smc223’s Blog

Who am I?

My name is Samantha, and my friends call me Sam, if we are close. I am an aspiring physician, but I am also an artist, traveler, student, and friend. I am an only child, but my friends are my family. And I am in a sorority, and those girls are my sisters. I have a good life, but I have struggles like many of us do, including challenges with family and mental health. But the world is not perfect, and there will always be some things wrong. Relationships and connections I make with others are an important part of my life. I am bubbly and extroverted, and I love meeting new people and hearing what their life stories are. When I meet others, I want to be a positive impact on their life and radiate positive energy. I also live in the moment, because throughout my life I have learned that we only live once, and that we might as well do something even though we think we might regret it. I have learned that it is worse to live in a world of knowing “What if’s” rather than living with regrets. And I dream, a lot. It gives color and chaos to life, but it has led me to experience amazing memories and learn from a lot of people in life, and I do not regret anything that derives from them, good or bad.

How am I going to change the world?

My goal is to continue pursuing my double major in Art and Biology to integrate my artistic personality into myself, and continue integrating my creativity into medicine. Art, for me, is an opportunity to explore endless possibilities and exercise my creativity. Even though science can be straightforward and systematically organized, I have learned that medicine is not like this: unknown factors can influence illnesses and diagnoses. My fascination with medicine is the path to solving this puzzle and looking beyond what is presented. Art allows me to look beyond what I see and think, to find what is hidden in the background. I would like to change the world with my different outlook on medicine, and make an impact on those around me through different ideas and opinions I will be able to contribute to the medical field.

What is going to be on your epitaph?

A friend, a dreamer, and an artist. I would like people to remember me for the positivity I try to bring to others, and I would like to tell the living that they have to experience every day as it is their last. Do not live thinking about what if something would happen, live doing and working to your dream

Living an Impact-Focused Life

What’s your Why?

I believe I was put on this earth to:

I believe I was put on this earth to have a creative outlook on different ideas and create unique solutions to challenges that can impact others

My purpose is to:

My purpose in life is making positive connections with others I interact with and enjoying those moments I experience

• Building connections is an opportunity to help others feel like they have someone to turn and talk to when needed or to not feel like they are isolated in the world
• Enjoying moments I experience is to see the good in events that seem nonsensical or trivial

I believe (my core values):

• Productivity: Time is a luxury and cannot be taken for granted
  • Use every minute towards something that can help you, whether it’s completing an assignment or taking a break
  • You only live once, so you might as well put your time and energy towards something that will benefit you or your career, so when you look back you have accomplished something
• Money does not buy happiness, but money can buy experiences that can contribute to happiness
  • Traveling can make someone happy with the joy of discovering new things, but you need money to travel (buy plane tickets, hotel stays, etc.)
• Mental health is not visible or apparent to others, but it is important to take care of it
  • Mental health affects the attitude or motivation one has towards their life or purpose and how they achieve their goals. It is important to work on yourself mentally so you learn more about yourself and what you want, which will also affect your motivation towards achieving these goals
• Accountability: You have the ability to change your life and where your life takes you
  • Making changes throughout decisions you make, big or small, throughout life can allow you to change your path or where you may be headed to

The one thing I must do before I die is:

• Travel to as many countries possible
  • Traveling is important to me because I am curious, so traveling allows me to explore different areas of the world to apply different concepts or values to my own life
  • Traveling keeps my mind at work, challenges me to adapt to different environments I may not be used to or take risks to help me learn more about myself
  • Traveling enhances my creativity by allowing me to explore different ideas and learn new things I would have not seen before

My advocates and supporters all believe I:

• Am outgoing
• Am hard-working
• Am creative

The evil I want to eradicate in this world is:

I would like to eradicate the stigma that mental health does not matter and is not a priority in our society today, when it is important to our well-being to achieve our goals and fulfill our purpose. Today, people ignore mental health because it is not physically visible, and I would like for people to notice its reality

I want to work in order to:

• Complete an Art and Biology degree
  • My main goal is to explore my creativity and aesthetic in my artistic career, while learning in classes put towards my biology degree to apply in medical school
• Medical school
  • When working on my academics, my main goal is to learn and aim for higher grades towards the ultimate goal of getting admitted to medical school
  • I want to continue working in medical school to achieve a goal of being a doctor to challenge myself in an engaging and hands-on environment as a job

Walk the Talk – Your How

If you are truly committed to your Why, you show it in your everyday behavior. It is all air until you do it. Working from your Why, How do you prove that you are true to your Why in all you do?

