The Lucky Iron Fish Project

The Lucky Iron Fish Project is an initiative aimed at tackling anemia in Cambodia. In the U.S. 10-14% of the population suffers from anemia, whereas in Cambodia 44% of the population suffers from this illness. Anemia can lead to fatigue, the inability to concentrate, dizziness, and premature births. Anemia can be easily cured by consuming iron.

Chris Charles went to Cambodia to tackle this project. His research told him that simply using iron pots while cooking, would allow iron to be consumed by those eat the food. However, many women in Cambodia use steel pots because they are lighter and easier to clean. This gave Chris the idea to supply women with iron blocks to drop in their pots while making meals. Yet this idea was not enthusiastically adopted as the women were skeptical of the bulky iron block. Instead they used the iron block for other purposes such as a door prop or a wedge to stop furniture from moving. Chris went back to the drawing board and researched Cambodia’s religion and culture. He found that in Cambodia, the fish is a symbol of luck. After reading this, he determined that his iron blocks should instead be iron fish.

The lucky iron fish was adopted immediately, with an initial compliance rate of 92%. Rural Cambodian families began recommending it to one another because they felt the fish was really bringing them luck. However, Gavin Armstrong CEO of the project said, “In actuality it is bringing them health”.

Women reported feeling better after using the fish for six months. After nine months of use, the incidence of anemia is cut in half. The Lucky Iron Fish Project has partnered with six NGO’s in hopes of reaching all of Cambodia and beyond. Fish are supplied to families via monetary donations from individuals and these partnerships.

I chose this example of design for humanitarian impact because of it’s simplicity as a solution and because its design dependent on the input of its’ users. Looking back at the “Bootcamp” article, this project included the test mode, the interview method, it prototyped, tested with users, had obvious constraints, and used a character profile. By utilizing all of these methodologies, the project became successful.

To watch a short video that further explains the project, click here.

Sources:

http://luckyironfish.com/impact/

http://luckyironfish.com/about/

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1673101/this-iron-fish-offers-relief-from-anemia

By: Emily Sale

 

AirPods

Delivering lifesaving medicine to developing countries is a smart policy.  People benefit from modern medicine, and nations benefit from the increased standard of living.  But, the devil is in the details. Getting these materials to rural areas is more expensive than producing it.  If you have ever shipped anything across the US, you know that the standard rates are expensive.  Adding up the costs, international aid organizations simply cannot afford to implement large-scale campaigns.

An unlikely partnership may be the best answer.  Coca-Cola is known for accessing foreign markets through established supply-chain systems.  They have been working for years to market and deliver soft drinks all over the world.  Their brand is the most recognizable in the world.  If this private company would utilize its supply-chain to deliver medicine, millions of people would have new access to preventive healthcare.

Simon Berry is working with Coke to design medical kits with packaging that can fit into the space between coke bottles.  His product is called AirPod.  Because it is designed to fit into space that already exists, it doesn’t cost Coke anything to include the kits into their distribution system.

For now, the enterprise is focused on delivering anti-diarrhea kits.  Worldwide, approximately 140 million people develop dysentery each year, and about 600,000 die.  The cause is often Cholera, which can be contracted through tainted water.  Lack of medical attention can lead to death.  With this initiative, many individuals will survive this curable disease.  It taps into established supply chains to distribute the drugs.  By cutting the costs of delivery, international aid organizations can implement larger campaigns.

http://gizmodo.com/5992601/these-clever-packages-can-turn-crates-of-coke-into-boxes-of-life+saving-medicine

 

Thomas Romanoff

Heinz

 

Welfare-to-Career (W2C) Program

By: Alex Krysiak

Article: http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/bridging_the_cultures_of_business_and_poverty

Video: http://www.plasticsnews.com/article/20130327/MULTIMEDIA01/130329933/keller-details-welfare-to-work-effort#

Summary / Insights / Questions:

This article provides a case study of Cascade Engineering’s “Welfare-to-Career” (W2C) program. The case study serves as an example of a business (Cascade Engineering) partnering with nonprofits (e.g., Women’s Resource Center) and working within government policy (federal assistance to companies who employ individuals on welfare) to achieve sustainable results.

The organization’s story is described as an 11-year journey because the program went through quite a bit of failure before it was able to make a significant impact. Initially, the company provided a van to the welfare community to drive to work every day. When drivers ended up abusing the service for their own personal trips rather than getting to work on time, this lead to the realization that individuals in the welfare community must first be culturally prepared for the responsibilities of the working world. A second attempt involving a mandatory 6-month employment at Burger King in order to become adjusted to the work culture before gaining employment at Cascade Engineering also proved to be a failure. Most welfare participants could not earn enough money to support their children in such a job, and did not like this work environment that they had already experienced in the past. Finally, the W2C program developed an in-house training program to teach both the welfare community and its other existing employees about cultural differences between those in poverty and those in the middle class. They also partnered with nonprofits to provide supportive services on site to deal with the many social challenges that individuals in the welfare community often encounter. This created a positive environment that helps the company to sustain employees with less turn over and helps people build a better life for themselves.

Not only is this story a good, innovative example of unique partnerships across business, government, and the nonprofit sector, but it also emphasizes the importance of truly understanding user needs and applying a “test and learn” approach to achieve better results. Cascade Engineering was smart and patient in the way they continued to learn from their different methods, but I wonder if the whole process could have been more efficient if they began by conducting user research and testing their concepts earlier in the process? Although I have to wonder, is there truly a way to have tested these ideas in a cheaper, faster way? Or to some extent, do you have to accept that sometimes you need to make a real investment to see something through and learn the hard way? Either way, I think it does make the case for both up front research and testing, as well as research and testing even after significant investments have been made to implement the program.

