Month: October 2019

What is Creativity Creativity – Thinking outside of the box.

-Creativity is the ability to transcend traditional ways of thinking or acting and to develop new and original ideas, methods or objects.

Where does Creativity Happen? 

-When collaboration, isolation, need, not thinking about the problem, 

What is Emergence?

-Being the first of a new thing or the sum of several systems, for example, a bird flying 

8 Tenets of System Thinking 

Multifinality – The idea that even though all the inputs into different systems are the same, different outcomes will develop. How does it address the needs of several stakeholders? 

-For Ukweli, this is almost the base of the operations we are creating. The input is the test strips into the sierra leone healthcare system in order to lower maternal mortality rate but in doing so the CHWs are also given a supplemental income.

-For NewTrition, this is an example of the muffin serving the purpose of helping eliminate malnutrition in children, but also creating a system that can be implemented in various other countries with similar issues. 

Equifinality – Given different incomes with the same goal, all end in the same output. 

-Equifinality is present in Ukweli’s operations of training different PHUs and different CHWs throughout the Bombali District/SL. The various community health workers/PHUs/Villages that have Ukweli’s Test Strips can potentially be very different inputs, but all of these players are working towards the same goal of using Ukweli’s strips to lower the maternal mortality.

Abstraction – The idea of describing a system in more than one dimension, speaking to the interconnections and interdependence of the system.

-CHWs and NICs and all other health workers do different jobs to work towards the solution of a healthier Sierra Leone

Leverage Points- important points in a system that have a large impact with minimal changes

-Changing the ingredients in the magic muffin can change the nutrient profile along with the flavor. That could affect who buys or who gets the right nutrients

– For NewTrition, changing the branding of the muffin from a “therapeutic food” to just a healthy food allows for us to avoid the stigma attached to it. By just creating healthy food without claims we can easily merge into the current markets. 

Regulation – The idea that in order for a system to be successful, it requires feedback in multiple aspects of said system to manage the high points and pitfalls of a system

-Ukweli Test Strips data collection systems are used to effectively understand the current standings of the operations of the venture

– For NewTrition, recipe questionnaires were collected to determine whether the product our team felt was best, was also accepted by the mothers and children of Sierra Leone. 

Interdependence* – Mutually beneficial relationships between systems 

-Sustainable development goals, better education improves health, improving health makes a better population, a better population can do bigger and better things. All of our projects work on one problem being faced in a developing country, but the improvement in one aspect helps to improve the others. 

– For NewTrition, the team needs a local to cook to make nutritious products to address malnutrition in Sierra Leone, so a local bakery partnered with us and allowed us to use the bakery. In return, we helped them work out a business model for their bakery and did odd jobs they needed assistance with. 

Holism* – The idea that the sum of the individual parts of a system is less valuable than the system as a whole:

– For NewTrition, giving children separate serving of each of the ingredients used in the recipe would be ineffective, but combining them into a muffin, in this case, makes a product that is better than the sum of its individual components. 

Differentiation* the idea that a system needs different systems working together to achieve a cohesive solution

-Bundle of sticks i.e. marketing, sale, dissemination, teaching, transport, etc…

– For NewTrition, when we first arrived in Sierra Leone, we weren’t differentiated within the team and it led to problems of ‘who is in charge of what’. After a meeting with Khanjan, he helped us differentiate ourselves and the team was much more productive. 

* Differentiation, Holism, and Interdependence are essentially the same thing

 

Design a multifinal solution to the water hyacinth problem discussed in class. Explain the solution and describe how it exhibits the system tenets of multifinality, holism, and regulation.

 

To fix the water hyacinth problem, I would compensate the region we are using to harvest the crop with a fair percentage of our profits. This would allow the locals to not feel as though they are being taken advantage of and allows the business to continue to help the community and provide income for the employees. This solution shows multifinality in that it serves to eliminate the problem of the locals being upset at the use of their local areas, and solves the issue of the business now missing a produce supplier. This also serves to add a new revenue stream for the locals on the water. It shows holism, as there is a now a codependent between the locals on the water, and the business. The hyacinth by itself doesn’t have any value and is actually a negative thing in the water. This solution allows for the people on the water to have a healthy waterway with less hyacinth and additional money for access to the water for harvesting. The business is allowed a free source of input material that allows them to have a business. The separate parts of this relationship gather no money, but together everyone makes a profit. Finally, regulation is incorporated in that the locals will determine what we pay, to some extent, and keeps our company in check-in that we want our product partners to be happy so the relationship is strong and stays for many years. If the people we get our source material from have to leave, we won’t have partners, so their health and well-being are crucial as well.