I always:

• Make sure to reflect on remember on who I am and what I believe in before making any decision
• I try to always learn something from a task, even if from a first glance it seems useless to me
• I enjoy the little or big moments I experience in my life because I never know when I will have the opportunity to do so again

I never:

• Ignore what other people’s perspectives are towards a situation
• Stay closed minded to what I think or believe in

My work style is:

• I like to work in teams to make connections with others and have multiple perspectives on one subject to make a more creative and unique solution to a problem or challenge when working

I try to treat people:

• With my full attention because I want them to know I care about and respect what they have to say about any subject
• With tolerance because anyone has the liberty to believe in something different, even if I disagree with it
• Honesty because sometimes saying someone does not want to hear can be better for them to acknowledge and reflect on instead of saying only what someone wants to hear

I approach problems by:

• Thinking about the conflicts presented and different ways I can approach them, in a way that is true to myself and my values
• Asking other people who I trust for advice on how they would approach such a conflict

Victories are time to:

• Plan what the steps are to do next to use the victory and apply it to one’s goals
• Share with those that helped one get to the victory to acknowledge their influence and help, while also being happy for oneself without being too arrogant to acknowledge and validate one’s successes, important to one’s mental health

If another attacks my point of view I:

• Ask what their point of view is and what their reasoning is
• I stand up for my beliefs in a calm, collected manner after analyzing the situation and their perspective behind the scenes
  • However, I will also acknowledge that I agree with them if applicable and explain why I thought something in the first place and how I learned from what I previously viewed a subject as

If I fundamentally do not agree with what an organization or person is doing, I will:

• Ask what their point of view and reasoning is behind their belief
• I stand up for my beliefs in a calm, collected manner after analyzing the situation and their perspective behind the scenes
• I am not focused on expressing my opinion for them to change their mind, but for them to maybe listen and learn something good

Your Credibility – Your Whats

You have just spent some considerable time at Lehigh, and specifically in the Global Social Impact Fellowship, on many whats. Your whats include lab research, formal presentations, writing research papers, engaging with people in other cultural contexts, building prototypes, designing and building systems, raising funds, hiring employees, etc. The whats you have collected along the way are critical to your credibility when you are entering the workforce or applying to the best graduate and professional schools. They signify a credible currency to which organizations can assign value. Create a list of your Whats that are truly reflective of your Why & How.  You did these things because you believe (Why) and you acquired them in the following (How) manner. These are examples you can use in interviews.

Articulating and learning from GSIF-related Experiences. For each of these prompts, we want you to identify one and only one specific and compelling event/incident/experience/moment and identify exactly how you grew personally and professionally through that moment.

Team members: Samantha Cardenas, Gabby Alves, and Rob Corvalan

Develop a systems framework for the Global Social Impact Fellowship contrasting it with traditional programs.

The GSIF Program is different from other programs because it does not only interconnect and create relationships between students and faculty advisors, but it also allows student to have an opportunity to make connections and interact with NGO’s like World Hope International. GSIF is different from other programs because it solely focuses on impact. Although we are assessed on our work through grades, there are no exams or assessments like other programs. Instead, our grade is based upon the research and quality of work that we put into learning more about how to continue building onto a successful venture. The focus of GSIF is impact, impact, impact, not the numerical grades. GSIF is unique because unlike other fellowships or research positions in different departments, our work has a direct and real impact on other communities instead of just focusing on building a specific research topic, in psychology or the biological sciences for example.

Actors:

• Khanjan, Bill, and the Creative Inquiry department
• Faculty advisors
• Students
• NGO’s

What is GSIF trying to accomplish?

• Impact on different communities to create a difference on developing countries to help people or communities have better lives
  • In our venture’s case, we are working to decrease the rate of childhood malnutrition

How is GSIF working to achieve their goals

• 1-credit seminars to help students learn how to develop more sustainable ventures
• Creating teams with faculty advisors with knowledge and students with motivation to continue developing ventures
• Interdisciplinary teams to have a more creative vision
• In-country fieldwork

Why are the actors involved in GSIF?

