dylan Maxwell - Co-Founder 

Olivier Kolmel - Co-Founder 

vChalk

FLIPPED CLASSROOM; INDIA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Remedial education and progress tracking. 

Learn more about the Flipped Classroom Challenge and why new education models, like flipping the classroom or deskilling a class curriculum, offer a solution to the vast teacher shortages in the developing world.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

vChalk offers remedial educaiton and progress tracking services to affordable private schools in semi- and per-urban India. The problem is the inability to support all children in India with diverse learning needs in keeping up with the formal curriculum and in preventing them from falling behind.  This inefficiency translates into poor learning outcomes for millions of young learners in India, many of them first generation, who are enrolled in primary school but have not achieved the minimum benchmarks for learning. 

Remedial programs that help students catch up have been, for years, directed only toward government schools. As affordable private schools spread to meet the growing demand for education in India, vChalk fills an important learning gap by distributing the proven Balsakhi (now called Read India) remedial education model to these schools. We help mitigate their problem by offering a bundle of two services: in-school remedial programs start and support (targeted at children who do not master basic numeracy and literacy skills) and learning progress tracking service (targeted at children who are subscribed to the remedial class). 

The remedial program would look like this: a female Community Instructor who has completed at least 12th grade and who is motivated to work with children (ideally from the parents' community) works with lower perfornace students in 3rd and 4th grade for two hours each day. The instructor goes through a two week training program before teaching and receives further on the job training during the year from vChalk's Monitoring Manager. The intervention runs for two years at the school. vChalk's tracking system of children's learning progress is a focus of the project and makes longitudinal data available for each student. 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• 30 active schools during the pilot phase
• 360 total students in remedial classes during pilot phase
• 160 active schools at the end of year 1 
• 3,220 students in remedial classes at the end of year 1
• 360 active schools at the end of year 2 
• 7,620 students in remedial classes at the end of year 2

FOUNDING TEAM

Daniela Gheorghe - Team Lead

Anil Bishnoi - Chief Technical Officer 

Jody Tian - Management Consultant 

Suma Nagaraj - Product Development Consultant 

Jeunes Braves

SUGAR DADDY AWARENESS CHALLENGE; TOGO

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Sugar daddy awareness classes. 

Learn more about the Sugar Daddy Awareness Challenge and how a simple, one-hour “sugar daddy awareness” training could help countless girls avoid pregnancy while still in school, which can lead to entrenched poverty, and build a better life.

 

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

A proven solution to the sugar daddy problem was fond in Kenya but a a solution will fail in another location if not adapted to the correct context. Jeunes Braves will remain true to the original classes but design a program well adapted to the Togolese setting to make the program more attractive to the youth in Togo, using videos in French which have already been created. The class discussion will discuss how poverty, cross-generation relationships, and teenage pregnancy are all connected. 

The project will be implemented in two phases: a three month preliminary phase, or pilot phase, and phase two. For both phases, a three-fold strategy will be implemented: top-down, grassroots, and marketing. Jeunes Braves will train facilitators to lead the sugar daddy awareness classes. Participants will include female leaders of youth organizations. The organization will also run 10 conferences during which students will be divided into small groups for classes and workshops. 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Reach 10 schools during the pilot phase

• Reach 5,500 students during the pilot phase 

• Reach 100 schools by the end of year 1 

• Reach 200,000 students by the end of year 1 

• Reach 500,000 students by the end of year 2 

 

FOUNDING TEAM

Komi Begedou - Co-Founder

Som Tang'ma Kpante - Co-Founder 

 

Dazin

COOKSTOVE CHALLENGE; BHUTAN

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Efficient cook stoves and fuel cookies. 

Learn more about the Cook Stove Challenge and how clean cook stoves reduce health and safety risks, lower fuel expenses, and help reduce poverty.  

 

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Dazin manufactures and distributes Fuel Cookies made from manually collected forestry wood waste such as tree branches, locally known as 'lops and tops'. Abundant available raw material is collected based on the requirements of each household and delivered at our extended network of collection points. Dazin fuel cookies will reduce the forestry wood required for cooking by 84%, reduce time spent collecting fuel by half, cost less than what customers use currently, allow for a healthy gross profit margin from fuel sales to allow the organization to expand. 

