Cape Town: Campaigning

So over the course of the last week the big focus for me has been to create and implement a campaign to promote the Spekboom plant that I have been working on in conjunction with a fundraising campaign in a specific office park found in Stellenbosch. The goal has been to raise funds that would sponsor all ventures that Heart Capital has going on. With that I had to put together the product design and the plants that we have been giving away. One other intern and I have been delivering the plants as guerilla marketing to initiate first contact as well as follow ups with certain companies in the office park. Basically showing up, telling them about Heart Capital, leaving these plants with promotional material, saying we will follow up to set a meeting with someone in charge, and hopefully also initiating sales for the plants. In two weeks time we will be returning to collect the plants but possibly just collecting money for the sale of the plant that they will want to keep and possibly buy more of.

The other main thing is that last Friday, once again, it was down pouring so the planting event has been rescheduled for this week and will not have to be pushed back again. We have gotten a few sales between individual ones and company planting ones so the project is going very positively. Other than that I have also started working on creating a functional finance layout of orders, invoices, order forms, and creating income statements and such as the business is launching off with sales. It has been a very hectic time of putting things together and making deliverables but so far I am very happy with the way that sales, marketing, finance, etc. have been going.

On a funner note - I also had the opportunity to go bungee jumping at the highest site in the world.

Ahmedabad, India: Week Three

The main course of action this past week was prototyping. Rajan, a third year engineering student from IET who joined me on a project last week, took me to the closest electronic hardware store. Shantinath Electronic Parts is the go-to for all local engineering student, for it is one of the only places that sells electronic components. After making our requests for some ICs (integrated circuits), the attendant pulled out a large metal container which was filled with hand labeled ziploc bags, each with its own variety of IC. He quickly sorted through the mess, found the part we were looking for and sent us on our way. We made our way back to the electronics lab and spent the remainder of the week testing our hypothesis.

Hole in the wall electronics shop, Shantinath Electronic Parts

The electronics lab at IET

Rajan soldering some wires

One of the biggest challenges this week was interfacing with the available microcontrollers. I spend a good part of the week trying to establish communication with a variety of off brand arduinos. With no success, I found an online Indian store that stocked the original arduino. As I made my way around the Robokits website, I found that Ahmedabad is the company’s distribution center. With some luck, I was able to order the microcontroller from their website and pick it up locally the following day.

One of the off brand arduinos that I attempted to interface with

A building near the Robokit distribution center where we stopped to grab a quick lunch

Now as I had stated in my earlier blogs, the main mode for transportation for local students is by moped. This becomes challenging during the monsoon seasons, for the roads start filling up with water. On Thursday night we were all invited to a friends house for dinner, but it was pouring outside. Out of the group of seven people one person owned a car, so with the true Indian mentality we all crammed in.

Mandatory car selfie

During the weekend we made an early morning trip to Old Ahmedabad’s shopping area. The area surrounding Relief Road is one of the busiest and crowded places in the city. In this area you can purchase anything and everything, ranging from clothes to electronics.  This is also a place with a lot of culture and history. In just one block you can find traces of Roman, Greek and Islamic architecture. This is also the location of one of the most famous mosques in all of India, Jama Masjid.  

Second hand electronics being sold on Relief Road

Architecture around Jama Mosque

Inside the Jama Mosque

Heavy rains flooding the streets outside our apartment complex

Designing in a Developing Context

At the 2014 International Development Design Summit (IDDS), participants split into eight different project teams. Those teams work in four different communities around Tanzania. During the five weeks of the summit, project teams have two community visits: the first with the goal of gathering information and the second with the goal of testing and refining prototypes. This year project titles ranged from Creating Value from Unused Avocados to Water Quality and Scarcity. I was selected to work on Livestock Fodder Production in Orkilili, a small Maasai and Wameru community near Kilimanjaro International Airport.

In preparation for our first community visit, my team generated assumptions that might hinder our design process. For instance, before visiting the community I assumed that land was shared collectively amongst community members. As my team expanded our discussion to include the assumptions of farmers in the community, I realized that designing in a developing country presents unique challenges. My lessons learned are largely based on comparison between my experience at IDDS and my experience in Olin College’s User-Oriented Collaborative Design course designing for Community Supported Agriculture Farmers in Suburban New England.

