Workshop archives for 2005

Articles about business, poverty, and innovation in the the Base of the Pyramid (BOP), the 4+ billion people living in the base of the world's economic pyramid. Suggest an article or story.

The Power of Peer Networks - CatComm and PledgeBank

Posted Tue, 11/15/2005 - 20:58 by Patrick@BRINQ

“Everybody knows the proverb about how it’s better to teach a man to fish than just to give him a fish, but there’s a step beyond that: it’s better that a man’s neighbor is the one teaching him to fish, his peer.  If some expert swoops in from afar you miss half the value of the interaction because of the inequality in that relationship. But if it’s his peer teaching him? Then the man is much more likely to offer something in return.  You are much more likely to create a real sustainable relationship rather than just a new dependency.” – Theresa Williamson, Founder, Catalytic Communities

Can individuals change the world? It's all a matter of leverage…

At BRINQ we've been exploring the creation of peer networks for local innovators in the Base of the Pyramid, particularly for innovation in toys and all things play! And although we've already written a number of recent articles about them, we thought it was a good moment to again bring up our friends in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, who exemplify the power of peer networks. Those friends of course are the folks at Catalytic Communities (CatComm) , who we recently entered into a partnership with to help fundraise and expand their local world-changing network globally.

Why our intense interest in Catalytic Communities? Raw admiration for their work aside, we're just heeding the advice of Njeri Muhia, an economics professor at Egerton University in Njoro, Kenya who mentored us on participatory methods for development. Njeri told us, "Instead of trying to build entirely new infrastructure in poor communities, first try doing something new with existing capacity and groups." In Brazil, Catalytic Communities has already built a powerful peer network of community leaders and innovators drawn from amongst Rio de Janeiro's 750 squatter communities (favelas) and such a resource provides huge opportunities to new ventures like ours. In fact, through Patrick's involvement with the Base of the Pyramid Protocol, we found that networks like CatComm's are invaluable in seeking out new opportunities for business and development.

More Toys from the Base of the Pyramid

Posted Tue, 11/08/2005 - 20:26 by Patrick@BRINQ

To the casual observer, it may seem like we haven't doing much with toys lately here at BRINQ! However, though we HAVE been pretty busy, we've had our eyes at everywhere for new toys and innovations at all things play. Everywhere being Brazil, Kenya, the U.S., and of course the Internet.

Here are a few of the toys we've come across in the Base of the Pyramid.

To the casual observer, it may seem like we haven't doing much with toys lately here at BRINQ! However, though we HAVE been pretty busy, we've had our eyes at everywhere for new toys and innovations at all things play. Everywhere being Brazil, Kenya, the U.S., and of course the Internet.

Here are a few of the toys we've come across in the Base of the Pyramid.

WorldPlay.org - A World of Toys

Posted Tue, 11/08/2005 - 00:43 by Patrick@BRINQ


We love a good idea when we see it, especially when it's just like one of our own! Check out World
Play, a non-profit founded to share the diversity of toys and play among communities throughout the world. Sound familiar?

http://www.WorldPlay.org/

We love a good idea when we see it, especially when it's just like one of our own! Check out World Play, a non-profit founded to share the diversity of toys and play among communities throughout the world. Sound familiar?

Global Heroes - Carolina for Kibera

Posted Thu, 11/03/2005 - 21:45 by Patrick@BRINQ

Another story about one of the BoP Protocol Pilot's most important partners: Carolina for Kibera (CFK) last week was honored as one of Time Magazine's "Heroes of Global Health" and Acting President Kim Chapman was featured at the Global Health Conference in New York.

CFK is an incredible community-based organization in Kibera: one of the world's largest slums on the outskirts of Nairobi Kenya. The organization's programs target issues of ethnic violence, health care, safe spaces for girls, and environmental sanitation and income generation. All their work follows a common theme of participatory development and the organization's operations in Kenya are run by Kiberans.

Finding the Hard Answers - Catalytic Communities Launches Upgraded Site

Posted Fri, 10/21/2005 - 22:17 by Patrick@BRINQ

Catalytic Communities (CatComm), our community partner in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, announced the launch of its new community empowering site www.CatComm.org. CatComm is a huge inspiration for us here at BRINQ, their insights in cultivating and capturing local innovations have been critical to us in our early years and their active work with communities generating solutions has taught us that stronger relationships lead to more viable innovations. In a world of people content with "asking the hard questions", Catalytic Communities is a refreshing example of an organization actually looking for the hard answers.

