Impact - G

Impact-G is committed to solving the issue of extreme poverty in our community. Our strategy was to teach the women 'how to fish' as opposed to giving them fish. We address the problem strategically by setting them up with their own businesses and help them grow into flourishing 

business owners. We build store fronts for them to sell their chores like provision stores, cloths, and water, sowing etc. We provide and grantee for them so they can set up bank accounts to encourage the habit of saving. Health insurance cards and a mentor to help them ran the business successfully. Over a period of over 6 months the ladies are able to stand on their feet. My idea will elevate humanity by helping the ladies to provide 3 meals for their family. They will be able to pay for school fees and seek medical help when they need it.

I am solving the problem of extreme poverty in my community. Ghana is a developing country and it has a large population of people who live below the poverty line. My goal is to help the poorest of them transition out of poverty using a system that has been tested and has proven to work. The problem of poverty is huge and if not address can lead to many social issues and uprisings. It is equally a problem on the continents and globally. It is hard to put a number to the number of people affected but in Ghana it will be about 40% of the population fall in this bracket and they are in both rural and urban areas. In many situations the families migrate to the capital city in search of non-existing jobs. The leads to a huge problem of rural urban migration and it directly affect the standard of living for the poor. Most of the people we help are women who have kids and fathers have left home and making it difficult for the woman to deal with. My organisation intervenes by providing a self sustaining business that will help transform their lives and family forever.

The community I am working to improve is the poor women in Accra. They are mostly people who cannot afford 3 meals a day for themselves, do have their own home and cannot pay kids school fees. Because I grew up in this community I have a good understanding for the needs and having transitioned out I am determined to help as many as possible. We also understand their needs by interview them and having them answer some 35 questions that we developed from our feasibility study by a team of 5 MIT students who came to Ghana to conduct the study. We have direct communication with them daily through the mentor we have hired to go round and teach them and collect data. We use the number to improve on their business practices. My project is addressing their needs by helping them start their businesses and gradually transition from poverty. There are currently 194 women whose businesses are sustainable and many more are coming on board. We also provide small business loans to businesses who are set up already but just need some financial injection and coaching to transform their businesses. I am happy with the growth and transformation.

o provide an integrated and sustainable solution to ending acute poverty is to attack the problem at it's core. The opportunity given the ladies to own their businesses and to take their destiny into their own hands is a way of liberating them from poverty. Teaching them how to fish trains them to continue on their own and to grow when help is not readily available. The project is aligned to my selected dimension because it creates opportunities for those left behind to catch up and hopefully exceed expectations. Families are directly positively affect and that builds a great community.

My work is innovative because it combines a number of strategic (health insurance, bank accounts, daily sales records, cooperative buying, bi-weekly best practices sharing etc) interventions that makes the program unique and sustainable. To make the initial stages easy for them we pay the school fees for their wards and any arrears they might have so they will have the peace of mind needed to focus on their business and not having worry about schools fees at least in the short term when their businesses start. It also allows them to save up to pay the fees when the future fees are due

I am building sustainable businesses for these women and make them powerful by having them take their own destiny into their own hands. We teach them how to fish buy ensuring they understand fully how to run and manage a business. The health insurance we get for them and their families keep them healthy always, the bank accounts enables them to develop the attitude of savings so they can borrow against them in the future to expand their business. This was not possible in the past because the did not qualify to set up a bank account until we guaranteed for them. We have them all meet every other Sunday to share experience and best practices. The way they learn from each others experience.

All these measures make our work unique from others and the sustainability aspect is powerful because that represents their future and livelihood

The community I am working to improve is the poor women in Accra. They are mostly people who cannot afford 3 meals a day for themselves, don't have their own home and cannot pay kids fees. I grew up in this community I have a good understanding for the needs and having transitioned out I am determined to help as many as possible. We also understand their needs by interview them and having them answer some 35 questions that we developed from our feasibility study by a team of 5 MIT students who came to Ghana to conduct the study. We have direct communication with them daily through the mentor we have hired to go round and teach them and collect data. We use the number to improve on their business practices. My project is addressing their needs by helping them start their businesses and gradually transition from poverty. There are currently 194 women whose businesses are sustainable and many more are coming on board. We also provide small business loans to businesses who are set up already but just need some financial injection and coaching to transform their businesses. I am happy with the growth and transformation. They feel empowered because they own their own businesses and take responsibility for their actions. I have a long waiting list of people who want to come and have the opportunity because they have seen a real change in the life of their friends. This is evidence that my solution works effectively. 