• To make an impact

What do actors gain from being in GSIF

• Students and faculty advisors have a chance to build their name and reputation in the academic community when publishing papers
• Students can build connections and network with faculty advisors
• NGO’s can help the communities they are working with to create a better lifestyle for them
• Students learn about the power of interdisciplinary thinking
• Students make long-lasting friendships!

Vision: Every Child Deserves Access to Micronutrient-Dense Food

If you are the Chief of Police for Afghanistan, what solution would you develop to pay the cops that are actually working, reduce corruption, and boost their morale?

• • To first compose a solution, facts should be identified within the police department in Afghanistan to analyze the problem and create an effective solution:
    • Low salary
      • Commanders get a cut from their salaries
    • Poor working conditions, there are not enough police officers for the population present
      • 35 million people are in Afghanistan and there are only 250,000 policemen
      • Extreme corruption
    • Unfair and unreliable selection of policemen
      • There is hierarchical corruption
    • There is a low literacy rate among police officers
      • 27% literacy rate
    • In crises, there is little trust from the public for the police officers
  • The problem: There is poor morale, law and order crises, and little public trust.
  • To achieve such a solution with multiple goals, there needs to be numerous different components to see reform among all current and newly employed police officers. These components include:
    • Boosting morale: Reestablish salaries, incentives, and the budget at the police station
      • Have offerings such as bonuses or extra days off for working cops
        • Salaries should be reestablished to fairly compensate police officers, which will also motivate police officers to continue working at their establishment.
      • Money the police station has should be used to improve working conditions to make the officers have a higher morale and appreciation for where they work
    • Reduce corruption: Increase monitoring and regulation of policemen
      • Monitor policemen and their progress. If they don’t meet expectations, tell them you will lower their salaries until they meet expectations. If after this they still do not meet expectations, terminate them from their position.
    • Education: Have the chief of police supervise training to ensure police officers are aware of their responsibilities and rights as police officers
      • The new police officers should be trained to be aware of the policies enforced to ensure that there is no corruption among themselves or the cases they are working with to ensure that all laws are followed.
        • Their duty and role in Kazakhstan as a police officer must be clear.
      • The chief of police should lead or supervise this training to make sure that the new police officers are aware of how they deal with law enforcement, which could also increase their relationship and trust with the public.
    • Public trust: There should be a system in place to allow the public to build a relationship and communicate with the police station
      • The public should also be educated about what actions by the police officers are allowed and what is not allowed to know what they should report to the police station.
        • There should be formal publications or documents stating these terms, which would also decrease corruption.
      • There should be a system in place to allow the public to give anonymous tips or comments to the police station so they can report any corrupt activity.
      • The police should increase their interactions with the public during different events or festivals to build a friendly reputation and relationship with them.
  • Systems thinking analysis:

• Differentiation

• • • • The police station should have a different office or sector in their station in which people do not work as officers, but those who handle claims of corruption among officers and who are involved in training newly employed officers.
      • Having a different sector in the police department separate from officers who work there is important to ensure there is an unbiased and different set of employees that can enforce these rules.

• Interdependence

• • • • In this solution, the police officers would have to take responsibility for each other when it comes to reports regarding corruption. They should be able to report each other if there is any suspicious activity involved
        • The chief of police should also delegate punishments or consequences for corrupt behavior if present

• Holism

• • • • In this solution, the police officers, department working with regulating officer, and chief of police should be in charge of working together to make a system with less corruption

• Multifinality

• • • • By the police officers being better trained and meeting expectations, they are meeting the goals for their department. The system as a whole is the community, which will have increased safety, public trust, and less corruption.

• Equifinality

• • • • To achieve the ultimate goal of less corruption within the police, which also consists of the underlying goals of boosting morale and creating public trust, officers are going to be better trained and monitored. With corruption being reported, the cases will go down since officers know they are being watched and will be compensated based on their performance. Officers will also be offered incentives based on their performance. Through training, monitoring, and incentivization (different inputs), we achieve the same desired output of less corruption.

• Regulation

• • • • The department of employees that is in charge of dealing with claims from the public of police corruption and overseeing such issues within officers will be an unbiased figure of regulation to make sure corruption is not present.

• Abstraction

• • • • Narrowing it down to the root of the problem: corrupt officers. They are what lead to many of the other issues – poor morale, defection to the taliban, law and order crises, and a lack of public trust.