Providing a Job is Giving New Life : The social company between South Korea and North Korea

We are still in the War. The korean war, broke out in 1950, is not over yet although the time has slipped over 60 years. As a result, people in both country are living with many restrictions such as a limited freedom of expression and travel and economic activity, especially in North Korea.

People in North Korea are under control of the government perfectly, so if some North korea doesn’t have positive relationship with their government, he should meet the trouble to get a job, house and even food. Not only the case of crime, a political prisoner often faces serious situations. For this reason, some of them try to escape from North Korea at the risk of his life to China and often South Korea.

Nevertheless, new life for a North Korean Defector in South Korea is not sweet many times because two divided Korea has very different social, cultural and economic system. As a result, many defectors have had hard time get a job and survive.

Here is the project for this week posting. The social venture Mezzanine I-Pack is established for providing a sustainable job for North Korean defectors. This company’s product is making physical warping packages such as boxes and papers for consumer products. So, the market size is stable during four seasons and this industry doesn’t require a high skill and technology. Of course, if there are people who want to get a job without experience, this could be a solution for them.

Furthermore, this social venture is successfully helping many detectors with providing not only a job also cultural and social re-education and community for them. So, many defectors learn what is difference between two societies and after being familiar with new society, they could find better ways like going to college and getting more skilled job.

Before this social venture, South korea government gives a subsidy to defectors and opens official education program. But, the effect of government program was not good as much as this social approach because many defectors were not happy with overprotected and bounded life. In fact, what they want is that the opportunity to be a real and usual citizen who has a job.

In fact, Mezzanine I-Pack is not only doing well for social purpose but making money too. Last year, they made 3M USD revenue and profitable. This success is a very rare case in South Korea. Only top 3% of social company could produce over 3M sales, but many of them has problem to make a profit still. Probably, the reason of this result is connected with how much detectors love their job.

For more Information to visit their site : http://www.m-box.co.kr/ (Korean) or a news link :  http://www.arirang.co.kr/News/News_View.asp?nseq=119833 (English)

Posting by Sung Wook ‘sean’ Lee

Design for Extreme Affordability

By Pablo Sanchez Santaeufemia

The majority of the world’s engineers and designers work for products and services for only 10% of the world’s population. However, International Development Organizations, NGO’s, philanthropists, private companies, investment banks, missionaries, volunteers from all over the world have spent years and millions of dollars trying to support poor communities in the developing world. Therefore, why is it that the altruistic input from these exceptionally kind individuals and organizations does not translate linearly to a sustainable development and an improvement in the quality of life of these communities? Many of these noble initiatives employ design methodologies that might work in developed nations but are obsolete in areas where the customer’s needs are extremely different. Countless projects have shown to be unsustainable and have created great instabilities and dependency in these underprivileged communities.

So what does it need to be changed?

I believe that it is exactly in communities living with only $2 a day where a tremendous potential for development and growth exists. Fortunately, an increasing number of engineers and designers around the world have realized the existing gap between the technological needs of the 10% and 90% of the population. Institutions such as Stanford’s Extreme, IDEO.org, IDE, MIT D-Lab, Design that Matters, KickStart, D-Rev, Catapult Design…and many other teams around the world are using a methodology which focuses on the needs of the other 90% of the population. Below I am sharing with you some links of projects that are achieving astonishing results in the developing world. Hopefully, this can serve as a source of ideas and inspiration for when we have to define the scope our projects. For this entry, however, I will focus on Stanford’s Lab for Extreme Affordability (http://extreme.stanford.edu).

This class, like Design & Policy for Humanitarian Impact, is also composed of interdisciplinary teams of graduate students from different departments at Stanford (Design, Engineering and Business). Students learn about ‘design thinking’ and apply it to a project that serves customers in developing countries. This is the key aspect of the class: it serves customers with extraordinary needs and requirements. This approach is very different from the typical philanthropic approach practiced by many organizations in developing countries. Students create a prototype and an implementation plan that addresses the design challenges set by the partner community. Most of the team projects have become profitable start-ups in developing world communities.  I’m wanted to focus on Stanford’s class to demonstrate the potential that a class like Design & Policy for Humanitarian Impact can have. Now it is up to us to make it a reality.

Stanford Extreme Affordability Lab

http://extreme.stanford.edu/what-extreme

MIT-Development Through Dialogue, Design and Dissemination Lab (D-Lab)

http://d-lab.mit.edu/about

Design for/with the Other 90%

http://www.designother90.org/solutions/

D-Rev

http://d-rev.org

Kickstart

http://www.kickstart.org

Design that Matters

http://designthatmatters.org

Catapult Design

http://catapultdesign.org

Paul Polak and Mal Warwick book titled “The Business Solution to Poverty, Designing Product and Services for Three Billion New Customers”

http://www.paulpolak.com

Download a free trial in http://www.amazon.com/The-Business-Solution-Poverty-Designing/dp/B00EA4CM30/ref=tmm_aud_title_popover?ie=UTF8&qid=1379895692&sr=1-1

http://www.paulpolak.com/media/Excerpt.pdf

Technology Exchange Lab

http://www.technologyexchangelab.org/find-solutions/