The fuel and cook stove combination system is affordable, even for the poorest families, through the cross subsidized revenue model. Dazin provides free fuel cookies and free smokeless gasifying stoves in exchange for the rural households supplying free forestry wood waste. Due to the efficiency of the combined fuel and stove system, an excess of fuel cookies is produced compared to the wood waste provided. The surplus fuel cookies are sold in nearby cities to offset free services in rural areas and expand to new areas. For example, a woman living in a rural area collects 40-50% lesser forestry waste and provides to Dazin at the nearest collection point. She gets in return enough free fuel cookies to meet her cooking requirements. She also gets a smokeless gasifying stove on lease to use the fuel cookies. Remaining fuel cookies made from her wood waste contribution provides enough fuel for three equivalent urban households. These are sold at urban markets as a cost-effective and reliable fuel supply to offset her free services. Stoves are leased with a nominal yearly maintenance fee of $15-30 depending on the stoves. These inventories also supply directly to commercial customers such as restaurants and schools. 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Set-up fuel production infrastructure over the pilot phase

• Reach 4,000 households by 2016 

• Reach 28,000 households by 2017 

 

FOUNDING TEAM

Deepak Ashwani - Co-Founder

SponsorHer!

SCHOLARSHIP CHALLENGE; ETHIOPIA

PROVEN INTERENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

A scholarship program via a social fundraising platform. 

Learn more about the D-Prize challenges and why we focus on distributing proven poverty interventions that can help millions. 

 

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

In Ethiopia, 80% of girls are enrolled in primary school but only 30% continue on to secondary school. It costs approximately USD 18 a month to keep a girl in high school, a sum that most families cannot afford. The aim of SponsorHer! is to support poor and bright girls in Ethiopia to go to high school through a scholarship program funded by a network of expatriate (and other) mothers as well as their families and friends at home. Believing that this target group wants to be more than passive donors, SponsorHer! is going to enable them to build a personal relationship with the sponsored girls through a social fundraising network and to easily motivate others to participate. At the same time, SponsorHer! will enable foreign companies operating in Ethiopia to enhance their social responsibility by engaging in corporate sponsorships. Being able to build on the team's experience on the ground, pre-existing networks and social media, SponsorHer! is going to provide a cost-effective scholarship program for girls with extremely low overhead costs to maximize impact. 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Fund 100 scholarships during the pilot phase
• Sponsor 680 girls by the end of year 1 
• Gain 10 corporate or institutional partners by the end of year 1 
• Support 5,000 girls through scholarships by the end of year 2 

 

FOUNDING TEAM

Viola Csordas - Co-Founder

Maria Zandt - Co-Founder

Asepsis

CUSTOM CHALLENGE; INDIA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Low cost and durable squat toilets. 

Learn more about the Custom Challenge and why we only fund ideas that focus on distributing proven poverty interventions.

 

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

The sanitation crisis in India is one of massive proportions and the situation is particularly pronounced in Dharavi - one of the world's largest slums - right outside of Mumbai. With approximately one toilet for every 1,1440 people, it is not surprising that upwards of 4,000 cases of disease are reported every day. 

The goal is to design a fifteen gallon cylindrical toilet - similar in shape and design to the Well WaterWheel, but with an airtight seal to repel odor and lined with a bio-plastic bag - to be distributed to Dharavi families. The toilet, once filled, will be taken to central collection site to be emptied, cleaned, and returned for continuous use. The waste will them be sold to a local sanitation company that turns it into compost. For every barrel returned, the family will receive 1/3 of the price the waste is sold for, providing an economic incentive for doing so. The other 2/3 of the profit will be used to maintain and expand our operations. 

Community hubs that receive these toilets will be an essential forum for allowing partner NGOs a chance to distribute vaccines and health care to Dharavi residents. To determine the location for these sites, Asepsis will team up with the Development Planning Unit of University College London which has pinpointed certain "catalytic sites" within the slum. Using this as reference will ensure that our system is easily integrated into Dharavi. 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Prototyping toilet design and establishing network during the first 6 months

• Create 1 community hub and distribute 100 toilets to pre-approved families during the pilot phase

• Distribute 400 more toilets by the end of year 2

FOUNDING TEAM

Evan Young - Co-Founder

Mas Obuz - Co-Founder