The ladies in this community are my mothers and I understand their situation first hand because my mother lived the same reality and I grew up here so I have a very good understanding out what a good outcome looks like.My theory of change is designed on the activity of getting the ladies to work and building their own businesses which will drive the output through activity during the selling process. The desired outcome will lead to an improved life style, positive attitudes, they are recognized and accepted socially and they are more confident to interact with others because they feel good about themselves. In my interactions over the last 5 years the opportunity I have given them even makes their marriages better because they get a lot of recognition and respect from their husbands because they are not fully dependent on them for their livelihood. 

In describing the activities that lead to the desire outcomes my goal was to get the out of the house and keep them busy selling their products and services to people in the community and others driving through. Some engage in selling provisions, produce, grocery, cooked food items, sowing, whole sale clothing and cosmetics and everyday items like water, drinks and everyday items that school children and workers will want to buy. It would interest you to know that some of these women sold water on a retail bases on the road in-between cars with the risks associated with it . I have rescued many of them who own their own store fronts and have become wholesalers at a particular location where others will come and get products from them.

I believe all this has a direct impact of them(humanity) because they can now afford 3 meals a day and their family can have a balanced diet. Some the women have seen tremendous improvements in their life to the extent they have moved their kids to better schools. That is definitely life changing. A transformation that everyone in this community appreciates. I look forward doing many this that brings them much needed held.

My solution is not a technology but a business process to transform the lives of these women. I believe the process of transformation from poverty to business women can serve as a data point to develop other identification systems.

My solution is not technology based it is a business model 

The first set of ladies that we set up are the lowest of the poverty chain. They usually don't have anything in terms of the infrastructure or social structure for us to help them build on. So we provide the stores, provisions, health insurance, start up capital, bank accounts, training on how to ran a business etc. They are currently 78 business women. Their experience and success has made me and my team to believe that we can get many people out of poverty with the right approach because this has proven to be a success story.

The second set of women are people who have been in business before in the past and usually have their own store fronts but nothing else. With these group of we help with training on how to run a successful business, start up capital, bank accounts if they do not have any, health insurance. These set of woman are 94 and counting. I hope to bring in 50 women in the next year and about 300 in the next 5 years.

It is important to note that we have over the year gone through the learning curve and we know and understand what works and what does not. Financing has been a huge issue and with the right financing we can scale to over 1000 women in the next 4 years. 

My goal is simply to attract the right funding to scale this project to about 1000 more women in 4 years. We have a proven model that works and has proven to be sustainable. The more people we can help bring out of poverty the more people we can make independent to take their destiny into their own hands. It is important to note that my approach is really trans formative and revolutionary. This is because from my experience the standard of living for the women increases to the extent that they move their children to better schools. Some are able to afford fruits after dinner. This seems like basic in the western world but it is a luxury in my community.

Ultimately my goal is for all these ladies to be successful and begin to help others in their circle get out of poverty. They will become so powerful they become an inspiration to the others for them to know it is possible to transform their life and get out of poverty.

I believe the barrier that currently exist is the land to secure the store fronts for the ladies. The public spaces that are needed to contract the store fronts at strategic places is becoming limited so we really have to move around for a long time to get the ladies an idea place that will have the needed foot traffic to attract the right customers to buy their products.

Insufficient capital is also a barrier because we are only able to scale and bring more ladies into the fold if we have the resources to do it. Without sufficient funding it takes a longer time to bring in more ladies onto the program. As of now we have over 3072 women who are on the waiting list to be part of the program because they have seen the transformation it has brought to their friends in the community

My application to this price is part of my attempt to solve the funding problems because it will go a long way to help these women. I am also working on leveraging some profits from personal real estate projects. In the future I will introduce a new Idea where the current ladies who became successful to contribute to the success of others.

With respect to the land issues, I will keep working with the municipal authorities to designate land for the purpose of serving these ladies.

My organization is a stand alone organization

I have 5 people actively working on my team now. We hire professionals to do the building of the store fronts, electricity, carpentry and other works. 

I believe that having grown up in this very community I have first hand experience and understanding of what my people in this community continue to go through. My mother also sold bread and carried me on her back while she did her business. I was a key member of the MIT students who came down to Ghana to do the feasibility study that informed the plan of action to take

I have also worked with these women for the past five years from the beginning (Interviews, visiting homes, understanding their life, starting businesses, failing, starting back up and learning from their experiences). Through the process i have a great understanding of what works and what does not work. We have learned enough to scale without any delay. I have also built a team that understands how best to execute and stay focused on the defined plan of action. 

