Our New Venture Award winners are making these projects happen:
Raytreat Services: Heal Nigerian babies with jaundice
Saving the lives of newborns suffering from jaundice in Nigerian villages that lack electricity won the 2020 Windeaters New Venture Development Award.
Jaundice is a serious condition for newborns but is easily treated with blue light. In Nigeria around 30% of infant deaths are associated with jaundice compared with just 2% in developed countries. Severe jaundice can also cause irreversible brain damage.
GEE participant, Oluwatomilola Idris Mustapha, designed a baby bag with blue light on the inside powered by flexible solar panels on the outside. He expects the bag will be used in hospitals but can also be used in women's homes, including rural homes that lack electricity. Hospitals are based in urban centres, have limited capacity, are expensive, and are only used for 35% of births.
Oluwatomilola passionate about the project. He said, “This is something I have always dreamed of bringing to life - saving the lives of millions of babies.”
Nigeria was in Covid-19 lockdown during the tree-week contest. So Oluwatomilola climbed the fence behind his home to get enough cell phone signal to communicate with his global colleagues. He also taught himself 3D modelling to present the idea more clearly to the judges.”
Oluwatomilola and his Nigerian teammate Dahunsi Elizabeth received NZ$4,000 gifted by Windeaters Director, Dr Dai Gilbertson, for making the Raytreat Services idea happen. They need an additional $2,000 to get their life-saving product to market.
Put "Raytreat" in the reference and we will transfer 100% of any funds donated to this project. Bank account details for the New Zealand registered charity are below.
Sauerkraut: Food security for Burundi
Burundi is a troubled country, with the highest rate of food insecurity in Africa. Local women can grow food if they can afford to plant the crops, but without processing, surplus production in the peak season simply rots. Sauerkraut is lacto-fermented cabbage that stores for months and provides gut flora to enhance digestion and health.
Denis Ndayizeye won the 2018 New Venture Development Award to help 100 Burundian women in abject poverty produce sauerkraut. The NZ$1,000 award money came from a generous gift from philantropist Olaniyi Awotula. The project needed $1,800, so Denis bootstrapped the project. He used the NZ$1,000 to grow 3 tonnes of cabbages, paid out the 100 women for their work with cash and cabbages, and has saved enough to plant the next round of cabbages and have $350 towards the $800 needed to buy the plant to make sauekraut. Your support to raise the extra $450 to improve food security in Burundi and provide income to Burundi's poorest women would make a profound difference.
Denis is a dedicated social entrepreneur. He had previously set up a charitable trust, Initiatives Locales pour le Developpement de la Femme, for these women to make baskets, but the poverty levels in Burundi are so high that the market for baskets is very limited. His commitment to making this sauerkraut project succeed has been proven through tough adversity.
Put "Sauerkraut" in the reference and we will transfer 100% of any funds donated to this project. Bank account details for the New Zealand registered charity are below.
In Nigeria, 70% of the tomato crop rots post-harvest. Racheal Agbanagba of Nigeria and Georgia Lowrey of New Zealand won the 2019 New Venture Development Award to work with poor rural women to dry, jar and market their tomato harvest.
The initial plan was to back up sun drying with home food driers, but the women do not have access to electricity. Racheal does not have the funding to buy solar power units so she made her own. From the internet she found a way to build solar power units using waste soda cans painted black. The image below shows her work-in-progress.
Volumes from individual women growers are too small to market, but collectively it is possible to create a thriving business. The Nigeria Tomato Project sets up the women to dry and jar their tomatoes, collects the produce, and markets it into Lagos. The project aims to get a good price through thoughtful marketing. On the front of the jar is an attractive, standard product label. The back of the jar features the photo, story and recipe of the village woman who handcrafted the product.
Racheal is a dynamo who has pulled together colleagues and their networks to drive the success of the project. She has carefully shepherded the NZ$4,000 award from philanthropist, Dr Dai Gilbertson of Windeaters. That sum may be enough to get the project successfully started, although additional funding will support more women growers and improve economies of scale.
You can help this project with designing the labels or provide funds earmarked as "Tomatoes". Contact Racheal on agbanagbaracheal [at] yahoo.com to offer your assistance.
How to Donate
We commit to transferring 100% of donations for any of these projects to our social entrepreneurs.
Te Kaihau Education Trust is a registered New Zealand charity (number CC38154), set up to support the work of the Global Enterprise Experience and enterprise education. Its annual reports can be viewed on www.register.charities.govt.nz. Stories about our supported projects are included on our Facebook page www.facebook.com/GlobalEnterpriseExperience.
To donate, please pay to:
Te Kaihau Education Trust
Account number 02-0528-0107981-00
In the reference include "RayTreat", "Sauerkraut" or "Tomatoes" to direct the funding to your chosen project.
Non-New Zealand donors will need to add the SWIFT code: BNZNZ22, and our address 117 Stratton St, Normandale, Lower Hutt 5010.
To receive a tax deducation receipt for any amount over $5, email the Global Enterprise Experience Director, Deb Gilbertson, on deb [at] windeaters.co.nz.
To receive updates on the development and impact of your chosen project/s email us with your name.
All donations, no matter how modest, help our social entrepreneurs create a better world. Thank you!