PART 1

Partners in our Venture:

1. World Hope
   1. We worked at World Hope and with their staff.
   2. They helped us because they provided us with workspace and connections in Sierra Leone. We helped them too because we expanded their reputation by involving them and tying them to our research.
   3. We should continue to participate in important projects so that we can continue our relationship with them.
2. Betteh Bakery
   1. They allowed us to use their spaces for baking the muffins and roasting the sweet potatoes
   2. We helped them develop their business model and they gave us access to resources we needed. We attempted to make it an equal relationship but there were some kinks that we needed to work out.
   3. It would have been a stronger relationship if they were further along in their business and we were able to fully rely on them for the things that they said we could rely on them for. 
3. Wesleyan Church
   1. We were able to establish this partnership through our relationship with the Betteh Bakery. Betteh Bakery is owned by the Wesleyan Church.
   2. They allowed us to use their church as a platform to administer our questionnaires. They provided us with tables, chairs, and volunteers who helped us effectively gather data. We helped the church by helping them with their core goal: helping the people of Sierra Leone.
   3. To strengthen this relationship, we should be sure to keep communications strong even when we are not in Sierra Leone.
4. Allieu Bangura, Director of Nutrition at World Hope International
   1. Partnered to help us drive our project ideas, connect us with the Director of Food & Nutrition, and to give us general guidance in the first stages of our project
      1. Introducing nutritious product for them
   2. More communication
5. Clinics/CHOs
   1. Our partnership with clinics and CHOs allowed us to gather data from mothers and children.
   2. The clinics allowed us to come and receive data from mothers and children. Mothers and children got to taste our food.
   3. This relationship was very beneficial. In order to make it more equitable and stronger, we would need to bring enough food for everyone.
6. University of Freetown
   1. Students from the university who interned at World Hope we’re able to help us with whatever we needed for our project.
   2. We gave their students real-life experience in their fields that they were interested in and they helped us further our project. We worked together nicely but it was not necessarily equitable; we are students in charge of other students. 
   3. This partnership would have been strengthened if we were positioned closer locationally 
7. College of Engineering (funding partner)
   1. The college of engineering gave us funding to conduct our research in SL this summer.
   2. To strengthen this relationship we can write a publication to bring publicity to the university and the college.
8. GELH (funding partner)
   1. GELH funded $1000 for each of us to travel to Sierra Leone.
   2. GELH helped us by making it financially feasible for us to go. We help them because we are giving them a good reputation and helping them contribute.
   3. It will be a stronger relationship after we do the GELH presentation at the end of October; they will know exactly what we did and how they helped us.
9. Creative Inquiry Dept
   1. The Creative Inquiry Department gave us funding for in-country expenses 
   2. We gave them publicity for the project by coming back and producing projects
   3. We can make the relationship better by continuing to advocate and recruit new GSIF members 
10. Health Ministry of Sierra Leone
    1. Aminata Shamit Koroma- the Director of Food and Nutrition at the Ministry of Health in Sierra Leone is the originator of the project
    2. We would like general/official approval of our products from the Ministry of Health. If we hope to distribute our product in hospitals in the future, we will need a strong relationship with the Ministry of Health in order to gain necessary approvals as well. 
    3. This partnership still needs to be established in order to see how each of us can benefit one another, but we could help the Ministry of Health by expanding the number of affordable foods that can be used to fight malnutrition and stunting. 
11. Translators
    1. World Hope employee (Jawara) helped us connect with them and establish a partnership
    2. They helped us to effectively communicate and administer our questionnaires to the Sierra Leonean people. We compensated them for their work and time.
    3. To strengthen this relationship, we must keep in touch with the translators so that we can use them in the upcoming years.

PART II

Ultimate Outcome that we want to see:

• Elimination or minimization of micronutrient deficiencies/malnutrition in children in Sierra Leone.   

How to build a larger movement to get to this cause?

• Build a coalition 
  • A diverse group of individuals and organizations who work together to reach a common goal

OUR COALITION

Ultimate Goal: Elimination or minimization of micronutrient deficiencies/malnutrition in children in Sierra Leone.  

Name: NewTrition Coalition 

People:

• Sierra Leone President
  • Why the relationship is critical: approval of the products and support for marketing and distribution purpose
• Sierra Leone Honorables
  • Why the relationship is critical: support for marketing and distribution purpose
• Director of Food & Nutrition, Aminata Shamit Koroma
  • Why the relationship is critical: brains behind the project, so we would like her approval of the products we create

• Ministry of Health and Sanitation
  • Why the relationship is critical: potentially need to approve the products we create in the future

• WHI
  • Why the relationship is critical: help us build relationships with officials, companies, and mothers in Sierra Leone and give us credibility; can help us secure funding and approvals 
• UNICEF
• Mother Support Groups
  • In-country
  • UNICEF

• Soccer Player
• Sierra Leone Standards Bureau

 

How will these organizations help us get these products

What does each partner bring to the table

What do the partners gain from being a part of the coalition

Personal Goals:

1. Neena – To contribute in any and every way possible so that we are able to advance our project forward to achieve the goal i have always had coming into this project: to help children become healthier. Personally, I hope to become a better teammate and learn better communication and leadership skills that can help me attain this goal.
2. Kayla – I want to help with the project to see it pick off the ground. My goal is to find ways to preserve the muffins so that our shelflife can be extended and I want to set up the process in laying the groundwork for clinical trials. It is important to me that I also have the ability to grow in my role in this project as we are losing some team members and I want to learn from them as well. It’s important to me that we remain one team and connected like we were in Sierra Leone.
3. Karli – I hope to bring my unique background as an Economics major to our team to ensure that the business side is realistic. I have gained a lot of passion for this project, especially after seeing the impact that it will have on families in Sierra Leone. For this reason, I want to make sure that we will be able to execute our project in a cost-effective, and smart way.
4. Chris – My goals align with the development of the project’s products. I plan to continue the development of our recipes and the supply chain management to match it. I will also be focused on gathering grant funding for the project to do nutrition research and fund my trip there next year. 
5. Seanna – My goals for this semester are to have a successful GHTC conference and for us to draft papers that explain our fieldwork experience. I also hope that we are able to define both recipes and develop successful business and marketing plans in order to take the next steps for our products.
6. Rachel – Moving into this semester, my main goal, in the beginning, will be to research how we can preserve our pudding recipe through the possible use of antioxidants/preservatives or through packing mechanisms, this way the product is more accessible for families.  After that, I am hoping to help collaborate with the rest of my team to make a publishable paper of sorts on our research for a journal potentially. In general, I want to keep our team close-knit working as one entity and start ‘passing the baton’ to new members to forward the project.
7. Matt – Over the next few weeks, I am hoping to analyze our research and use the data we gathered this summer to move forward. I would really like to publish a paper and apply for any grants that are available. Technically, I would like to determine the appropriate packaging to prevent the pudding from spoiling.

Project Goals:

Create sustainable and effective change for the children of Sierra Leone by providing them with a healthy, nutrient-dense, easily accessible, and cost affordable muffin and pudding.

– Scaling to resources 

• We got a much better sense of what resources would be available to us in Sierra Leone and what a realistic cost for those products would be. These are things that we will implement in our product going forward this semester
• In Sierra Leone, we also learned to optimize how we use our biggest resources: our team members. We learned that by divvying up roles and responsibilities we work together better and get more done.
• Once we know what our budget will be, and understand what grants will help fund us, we will know how to make sure we optimize these resources

-Scaling to constraints

• We do have limited time especially because there are deadlines for submitting papers to be published
• Switch over of team members

-Our metrics for success

• Business success
• How many people are producing/selling our product?
• Are people making more money?
• How many children are our products actually reaching?
• Is NEWtrition sustainable (eventually)?
• Improving health: Our hope is that the malnutrition rate among children in Sierra Leone will eventually decrease in response to our product
• What is the malnutrition rate for children in Sierra Leone?

Roles: 

Every team member was assigned to focus on one part of the data, and we will use each of our findings to write a paper and really understand our product and its capabilities in Sierra Leone.

• Neena – microbial testing in the muffin, nutrient testing in muffin, shelf-life testing in muffin
• Kayla – preservative use in muffin, clinical studies for both products, liaison to WHI and other SL organizations for muffin
• Karli – supply chain and marketing plan for both products, 
• Chris – muffin recipe improvement, grants for both products
• Seanna – pudding recipe improvement, nutrient testing in pudding, liaison to WHI and other SL organizations for pudding
• Rachel – antioxidant use in the pudding, preservative use in the pudding
• Matt – shelf life testing in the pudding, packaging for pudding

Project Manager – At this point in the project, we have not decided on a project manager. At the end of this semester, we will need to decide on new project leaders because Chris and Seanna will be graduating.

Procedures:

Decision Making Procedure – We will communicate and voice opinions and ideas about a certain decision altogether. We will try to work towards a consensus at first. If there is a large divide and a consensus does not seem possible, we will make a majority rules type of decision.

How we will have effective meetings – We will come into meetings with a clear sense of what we want to accomplish in that time. Decisions are best made in person when we are all together so we must make use of our time together to talk about bigger decisions and next steps. We will follow up on shared documents online and keep records of all discussions in meetings so that everyone has access to all the information. Kayla is officially our meeting scribe. Neena will be the facilitator and the timekeeper.

Communication

• We have a shared google drive in which we all have access to documents from each meeting, resources from SL, and all of our data
• PICK A MEETING TIME
• MAKE T-SHIRTS FOR OUR TEAM

Relationships:

Although we do not have much diversity in majors within our group (6/7 of us are bioengineers), we do have Karli who will be very helpful with the more business-oriented aspects of the products. However, we are diverse in ages. We range from sophomores to seniors and have different perspectives because of it.

Our team name is NEWtrition. We want to create a new type of nutrition in Sierra Leone. We are creative and want to use our skills to make children healthier through our social venture.