I have a passion for helping people. I have a desire to see people get out of poverty. I know if is possible because I am a product of this community and have been fortune to transition out of it. I know what is takes to be successful and I am ready to keep helping and improving the lot of other to get out. 

Finally, my education, work experiences and working for non profit has prepared me for the task ahead. I am extremely excited about how far we have come and the potential of changing and transforming my community

I have not partnered with any other organizations

LOGISTICS ..................................3349

SOFIA'S CONTAINER COST .................4500

VIVIAN'S ADMISSION .......................1600

HEALTH INSURANCE CARDS ...............1800

JULIET'S CANOPY ...........................1700

JULIET'S TABLE .............................1980

JULIET'S GLASS SHOWCASE ...............1600

JULIETS TRANSPORT........................1508

JULIET'S FOOD ..............................2300

SARAH'S ADVANCE .........................3000

Global mamas ..............................6800

ABIBA'S STOCKS .....................3100

MENTOR'S LAPTOP & STUFF .......6000

STIPENDS (40X8) .....................3000

NII'S WORKMANSHIP .................2900

ESTHER'S ADVANCE RENT ..........2700

ESTHER'S CONTAINER COST .........3800

CONTAINER CARRIAGE ..............1200

BLOCKS............................... 1990

SAND ................................6300

VIVIAN'S FRUIT BUSINESS.......... 1700

ABIBA'S EXTRA STOCKS .............2300

KINGSLEY'S ELECTRIC METER....... 4500

GIFTY'S CONTAINER COST .........4000

GIFTY'S ADVANCE RENT ...........3000

PURCHASE OF CARD............... 2300

STIPENDS ...........................3000

HEALTH INSURANCE CARDS ......4990

THE BANK VISITS ................1200

RABIATU'S CONTAINER COST ...3400

STIPENDS .........................3000

RABIATU'S ADVANCE RENT .....2350

RABIATU'S CONTAINER CARRIAGE.... 1700

RABIATU'S CONTAINER PAINTING .....900

BANK ACCOUNTS ..........................4000

SOFIA'S SHELVES .........................1300

SOFIA'S STOCKS ...........................3400

ABIBA'S CONTAINER COST ..............4900

ABIBA'S CONTAINER ....................2100

ABIBA'S CONTAINER CARRIAGE........ 1000

SARAH'S CONTAINER COST ............ 3500

SARAH'S CONTAINER ................... 900

SARAH'S CONTAINER ..................1190

JULIET'S ADVANCE RENT................1500

ROOFING COST (SARAH & ABIBA) ......2700

ROOFING WORKMANSHIP (SARAH & ABIBA) 2300

STIPENDS (40X7) ..........................1600

ABIGAIL'S ADVANCE RENT(1YR).......... 3000

ABIGAIL'S CONTAINER COST ............3900

BOARD .....................................940

MENTOR'S TRANSPORT ..................800

ABIGAIL'S SITE CLEARING ...............788

ABIGAIL'S CONTAINER.................. 1200

ABIGAIL'S ..................................980

ABIGAIL'S CONTAINER CARRIAGE.......1200

STIPENDS ..................................2300

PAINT & TURPENTINE ...................800

PAINTING WORKMANSHIP ..............1200

AKU SEDENU ..............................2000

SHELVES .................................890

ABIGAIL'S CONTAINER ..................1239

ABIGAIL'S CONTAINER .................1600

ABIGAIL'S CONTAINER ................2000

SARAH'S SEWING STAFF COST ........1740

IFTY'S STOCKS ........................3420

RABIATU'S STOCKS ...................3400

BANK A/C's ...........................6500

PAINT .................................880

TURPENTINE ........................800

PAINTING WORKMANSHIP (SARAH & ABIBA) 900

Cement ..............................7980

IRON RODS ...........................6880

TOTAL ............................250237 (Cedis)

TOTAL IN USA DOLLARS $76,047.4 

I am applying for the Mission Billion Challenge  because the price will be the single largest price that can potentially scale our priority of helping the underprivileged in Ghana. Because inadequate funding is one of the limitations we face as an non profit organization we will be able to help over 1000 women in the two year period. We have a very good understanding of what is takes to scale up quickly without any problem.

The municipality has witnessed and endorsed our projects but funding is the biggest problem. We can also bring in the needed staff to help scale the program and affect many more people. There is a huge number of women on a waiting list who are just waiting to experience this life changing opportunity and the Elevate Prize will help achieve that. 

I do not have any organization in mind just yet.