Tanzanians and other individuals from African countries have grown wary of foreign aid workers and organizations. More particularly, these community members might be suspicious of unfamiliar foreigners or those strangers who want to take their picture. For instance, my Malawian friend shared with me a common notion among Malawian communities. It goes something like this: One must be careful about trusting foreigners who come to help alleviate poverty. It is not even safe to close your eyes during prayer as these foreigners may take the opportunity to photograph you. The foreigners will then take the photograph of you with your eyes closed and fundraise for their own enrichment claiming you that you are blind. I was shocked to hear this notion.

Depending on a community's past experiences with traditional NGO’s who develop solutions for communities as opposed to with communities, those community members may not be fully honest with you. Community members might tell you what (they think) you want to hear. During a community meeting with farmers who owned goats and cows we asked, “How many acres do you have?” One farmer responded 4 acres. Later than evening our Maasai team member informed us that this particular farmer owned more than double the acres he reported. Learning this piece of information made my team even more determined to meet farmers individually at their own farms. 

Community members might not understand the work you do as a designer during the gathering information phase. They might describe to you their problems immediately rather than letting you observe them on their land farm. For instance, at community meeting after community meeting farmers told us about their problems. One particular problem was their need to migrate in search of livestock fodder during the dry season. Although we were able to meet with dozens of farmers in the context of community meetings, my team was only able to practice observing and asking at two farms during out four days in Orkilili. It is possible that the language barrier may have made it hard to explain our goals as designers. 

My main learning is that community members’ past experiences with development workers and organizations influence how they interact with you. Past interactions and stories with foreigners and foreign aid organizations create mental models and perceptions which are hard to change.

Pictured top left: my team asks one farmer about his current fodder storage practices ; top right: my team delivers our community presentation on the last day of our first visit to Orkilili ; bottom left: my team synthesizes our learnings into a problem framing tree and visual representation of the growing and grazing seasons; bottom right : my team learns about the advantages and disadvantages of hybrid vs indigenous cows and goats.

Ahmedabad, India: Week Two

This past week started off with a trip to IET (Institute of Engineering and Technology, Ahmedabad University) in search for electrical components for my project. Much like Olin, Ahmedabad University is a newly establish institution. It came to be during the summer of 2009 and has rapidly grown since. The engineering department is currently located in the Amrut Mody School of Management's building, but is projected to move into a building of it’s own by the end of August. In search of these components, I made my way to the electronics lab. The lab, which is maintained by current Ph.D. students, was fully equipped with oscilloscopes, power supplies, soldering stations, and some general components. After inquiring about my parts, we found out that what I needed is not locally available, so we had to order it from a distributor in Bombay. For the remainder of the week, I continued work on the different projects that I have been assigned under the Institute of Life Sciences. This worked out well because the projects are all at different stages of development, which allows me to smoothly move between projects.

As my first two weeks of being in Ahmedabad came to a close, the weather took a turn for the better, as the hot and dry spell was broken. The late monsoon rains were welcomed by everyone from the city. Because of these rains on Thursday night, our cook canceled. This resulted in a late night trip to Maruti Dining Hall, a rooftop restaurant that served unlimited authentic gujarati cuisine. Gujarati food is famous for being sweet, salty and spicy at the same time. This concoction of flavors was something that I experienced for the first time.

Enjoying the view from our balcony of the first rains of the season.

Devouring the Gujarati Thali from Maruti Dining Hall.

Full variety of delicious food. 

On Friday night, we went to a concert put on by Going GaGa, a student run music group from Ahmedabad University. They only played songs composed, written or sung by A. R. Rahman. One of the most popular musicians of this generation, he has been a part of many instant classic songs to come from India. If you are interested, here is a link to a performance by A. R. Rahman that the student group also performed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FKEy_RWwQk.  
  

Celebrating Dr. Rishi Shanker's birthday in the office.

The view from the Gandhi Ashram. 

Going GaGa's live performing. 

Arrival in Arusha

My name is David Hines. I have just arrived in Arusha, Tanzania to participate in the International Development Design Summit (IDDS) organized by MIT and USAID. As a participant, I will spend 5-weeks working on a cross-disciplinary, cross-cultural team. Through a process of user observations, idea generation, and prototype development and refinement, my team will work with a local community to co-create a low-cost technological solution to an agriculture or energy challenge. The summit will culminate in final product presentation at the Arusha regional agricultural fair on August 9, 2014.