• Leverage 

• • • Since police officers will know that they are being paid fairly and know that they are being compensated with their hard work, they will not use tactics to earn money in any bad manner since they are content, and enforce the elimination of corrupt actions more too. Bonuses, days off, or any other incentives will lead to better performance from the officers, impacting community safety since the police force is stronger. The threat of losing their jobs if they do not cooperate also adds to leverage.

If you are the entrepreneur, what multi-final solution will you develop so that you succeed, your venture succeeds (takes water hyacinth off the lake), and the people living along the lakeshore also walk away happy. Please be specific on how your solution might function and precisely whom you would work with. For example, refrain from including vague stakeholders like entire communities.

• Problem
  • Lake Victoria is infested with water hyacinth, which blocks fishermen from accessing the lake as well as spreading disease.
• Proposed Solution
  • Entrepreneur uses the water hyacinth to create compost and briquettes with the help of employees responsible for removing and processing the hyacinth
    • This is effective for two weeks until the supply of hyacinth detracts from satisfying the demand for compost and briquettes.
    • The profits from the venture are all for one, leading to employees being blocked from accessing the lake by the community against the exploitation of their natural resources.
    • The community’s desire for a hyacinth-less lake for health and economic reasons contradicts the entrepreneur’s need for hyacinth to maintain her business. 
  • To remedy the entrepreneur’s problem, we must look at how to satisfy the demands met by both the business and community in question. This lies in the fault of interdependence.
    • The community or system in question must be identified fully. In the scope of this problem, we have an environmental hazard that is causing social and economic distress within the system. The environmental hazard is the water hyacinth, while the social and economic distress is reflected in the confluence between venture success and community health. Water hyacinths and their profitability are a leverage point which can be used to argue for either outcome.
      • For the entrepreneur to save their business, the hyacinth value chain must be more inclusive and mindful of the surrounding community. The profits made by the venture do not directly benefit the community aside from its removal. The dependency in the business’ need for sourcing hyacinth implies that some hyacinth present is acceptable as long as some of it is removed. This notion undermines the community’s concern for hyacinth infestation and equates their struggles with one’s success. Redirecting how funds benefit hyacinth workers, fisherman, lakeshore residents, and the community as a whole can help reframe the approach as something that is more considerate of local needs and desires. An example of this can be reinvesting profits into provide fisherman and lakeshore residents tools to participate in the removal of hyacinth; the current employees can be promoted to a position that is more managerial and oriented around teaching while new workers are commissioned for their work, such as one boat full of hyacinth equating 30% of profits paid out to the worker. Additionally, by expanding the workforce, the entrepreneur can invest more in marketing the products made from the hyacinth to increase interest both in the removal and processing.
    • The ownership over the lake and local land must be reinforced by community members. The entrepreneur’s current business model does not identify any legal obstacles that contributed toward approving the establishment of the venture; considering the reaction by the community, it is likely that the entrepreneur does not have the legal and/or social permissions to manage their hyacinth intervention appropriately. To understand the local sentiments, surveying the people who blocked the employees from accessing the lake could be a starting point to understand their frustrations further. After hearing directly from them, the entrepreneur may have to take more administrative actions to further understand and discuss the problem at hand. Meeting with local town and district councils to discuss their business proposal and seek whether they are aware of potential partnerships that the Ministry of Health or Agriculture would be interested in. Through this, the venture can be regulated to reduce overexploitation and has the potential to regain the trust of the local community. This can be in the form of issuing a permit which allots the entrepreneur permission to remove hyacinth within a certain area or time period. To be able to satisfy the long term goals of the community and venture, it may be more appropriate for the entrepreneur to be contracted by the government to remove hyacinth in Lake Victoria and other bodies of water given Victoria’s success; this may refocus the venture towards hyacinth removal over processing, however it addresses the community’s needs while giving the venture an opportunity to scale. By tapping into the political groups that can validate and provide relevant resources for the venture, the community can rest easier knowing that this business has the approvals from positions of power responsible for the safety and livelihoods of lakeshore residents.
    • While the proliferation of water hyacinth has negative implications such as complicating boat travel, its absence may have environmental impacts that have yet to be identified. For example, some of the fish that are consumed by fisherman may be part of a bigger food chain that depends on the consumption of hyacinth. Communicating these concerns to the Ministry of Health, Environment, or Commerce can allow for planning and allocating resources to monitor the presence of fish and other life in the Lake over time to observe the impacts regulated hyacinth removal has on the fish supply available for fishermen. If the entrepreneur can coordinate removing the hyacinth at a rate faster than its current growth rate, they can moderate the amount they remove to control its proliferation. Once the control of hyacinth proliferation is in the hands of the venture, they can coordinate with the government on the decision whether to remove all of the hyacinth, or to remove enough to maintain optimal fish supplies and allow for smooth boating.
    • In summary, concentrating on fulfilling the venture’s legality and reaffirming standings with the community and government alike will allow for the venture to shift in accordance with the needs that concern their neighbors over their consumers. Recognizing the strength and benefits that is brought by the venture can lead to refocusing the goal surrounding profits towards improved social well-being. By refocusing their goal, they can also change their approach; instead of maintaining full-time employees, offering independent contracts to lakeshore residents and fishermen can allow them to profit off the same natural resource that disincentivizes fishing. By coordinating with the Ministry of Environment and local universities, the effects of hyacinth removal and fishing can be studied to ensure there are minimal adverse effects that accompany the steady decrease in hyacinth infestation. This can allow for the venture and the government to decide upon whether the permanent removal would ultimately benefit community members, or if contracting the venture for hyacinth control annually may prove to be a more beneficial, sustainable option for all stakeholders. Ideally, by the end of this process, fisherman will be able to fish more due to decreased hyacinth presence or can recoup lost fishing profits by working for the venture to remove hyacinth. Autonomy over the lake’s resources can be restored through concrete discussion and planning, which should ease the community relative to the organization that has been put in place to allow for safe, sustainable hyacinth removal. The venture will be able to expand their scope if they refocus on hyacinth removal over processing, or are contracted to pursue maintenance / control in the event hyacinth is crucial to the surrounding ecosystem. The system, as a whole, will have increased inputs that contribute towards the output of hyacinths removed from the lake and profits generated by the venture and fisherman alike; by decreasing the presence of the environmental hazard, the social and economic distress felt by the community should decrease as well.

