Spotlight On Hope is free-of-cost and offers a unique and creative outlet through film and animation instruction for pediatric and young adult cancer patients and their families. Spotlight On Hope brings excitement, enjoyment and relaxation to patients through film production, enhancing their mental well-being, self-worth and skills during a particularly stressful and traumatic time of their lives. After 8-10 weekend film workshops have been carried out over the course of the year, a grand red carpet screening showcasing all the films is held for the participants, their families and friends, and the community to enjoy.
Track: Scaling Up
ZestBio
ZestBio is a startup spun out of UC Berkeley that is harnessing the power of biology to convert low value, abundant fruit and vegetable byproducts like citrus peels and sugar beet pulp into high performing plastic bottles and ingredients for dishwasher detergents. This proposal aims to build off recent business and technical advances to scale the improved fermentation technology from bench to pilot scale. At scale, ZestBio aims to make products with superior performance and dramatically reduced environmental footprint compared to existing solutions.
Visualize
Visualize is a simulated training tool designed to train midwives in Ghana to screen for cervical cancer using the most appropriate and accessible screening method, visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA). Using a simulated tool is a novel approach to improve learning and retention of cervical cancer screening methods in low- and middle-income countries. Leveraging funding from a previous Big Ideas grant, Visualize was co-designed with midwives in Ghana and has gone through multiple design iterations, based on feedback from Ghanaian midwives, trainers, OB/GYN doctors, and healthcare administrators at every stage. Now the team aims to scale Visualize by implementing and testing this simulated training tool as part of VIA training sessions at three urban health training facilities. During these sessions, trainers will use Visualize to teach midwives how to perform VIA. The midwives will then be able to screen patients using VIA.
Trash to Tiles
Ugandans have second or third tier roofs. Trash to Tiles (T3) is repurposing plastic waste in developing nations to produce affordable, quality construction materials such as roofing tiles, pipes, and pavers. By operating in areas with large amounts of plastic waste but no access to recycling, T3 provides a recycling option that currently does not exist. T3’s locally fabricated, precision-controlled machinery fills the gap between capital-intensive, industrialized manufacturers and low-tech NGOs struggling to expand. T3 will scale rapidly and empower local entrepreneurs through a franchise model. In the pilot market of Gulu, Uganda, T3 created prototype roofing tiles and pavers and confirmed market demand through 200 interviews. T3 is currently developing the second iteration machinery and establishing a community plastics collection center to provide a steady supply of plastic waste.
Pit Vidura: Building the “Uber Pool” for Fecal Sludge Management
In rapidly urbanizing areas, small exhauster truck businesses are unable to keep up with the demand for pit latrine emptying services due to inefficiencies in their operations. Thus, when a latrine fills in most low-income urban areas, manual emptiers use buckets to empty the waste and dump it in the environment. This results in high rates of diseases such as cholera and dysentery. Pit Vidura enables sanitation service providers to grow their businesses by improving the efficiency and profitability of their daily operations. Pit Vidura’s integrated suite of technologies connects truckers to customers, intelligently routes truckers to clusters of customers, and streamlines payments for emptying services. To date (March 2019), Pit Vidura has served over 1,200 households in Kigali with safe emptying services and prevented over 3 million liters of human waste from entering the urban environment.
Husk-to-Home
Husk-to-Home siding is a fiber-plastic composite (FPC) material comprised of recycled high-density polyethylene plastic (HDPE) and rice husk. HDPE is a low cost, recyclable, and formaldehyde-free material while the rice husk is used because of its natural resistance to moisture and termites. To ensure that the material is resistant to the elements, Husk-to-Home has conducted extensive flexural, compressive, soak, termite, and accelerated aging tests. These tests are conducted on a prototype board, and were performed to the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) Standards where applicable. Husk-To-Home plans to first sell the board in Southeastern US, targeting contracting companies. Once established as a profitable benefit corporation (b corp), Husk-To-Home will expand to create a replacement for wood composites as a multifunctional material that will be available both here in the US and internationally.
ElectroSan – Reimagining Waste for Kenya
Globally, 1 in 3 people still do not have access to a toilet, causing over 3.6 million water related, preventable deaths each year. In sub-Saharan Africa, the number of people without access to safely managed sanitation continues to grow. ElectroSan is reimagining the global sanitation problem as an opportunity. If disposal and treatment of human waste can be made profitable, the generated revenue can be used towards the cost of providing sanitation services and ultimately can help alleviate poverty. ElectroSan’s ion exchange technology has been demonstrated to create a valuable fertilizer end-product from human urine. Through a partnership with a local social venture called Sanergy, ElectroSan can meet the high demand for fertilizer in the Kenyan market, addressing sanitation needs for low-income communities like Mukuru while instilling a self-sustainable sanitation solution.
Early Preeclampsia Detection Strip
In most LMICs, the average woman attends one prenatal care visit when she first realizes she is pregnant and does not return to the health care facility until it is time for her to give birth or after she experiences severe health outcomes. Preeclampsia is the second leading cause of maternal mortality; accounting for the deaths of thousands of women and babies annually. Preeclampsia is difficult to diagnose because most symptoms mimic many physiologic changes observed in pregnancy, and other complications in pregnancy, hence women are only aware of this condition if they receive routine prenatal care or upon progression of the undiagnosed preeclampsia into a more severe complication; eclampsia. The Early Preeclampsia Detection (EPED) Strip is a low-cost, diagnostic test for preeclampsia that provides a home-based method for women to self-screen for the development of preeclampsia alongside empowering and educating them to seek medical care.
Scaling Dost Education
Dost Education empowers parents of any literacy level in India to get their 3-5 year old kids ready for school. By simply dialing a number, parents join Dost’s program and receive daily, 2-minute podcasts on their phone about topics like numeracy, language and socio-emotional well-being. Typically, Dost customers are mothers who are motivated to get their kids the best education but have minimal education experiences themselves. They love Dost because the podcasts are entertaining, actionable, and integrated into their daily routine. Voice calls are a powerful way to reach the estimated 35 million illiterate mothers in urban India who now have access to a mobile phone.