Arts4Refugees

We are working on a two sided Problem.  On the one side  GenZ & millennials want more from their giving experience. They want a bigger bang from the same spend. Currently, their average giving is between $56 and $99 per year in 2020.  This is despite GenZ having a purchasing power of $450 bn.  

The 3 areas GenZ focus on the most are - 

1. Eco friendly products and services
2. The arts
3. Youth Development

1 in 4 have friends and family struggling from cost of living crisis.

Second side of the - Refugees are excluded
They are emotionally, socially and financially excluded.  90% live in the developing world.  Majority of the NGO solutions available to them are based on poverty elevation, which do not take into account their human needs.  For example, majority of micro finance solutions charge interest even in Muslim countries where interest is believed to be religiously unacceptable.   More importantly  their numbers are growing. From from 60m in 2016 to 130m (Source - Refugees.org) 

Our Solution is a web 3 gaming based marketplace empowering post conflict communities ( a segment within the refugee population) engage with their GenZ supporter base.

This marketplace meets the emotional, financial and economic
needs of the GenZ giver and post conflict regions they support along with local talent they know are suffering from the cost of living crisis.  

For instance, GenZ are interested in learning about the issues post conflict communities face.  We solve this by training students from leading universities as student journalists.  They research and write articles about these post conflict communities.  This helps their GenZ peers learn about the issues they care about.  This knowledge base also encourages mainstream journalists  to share these issues with the mainstream.  Finally, these articles help policy makers come up to speed on the issues faced by post conflict communities.  

We have worked with 150 students from Oxford University, War Studies Department at King's College, London, and Science Po in Paris on this. We have validated our value proposition meeting the needs of the career services of these universities. (We are a Gold standard internship host for 2023 - an award given by Oxford University Career Services).  So, as we scale this solution more students from more universities will be joining us and building their vocational skills with us while they are studying.   

The articles by these students were initially  made available for free on our website - see here for Oxford ,  King's and Sc Po.   In the process we co created our dedicated GenZ brand Arts4Refugees.  These articles are now available on a subscription basis at our Media Hub. 

We are currently working with AI students from Birmingham University to re purposing this content into micro games using AI - here are two examples. 

1. Bob Marley
2. Wyclef Jean

This gaming element is going to rolled out to all our stakeholders.  In the final phase of development all these games will be consolidated into a dedicated platform which will generate revenue from multiple revenue streams like in game purchases to subscriptions.  A percentage of these revenues will support our services for post conflict regions.  A percentage of these revenues our support local talent build vocational skills.  Finally, a percentage of these revenue will pay our own bills with. 

80% of Gen Z played a game last year. 

We have validated key user cases for each side of the marketplace independently - see below. 

In summary the end solution will be a -

A Web 3 game custom designed for the human needs and sharing economy of our stakeholders

Corporate Level Investors/ Corporate Stakeholders/ Team hold governance rights in the game 

GenZ give - Time (Fractional work rewarded with tokens/ NFT's) Marketing Volunteers Student Journalists Emotional engagement via tokens/ NFT's and voting rights Financial support by buying in game products and services

Post conflict communities benefit - Custom designed financial services meeting their human needs and creating jobs and wealth locally. Example - Interest free and collateral free micro loans. 

Our web 3.0 gaming solution supports us scale our impact - 

Impact 1 Women access entrepreneurship in below $5 a day post
conflict region - Lira, Uganda (3x micro businesses set up).  We co designed this solution with our NGO partners locally.  We co created and delivered 3  interest free, collateral free micro loans.  These micro loans allowed women locally to access entrepreneurship training, inventory to set up their micro businesses and business mentoring for 6 months post training.  Dedicated revenue streams from the game will allow us to scale this impact further.  This approach ensured adoption rates were high among high.  For instance, no interest and no collateral meant these women could take a risk and set up a business with minimal exposure.  Women in this region are economically disadvantaged. 

Impact 2 Expert Artisans from the post conflict region of Swat
Valley earn a living (Artisans have engaged with UK Designers).  The trade finance and business development solution has been co designed and tested locally with our partners.  We support this community access to the global market place and engage with trade bodies to ensure they can build their brand among the appropriate segments in the fashion sector.  This approach helps the local community re engage with its heritage of hand crafted artisanship, build it brand globally, understand global supply chain compliances and get paid on time as opposed to in arrears.  Again our co design approach means the adoption rates of eco and ethical production practices are high.  Traditional production methods benefit women in rural regions where access paid work is limited.  

