Aashar Phool - Flower of Hope | Dell Social Innovation Challenge

CATEGORY: Health

Aashar Phool - Flower of Hope

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Supplying poor children with 45 cent shoes made from water hyacinth Aashar Phool will save lives of 2.5 million children by 2020 who are vulnerable to preventable diseases caused by lack of shoes

Standings & Awards

28 out of 1313 in Asia
16 out of 284 in Health
22 out of 573 in Pilot
33 out of 1066 in Blended
78 out of 4003 Overall

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VOTES

Aashar Phool- "social excellence through entrepreneurial novelty"

2.5 million children will be saved by 2020 from preventable deadly diseases caused by lack of shoes

Around the world over 300 million children are walking around shoeless and every year over one million of those children die from preventable diseases caused by the lack of proper shoes.

Aashar Phool, a social venture committed to bringing positive changes to the lives of under-served segments of society through entrepreneurial novelty, has developed a business solution that addresses shoelessness for young children in an innovative and cost-effective way which can save lives, increase family income and improve the environment and eco-system.

The idea is to utilize unemployed rural women to harvest uncontrolled water hyacinth as the core raw material to produce children's shoes.

Using huge amount of water hyacinth in a more productive way Aashar Phool will contribute to solve the problems and environmental hazards caused by uncontrolled water hyacinth in the waters of Bangladesh. Engaging poor rural women in supply chain and production process Aashar Phool will contribute vibrantly in employment generation for a section of the society who otherwise do not have much contribution to the economic activities.

Aashar Phool will train up unemployed rural women about the production process through an intensive training program. The trained women will procure core raw materials–water hyacinth from nearby waters. They will process the water hyacinth stems in a prescribed way, assemble different components and make shoes under direct supervision Aashar Phool representatives.

Targeting the children aged 4-13 Aashar Phool will position and market the shoes as “stylish, comfortable and affordable”. It will follow cost-leadership strategy.

Aashar Phool will market the shoes through a third-party NGO having nationwide presence. It will arrange “awareness campaigns” in the primary schools across the country to make the school-going children more aware about the emergency of wearing shoes and other related health issues as well as indirectly promote its shoes branded as “Meena” for female children and “Raju” for male children.

Profit margin will be kept at minimal level and 90% of the profit will be reinvested as the ultimate goal of the venture is social welfare maximization.

Prototypes have been developed and being tested. A pilot project is under way in a remote poverty stricken village of Satkhira, Bangladesh. The results of the pilot project so far have been very optimistic.

FIVE PROJECT QUESTIONS Required (60 - 90 minutes)

1. What is your innovation?

The plan is innovative in multiple ways. Firstly, it addresses a problem (shoelessness) which is very critical but gets less attention. Secondly, it does so using an input (water hyacinth) which is abundant but underutilized. Thirdly, it creates employment for a segment of the society (poor rural women) that otherwise has less contribution to the productive workforce. Finally, it introduces a seemingly good alternative to traditional shoe-making process which is detrimental to the environment.

2. Who gains the most?

Over one million children die from preventable diseases caused by the lack of proper shoes. Supplying underprivileged children with inexpensive shoes Aashar Phool will go a long way in solving the problem of shoelessness and reducing the death of children from preventable diseases caused by the lack of proper shoes. Besides, we will create employment opportunities for poor rural women engaging them in the supply chain. Utilizing uncontrolled water hyacinth Aashar Phool will save the eco-system.

3. Who pays?

The customers will get the most affordable shoes ever for their wards and thus will be able to protect them from preventable diseases caused by lack of proper shoes. The investors will get a higher SROI. The strategic partner will have us achieve a significant portion of their broader goals in terms of improving health condition and poverty alleviation. The donors will have their money utilized in a more effective way.

4. What is your success?

We are conducting a small scale pilot project to evaluate the feasibility, time, cost, adverse events, and effect size to improve upon the study design prior to performance in full-scale. The results of the pilot project have been very optimistic. Besides, prototypes of shoes have been developed and being tested. We will reduce the number of shoeless children in Bangladesh by 75% within 2017. We will create employment for 120 poor rural women within a year and for 1000 by 2015.

5. How will you do it?

We will train up initially 120 unemployed rural women about the production process through an intensive training program. The trained women will procure water hyacinth from nearby waters, process the stems in a prescribed way, assemble different components and make shoes under direct supervision of Aashar Phool representatives. The shoes will be marketed through a third-party NGO having nationwide presence.