Describe at least 5 partnerships with individuals and/or organizations that have been formed to support your project and impact the success or failure of your venture.

1. World Hope International
   1. The partnership we have with World Hope is on a Lehigh/GSIF Level
   2. The partnership with World Hope began when Lehigh University and Professor Khanjan Mehta partnered to spin-off different technological social ventures, like the Ukiweli test strips
   3. World Hope International supports our venture by providing us with amenities when traveling in-country like transportation, internet, some meals, office space, and a place to stay.  They also help us form additional relationships, such as Betteh Bakery.
      1. We help World Hope because we are an example of one of the social ventures they partnered with. When we have a successful outcome with our venture or write research papers, it reflects World Hope and their partnership with us, and gives them a good reputation 
   4. Our partnership with World Hope is less of a symbiotic relationship because we reap more from their benefits and indirect funding when we travel in-country to Sierra Leone and stay to conduct research. The only benefit they receive from our partnership is an improvement in their reputation, but they already have a built and positive reputation, so they do not really need us as much as we need them
   5. To strengthen our partnership with World Hope, we could continue to progress and strengthen our venture to have a successful outcome when implementing NewTrition in-country, and publish more research papers to contribute to their reputation. In addition, our team can also communicate more with specific employees from their organization to tailor our project to what they request or need in regards to childhood malnutrition
2. Betteh Bakery
   1. Betteh Bakery is a project by World Hope, and it is a partnership on a Lehigh/GSIF level
   2. The partnership with Betteh Bakery was established with the help of World Hope International.
   3. Betteh Bakery is allowing us to use their facilities for the creation of our food products, and our venture creatures more jobs and business for them. 
      1. We help Betteh Bakery by giving them more business and jobs to women, which helps strengthen their business
   4. Our partnership with Bettah Bakery is a symbiotic relationship because we both benefit from the partnership, with our team giving them an opportunity to have more jobs and business by selling our muffins, while we use their workspace and location to make these muffins and other food products for them to benefit from
   5. The relationship will be strengthened once we are able to conduct fieldwork and get more involved with the people there by making a personal connection with them.
3. The Moringa Community
   1. The partnership we have with the Moringa community was on a team level. To be completely clear, we communicated temporarily with The Moringa Community. While we are no longer in touch with them, the communication we did have with them helped us further our venture.
   2. We reached out to The Moringa Community via email because we saw they had canning initiatives in West Africa.
   3. By speaking with The Moringa Community, we found out that introducing canning techniques to West African communities is a lot more difficult than it seems, since it is hard to properly educate them. Their experience was that West Africans were hesitant to listen to them and ignored safety precautions.
      1. The benefit that the Moringa Community had from us was the opportunity to make a partnership with a venture related to their subject, which was Moringa and food preservation. If they wanted to make more relationships or grow their credibility by supporting an organization, we were there.
   4. Our partnership with the Moringa Community was asymbiotic because we benefited more from their information and experiential knowledge they provided us, when they had little benefit to provide us with such information and we were only an option with them to expand their credibility 
   5. The communication between us and The Moringa Community helped us decide that it was not a good idea for us to pursue implementing canning at this time.
4. Dr. Eva Roberts
   1. She is the CEO of MorVigor in Freetown, which produces and sells moringa powder. 
   2. We came in contact with Dr Roberts when Robert communicated with her through email