Impact 3 GenZ coders in Lebanon build vocational skills.  We co created the first step of the game design with 3 GenZ coders.  They helped us organise the quiz for the arty refugees from the last 100 years.  This content is now being used to generate the level of micro games.  Our work with these GenZ's supported them in building their CV's.  Lebanon is a post conflict region struggling with economic pressures.  These GenZ gained valuable expereince to support them access paid positions afterwards. 

Impact 4 Students from EU & US build vocational skills 40 students have worked with us to build their vocational skills.  They were placed with us by internship placement agencies.  These students came from a range of universities like Florida State to Oklahoma State  and Columbia universities.  These students build their vocational skills with us - most are paid by a third party foundation for their duration with us. 

Impact 5 Student journalists build their vocational skills.  150 + students from Oxford University, King's College, London and Sciences Po.  These students build their vocational skills with us.  We provide them with their first work experience while they are still at university. 

Impact 6 Undiscovered artists build their brands.  We have supported 3 to date. These are have great expertise, but are struggling to  break into the mainstream. 90% of these kind of artists lost income during COVID.  By working with us they are more able to break into the mainstream.  

All our 3 co founders have lived experience in the support we offer.  Zufi Deo has lived and worked in 7 different countries.  His father was a refugee, so he has the lived experience of the inter-generation issues refugees face. His approach of human centred design has ensured  the human needs of all the stakeholders are always taken into account.  For example, the student journalist use a frame of 7 human needs to underpin their message in the articles they write.  In addition, his approach to co design ensure the local community members play an active part of identifying unarticulated needs they have  and taken into account. 

Gerry Creedon is from Ireland and moved to the UK in the 1980's.  He has first hand expereince of issues migrants face when moving to a new community. The issues with building their social networks to accessing economic opportunities in the new country.  He is also a trained accounted and has a deep understanding of internal financial systems and compliances. 

Taisiia Andrieieva is a GenZ Ukrainian refugee. She was a micro influencer before the war in Ukraine started.  She is currently rebuilding her life in Dublin, Ireland.  She is responsible for GenZ engagement.  

Our approach to innovation uses human centred design. This means we started by understanding the human needs and issues of the people we support and then work our way backwards to the solution.  For example, our local partners in the post conflict region of the Swat Valley conducted interviews locally and organised short videos highlighting the processes we co designed with them.  

Another example, is our visit to Jordan to visit the refugee camps there and meet refugees living outside the refugee camps as well.  

Both cases are representative of our approach in the initial stages of understanding the human needs issues our stakeholders face. 

Our solution has been launched in 7 countries.   The pain points have been identified and basic solutions have been tested.  Our MVP is ready for iteration and as we scale it the impact we create scales proportionally in these countries.  We have 270 subscribers to our newsletter which will spill over into paid subscribers later in the growth cycle.  This is in addition to the impact we have already created. 

In short, the basic model of impact creation is in place will scale as we scale our customer numbers.  The iteration we will make along the way will ensure high retention rates of all stakeholders to the marketplace  we are building. 

We are applying to Solve to help us build the networks we need to scale the impact we have tried and tested using the web 3 gaming solution we are working on.  We understand we cannot achieve this by ourselves.  Financially, we need support accessing the right kind of investors.  Technically we need to build a team of technical experts to scale the gaming solution - however, how do we go about this with the budget constraints we have.  So, as you can see  we need to build a dedicated support network to help build this venture successfully. 

Our approach to innovation is the most innovative aspect of this project.  We use human centred design, where we start by identifying the stakeholders and then work our way backwards to technology configuration.  This user centred approach ensures the adaption rates of solution are high and stable among all our stakeholders.  

Each community we work with has a unique solution suited to their unique needs.  For instance, we create wealth and jobs using embedded finance in multiple communities - Swat Valley, Pakistan, Lebanon, Uganda, UK, US and Australia.   However, what each solution looks like is different in each communities based on their unique human needs and circumstances.   For example, in Uganda we offer low income communities interest free micro loans.  In Pakistan, we support an artisan community with trade finance and business development support.  