I first learned of IDDS through a serendipitous interaction with a student at Olin College of Engineering. I later learned that another Babson student had participated in the past. Rayshawn Whitford ’12 inspired me to apply and accept the offer from IDDS. I feel very fortunate to be a part of such a talented and diverse group of participants.

I am participating as a rising undergraduate senior expected to graduate in May 2015. My degree is a Bachelor in Science of Business Administration with a concentration in Technology, Entrepreneurship, and Design. At Babson, I am a Resident Assistant, member of the Honors Program, and an active actor, singer, and dancer in musical theatre productions of the Babson Players. I recently spent my junior year as an exchange student at Ecole des Haute Etudes Commerciales Paris (HEC Paris). For their generous grants, I extend my profound gratitude to the Olin College of Engineering International Development Scholar Program and the Babson College Center of Career Development Internship Sponsorship Program.

Post written July 7, 2014. Pictured top left: myself and Giovanni, an IDDS participant from El Salvador who guided my high school’s trip to El Salvador only weeks earlier; top right and bottom: photos of the Arusha Vocational Education Training Authority (VETA) our campus for the next 33 days.

Cape Town Contd.

Camps Bay at Sunset

Work has continued to progress as I am trying to establish the foundation for the Wonder Plant. It has been a whirlwind trying to create a platform for which to market our product as well as trying to figure out exactly which niche we would like to get into. So far we have decided on a few different approaches which include selling the Spekboom to be planted at 30 Rand / plant, having a company plant it as volunteers for 30 Rand / plant, and having us plant it on their behalf for 70 Rand / plant. (The conversion rate is about 10 Rand = $1) Then we have also moved into a couple of promotional campaigns. While I am working on this project the other interns are working on putting up the sites, collecting donations, creating website platforms, etc. I have been working with one of the interns to have a promotional campaign of giving out about 30 trees to this one area in Stellenbosch that has very successful companies as a donation challenge. Through this I have  been trying to figure out suppliers to have a nice product design as well as promotional material to give with it.

Brochure: minus the logo which should arrive soon

The other main focus the last week or so is that this Friday is Mandela Day. This is a South African holiday which encourages everyone to donate 67 minutes of their day to any sort of charity or helping their community. Each minute represents each year that Nelson Mandela fought for equality and change. We had spent some time doing door to door sales to companies in Stellenbosch, mostly car companies with large carbon footprints, doing rocket pitches while holding up our first model plant I had put together. While this is still in the works for future follow ups and donations, we do have one company that is volunteering their time to plant a few trees on our Kayamandi site. However, as of this morning it is down pouring the next two days and it will be rescheduled for a future time. 

First product design

It has been really great to be able to grow with the company dynamic here. Each meeting is an uplifting debrief or reflection session which includes positives, negatives, accomplishments, acknowledgements, ice breakers, and lessons from the boss. Everyone works with each other here and engages together as we are all working on separate parts that are intertwined together. It has also been very interesting to view the way this company handles the in and out of the different interns. As it is a constant changing dynamic of international people the office changes every week. There has been recently in placed a sort of transitional program that will help the future of continuity between the different roles and projects. 

The stars mark all our current sites

 For any specific presentations, proposals, or marketing material feel free to shoot me an email. :)

Also as an exciting note, I went shark cage diving this week! Very exciting and very cold in the middle of winter.

Shark Cage Diving

Cape Town : First Week

View from the top of Table Mountain overlooking Cape Town

In my first few weeks here in Cape Town working at Heart Capital I have dug trenches, put up greenhouses, created business plans, and seen township life up close.

Heart Capital is an impact investment firm that has various ventures they create and maintain within townships. It is a family run company and maintained by volunteers and interns from across the world.

Main Office in the Old Castle Brewery & Table Mountain in the background

(As some context about South Africa, during the apartheid era the native people were moved out of urban living areas, now referred to as townships, to specific regions to separate the races. In these areas there is still a high percentage of poverty, disease, and crime.)

Currently the main two ventures being run are HubSpace and FoodPods. HubSpace is an office space that is available for rent to entrepreneurs. This allows them access to phones, internet, and their own permanent area to work on their company. Along with this, HubSpace also provides interns to do consulting for the entrepreneurs as well as host training sessions where the entrepreneurs can learn basic business principles. The current model to select those that will  run their business there are based off of a business competition held where they present business plans to see if their idea is viable. 