   3. Dr. Roberts may be our main supplier for moringa and is able to meet our lower limit and upper limit demands, as well as provide the transportation to Makeni. The wholesale price she has offered us has cut the cost of production in half. She has a cassava farm in Makeni which she is interested in collaborating with Betteh Bakery to provide high grade cassava flour. We put her in contact with Allieu and Joseph and she has provided a sample. 
   4. This is a symbiotic relationship because although we have yet to establish business operations, we have been communicating with one another to discuss how we can leverage her moringa production in exchange for providing cassava for Betteh Bakery to use and produce bread with.
   5. Moving forward, this partnership can strengthen if we are able to coordinate sourcing moringa from MorVigor, as well as creating a value chain through the bread Betteh Bakery sells from the cassava farm. 
5. Adrian Erlinger – American Councils for International Education
   1. The partnership we have with Adrian Erlinger was on a team level, we communicated with him during the Mountaintop Summer Experience in 2020.
   2. During the Mountaintop Summer Experience this July, he had requested a meeting with our team to learn more about our project and what it entailed, and that is how we connected with him.
   3. Adrian gave us information about his connection with his work with the U.S International Public Affairs. This information helped us understand how we could improve our project and its system, specifically through distribution of our project’s resources and applying for grants tailored to our project
   4. We had an asymbiotic relationship with Adrian because the only benefit he got from contacting us was feeding his interest in our project, but we benefited more from him when we explained him what our project entailed and gaining connections through our interactions with him
   5. We can strengthen our relationship with Adrian by keeping in touch with him through email and inform him of what our project’s future achievements our, since he was interested in our project and might want to hear more about what we do

With the help of a visual, describe a coalition you will build to address the larger problem you are trying to address. List the (kinds of) organizations you will bring together, how the coalition can be transformative for the issue, and how you might provide leadership and coordination for the coalition.

   Visual created by Professor Lori Herz

The two key figures in our integrated system are farmers and food producers. The other players are (1) vocational schools, which provide technical and business training, (2) the extension service, which helps farmers implement new methods, and (3) the banks that provide financial services. New opportunities have stimulated a culture of entrepreneurship, while access to electricity and the internet enables efficient operation. In 2050, families enjoy nutritious and locally produced food.

The coalition can be transformative for malnutrition because it seeks to establish value chains based on locally sourced, nutritious produce. The farmers we are able to partner and source from will have bigger markets to sell to. For example, by partnering with MorVigor, we will provide the company a new market to sell to in Makeni as well as future locations we open operations within. By bringing together the manufacturers we need for our products, we are able to expand their markets and lower our cost of production. After we have created our products, we can leverage market vendors to distribute our products to reach our target consumers.We may also partner with local governments to reach schools that may cook with and distribute our products to children and families. This creates another avenue for nutritious food products to reach our target consumer, as well as increasing the demand which will ultimately increase the profits of stakeholders and lower our production costs.

The leadership and coordination that we may be able to provide can be exhibited in how we manage and communicate with our different partner organizations. Since we will not be involved with the groundwork, we can provide support in the form of data collection, business plan implementation, networking, and corporate relations. Meeting with our stakeholders to monitor their progress will allow us to keep an idea of how we are doing across the board, which will help us reduce our risk. 

Kinds of Organizations:

• Schools
• Government
• Banks
• Agriculture
• Manufacturing
• Markets/Vendors
• Transportation

1. List ten specific ways in which your teaming approach has changed/evolved since you started, teamwork skills you have developed, and lessons you have learned. 