This approach ensures all the stakeholders have their unique needs identified and embedded in the web 3 gaming marketplace we are working towards. 

Post conflict communities needs are not well understood by the mainstream development sector.  They most offer poverty alleviation support when the needs of post conflict communities are more demanding.  For instance, in the Swat valley we discussed this issue with UNHCR.  They wanted us to work with Afghan refugees coming across the border, but not fund the Internally Displaced People from the local community in the Swat Valley in Pakistan.   They invited us to join their research on this topic conducted by Boston Consulting Group.  The report will be published later this year. 

Further, post conflict regions as a dedicated academic discipline are relatively new.   King's College, London and London School of Economics started research in this discipline around 2020.  They started with Swat Valley, Pakistan, and Uganda as well.   

Our solution is expected to have 3 fold impact - 

1. Emotional Impact - here the peer to peer support element of the solution ensures we see people from other parts of the world as human beings.  For instance, we understand they have the same needs as us and we can empathise with them.   This increase the EQ of all parties.  On the side of the giver they understand the unique issues of the communities they support. On the side of the beneficiary, they understand the constraints of the giver and understand they have needs as well. 
2. Financial Impact - each community benefits from jobs and wealth.
3. Economic Impact - by sharing our knowledge base widely among other support providers we help generate impact at an ecosystem level.  For instance, NGO's we have worked with in the past felt they could not work with refugee communities because the perceived risk levels were too high high.  Their theory of change measures would not allow them to target these communities.  By working with us their perceived  / actual risk spreads narrowed and now they work with refugee communities independent of us. 

We use an input/ output/ outcome/ impact model to measure and quantify the impact we create in all the communities we work.   We are working towards consolidating all this information into an annual ESG report highlighting the impact we create.  We articulate the impact in terms of SDG's - mainly Jobs and wealth creation ones.  However, we use the model developed by Positive - see here . 

This method covers all aspects of the business and support us with our journey to being a regenerative and equitable business.  

For example, how to organise our volunteer program while being of the right side of slave labour issues.  

The 3 technologies we are focused  on innovating are - 

1. Web 3 
2. Gaming 
3. AI 

This integrated marketplace approach uniquely for our stakeholders is the add value.  For instance, one side of the marketplace has digital natives and other side of the marketplace has members who may have limited access to technology.  Our configuration takes this variation into account in a way that meets everyone's expectation. 

We use a future of work model.  People share their spare time and we  support them build their CV's. 250+ students to date

Team of 4  members  -  

1. Business Coach - Michael Moon.  Michael has worked with some of the most successful entrepreneurs of our age - including Steve Jobs.  He is the CEO of GISTICS, 
2. Co Founder Finance Director - Gerry Creedon. Gerry is an experienced CIMA professional.   
3. Co Founder - Zufi Deo. Zufi is an innovator and entrepreneur.
4. Co Founder - Taisiia Andrieieva.  Taya is an entrepreneur and a You Tube micro Influencer.      

We started working on this solution is 2016.  We won the UNICEF FinTech jam for Good and have been iterating the idea to concept to problem/ solution fit.   Zufi is the only member of the team who has been here since the beginning.  Michael and Gerry joined the project towards 2019.  Taya joined us in 2022.  Kilian - our refugees advisor has been with us since 2017.   

Our approach to inclusion and diversity is based on our needs for innovation.  We use open social systems to attract the talent we work with.    Our diversity numbers to date highlight a high percentage of women and disadvantage groups without needing quotas and targets.  For instance, our student journalists stream has a 60/40 ratio in favour of women from top universities. 

We are currently testing our revenue streams to see which have the highest potential for us as a business.  For instance, we have a gift shop which is dedicated to generating revenue for local talent in the UK and generating micro loans in Uganda.   Another revenue we are testing is providing consulting solutions to other social enterprises.   Our core team has over 100 years experience of supporting entrepreneurs.  

This is a work in progress for us at this stage. 

We are working building subscriber numbers on our media hub - this subscription model will allow to target the maximum number of GenZ at a price point they can afford.  There are add ons like discounts and cross selling features we are working on.   We already have 275 subscribers on our media hub, 840 follwers on LinkedIn business page, 300 followers on our Twitter / X profile using pure organic growth.  We feel this will grow as we start to we scale up our marketing efforts.