A Bigga Boda - XAccess' Cycle in Kenya

Posted Tue, 10/04/2005 - 21:54 by Patrick@BRINQ

After five months of intense work in communities in Kenya and Brazil we've got a long backlog of stories to share. Now that we've got a short breather we thought we'd post a few. This one from Kenya came up recently when we were asked via our colleague & mentor Stuart Hart, "Have you heard of these XAccess guys?"

Actually, yes we have!

In June the BoP Protocol team headed out to the shores of Lake Victoria in Kisumu, Kenya to visit with the XAccess and KickStart folks who were modifying an innovative bicycle for the local market. XAccess is the non-profit sister of XtraCycle, maker of the world's first Sport Utility Bicycle, and KickStart, the NGO formerly known as ApproTEC, is a long time provider of enterprise enabling technologies to low-income communities. KickStart is helping XAccess to commercialize its bicycle in Kenya as the "Bigga Boda", an upgrade to the existing "Boda Boda" bicycle taxis, so named from their early days on the border of Kenya and Uganda where the taxi riders cries of "Border! Border!" eventually morphed into the "Boda Boda" of today.

BRINQ Update - New Additions and the BoP Protocol Workshop

Posted Mon, 10/03/2005 - 03:43 by Patrick@BRINQ

We've added a few new sections and pages here at BRINQ.

More from Kenya - Justin's Stories

Posted Mon, 09/26/2005 - 22:06 by Patrick@BRINQ

For those of you looking for more tales from Patrick's time working on the Base of the Pyramid Protocol Pilot in Kenya, we'd be remiss in not pointing you to the writings of our colleague Justin De Koszmovszky. Justin is a 2nd Year MBA student at Cornell's Johnson School of Management, President of the Cornell's Net Impact chapter, a Park Leadership Fellow, and an all around brilliant & great guy. Justin is part of the BoP Protocol Pilot team in Kenya and spent most of his time in country actually in the country, out on the fields and farms of Nyota and Molo. As you can see from the sample below, Justin's writings and insights are beautiful, touching, and really make his experience in Kenya come alive. Highly recommended.

Side Effects - A Day in the Community

Posted Mon, 09/19/2005 - 21:27 by Patrick@BRINQ

"I'd love to hear your impressions," Theresa said to me as we boarded the bus outside of Rocinha, "about what you think of the communities here vs. where you lived in Kenya." Here was Rio de Janiero, Brazil and in Kenya was Kibera, a million-person shantytown in Nairobi, where I had just spent the previous three months living and working. Theresa and I were catching a bus to the outskirts of Rio for a visit with local community leaders and to spend a "Day in the Community", a regular event that brings together children and neighbors from six of Rio's favelas, Brazil's illegal communities. Theresa and I found a seat as the bus lurched forward and I sat there wondering about her request. What preconceptions had living in an African slum given me about a South American one?

Learning to Swim - Back in Brazil

Posted Fri, 09/02/2005 - 18:53 by Patrick@BRINQ

I've been very happy with how far my Portuguese has come, especially after having been gone from Brazil for so long, yet my ability to communicate here is like being able to swim in a gentle sea, enquanto tudo tá tranquilo, tudo bom! ("While everything is calm, no problem!") But while sitting in on CatComm's open forum, a meeting for feedback from community partners and constituents, I experienced a very different world of linguistic aquatics; visualize the crashing waves at Ipanema, Brazil's most famous of beaches, where the people are beautiful but the weak stay out of the water.

Last night, a dozen of us met inside the Casa do Gestor Catalisador, CatComm's home and technology hub in Rio, located on the edge of the downtown, in a historic district by the bay and the center of the old slave trade. Around us on the Casa walls, on mounted wood or printed t-shirts, hung windows into the world of the favelas, the works of Brazilian photographer Maurício Hora, a man with an incredible capacity to capture the spirit of place on film. Maurício sat to my left, Theresa to my right, the rest were spread out in a circle around the room, community leaders and artists, passionate Brazilians all; not quite what my beach and bar Portuguese had prepared me for.