The other venture, FoodPods, creates garden centers that are run by the women in the township. This benefits the women by creating a source of income for them and provides the community with fresh vegetables to help support their dietary needs. Recently, the company got a donation for new more efficient greenhouses, so both main sites for this project are currently under development. 

Sandbag Houses & first steps of building tunnels at Kayamandi

Heart Capital has created a welcoming, very relaxed atmosphere and a sense of empowerment and ownership over your own work. Each intern selects what they want to do with the help of the boss and then set their own goals and deadlines to get what they need to accomplished.  For my work package I am currently developing and implementing a business plan around a new venture Wonder Plant. 

The Main Office: Woodstock Hubspace

Wonderplant would sell and plant the Spekboom plant. Spekboom is a native South African plant that is a great carbon reducer. It can absorb 100 times more carbon than a pine tree the same size. It is able to grow just from a cut off leaf and it can survive drought, fire, and frost. There have been very few campaigns to sell Spekboom as a carbon footprint reducer. The idea was tested once last year by Heart Capital and a chain supermarket store, Checkers, planted these plants at township schools and was very successful. 

Our model would have the people in the township take care of these plants until they have matured and then we would sell them to big companies to plant the trees and have them reduce their carbon footprint. The profit would help sponsor the overhead, fund the other projects that are currently in development, and lift those that will be taking care of the plants out of poverty.

Office Spekboom Plant overlooking Table Mountain

I have made the initial steps to starting this project which included creating reports about the plant as well as starting the marketing material to begin the selling stages as the plant will be ready to be sold in the next month. 

As some of the sites are currently under construction the company has needed interns to go out in the field and get their hands dirty by digging holes, working with tarp, moving crates and plants, supervising workers, and basically a lot of manual labor. I have been on both sites assisting since I have arrived and cannot lift my hands over my head at the current moment. It has been really interesting so far really working inside the community and interacting with the people whose lives we are effecting. I hope to keep up this great experience, start selling the Spekboom soon, and get some real muscles by the end of this trip.

Working on putting up greenhouses in Kayamandi Township

Ahmedabad, India: Week One

Last week Sunday, July 6th, I arrived at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport just at the outskirts of Ahmedabad, the largest city in the western Indian state of Gujarat. One of the first things that I noticed during the taxi ride from the airport to where I was staying was the quality of the streets. Now this is not a common problem in the US, but compared to what I have experienced in the rest of the country, this city seems to have a very well maintained infrastructure. As we got further into the city, I started noticing a distinct pattern to the surrounding buildings. The first two floors were commercial spaces, occupied by crowded local eateries and stores, and the remaining stories were residential apartments. Soon we arrived at a apartment complex labeled Ratilal Society where I was greeted by Nevil and Tilak, friends I made during the ADE India trip earlier this summer. They are 2nd year students at the Institute of Business Administration, Ahmedabad University, and have graciously offered to house me for the next month.

The Entrance to the Institute of Life Science,
Ahmedabad University

Wild peacocks out and about outside
 the Institute of Life Sciences

The next day I met Dr. Alok Dhawan, director and professor at the Institute of Life Sciences, which is a part of the School of Science and Technology, Ahmedabad University. After getting a tour of the state of the art labs and meeting the MSc. students, Ph.D. students, and faculty, I was briefed on my project. For the following month I will be experimenting and developing features for a diabetes monitoring device which is sustainable under limited resources. The rest of the week flew by, as I joined another two projects. At the end of the week, I had a meeting with Shri Prafull Anubhai, chairman of Ahmedabad University. With the short time period that I am here at the University, we decided that to develop a more sustainable working plan and start collaborating with the Institute of Engineering and Technology, Ahmedabad University.

Transportation mode of choice: Moped. The only time that I
opened my eyes was to take this picture.

During the weekend I toured local heritage sites like the Adalaj Stepwell, a 500+ years old, 5 stories deep well, and Sabarmati Ashram, the place where Mahatma Gandhi lived for quite a while. We ended the week on a high note, by enjoying some "Indian" fro-yo from Alpha One, the largest mall in the city.

Entrance to the Gandhi Museum, right next to Ashram

My roommates and I soaking up the sun at what was Mahatma Gandhi's
residence till 1930. From the left: Nishit, Saarth, Tilak, and Nevil

A Jain temple located on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.