• I have learned how to use many different academic interests and incorporate it into our one venture, such as integrating artistic creativity and business into producing recipes
• I have learned a lot about communication and making deadlines or timelines to complete projects as a team
• I have learned how to adapt to unexpected situations, such as not traveling to fieldwork, and focusing on other goals we can use to improve on our venture
• I have learned how to improve upon different accomplishments I have achieved in the project, such as maximizing nutritional value in the recipes I produce
• I have learned how to be tolerant of the community in Sierra Leone we work with, such as trying to think into their shoes when producing recipes as to whether they would enjoy the product
• I learned that our team works together more productively and creatively when we grow closer as a team personally, because we give each other more constructive feedback without hesitation because we know we do not take things personal
• A lesson that I have learned that when completing tasks in our venture, quality is essential over quality, such as when researching food preservation techniques in depth
• I have learned that when doing presentations, it is important to communicate as a team to coordinate which subjects or topics we will answer concisely, such as Rob answering questions regarding Moringa or myself with recipes
• I have learned that when writing research reports or weekly briefs regarding my research or accomplishments, it is essential to be concise and detailed to communicate to the reader effectively
• I learned that when completing our venture, it is important to communicate directly with the people who will benefit from our work, because they are the only ones who are going to use our product and venture’s services

2. Team name: Malnutrition

• Goals
  • What are the personal goals (small g) of each member on this team? (Team Member #1, #2, #3, etc) Make sure they connect to the DREAM on the Individual Profile.
    • Gabby Alves
      • My personal goals for our project are to create business models for each of our products and to help out wherever else I am needed.
      • I’ve created tentative business models for the sweet potato muffins, mango muffins, and bouillon cubes. The other recipes are currently still works in progress, so the business model for those will be worked on once those recipes are complete.
      • I have also done research on food preservation, specifically canning, and by creating a business plan for that possible venture, we were able to conclude that it is too costly with us to move forward with. Our hope was to can nutritious fruits that are not in season all year.
      • Currently, I am doing research on methods of cool preservation, to extend the shelf life of nutritious products in SL.
      • These goals all lead to the overall purpose of our project, which is to treat the issue of malnutrition prevalent in SL.
    • Samantha Cardenas
      • My personal goals for our project are to create new recipes and research food preservation techniques
      • The new recipes I create for our venture incorporate the micronutrients that are missing in the children in SL’s diet. These micronutrients include:
        • Iron
        • Vitamin A
        • Iodine
        • Zinc
      • To achieve my first personal goal, I use creative and innovative methods to develop snacks and foods similar to what people in SL would consume and are familiar with, and incorporate these foods to make one nutritious recipe.
        • In addition to this process, I choose ingredients that are locally sourced, available, and inexpensive in SL.
      • The first personal goal I have is relevant to our DREAM because it directly provides a solution for childhood malnutrition in SL by providing foods to incorporate these missing nutrients into children’s diets
      • To achieve my second personal goal, I am reading through different research articles about inexpensive food preservation techniques that can be incorporated into SL as a sustainable system
      • My second personal goal is important to our DREAM because there are many nutrient dense foods in SL that are only available seasonally, and when they are available in their off-season, they are more expensive due to their limited availability. The second goal I have provides a solution to make these nutrient-dense foods available year-round through inexpensive food preservation
    • Rob Corvalan
      • My personal goals for our project are to finalize the development of moringa fortified bouillon cubes. These are one of the new food products we aim to introduce in Sierra Leone.
        • My personal goal relates to our DREAM because it is a food product that provides 50% recommended daily amounts of vitamin a, iron, iodine, and zinc which can be consumed by adults and children alike.
        • I have conducted taste testing with different ingredients and compared them with commercially available bouillon cubes to create a similar profile. This achieves the goal of introducing a food product that is familiar to our consumers.
        • This semester I have been researching how to automate the production of the cubes and networking with suppliers. To finalize the development of the cubes, I am aiming to identify sources for my products, speed up the production process, and improve the business model.
  • What is the Project GOAL (big G) we’re all committed to achieve together?
    • To finalize the development of the food products, business models, and identification of viable food preservation techniques that our venture intends to introduce and implement through fieldwork.
  • Is our Project Goal scaled to our resources (dreams, materials, skills, differences, etc.) and constraints (assignment, time, skills, etc.)
    • Our project goal is scaled relative to the overarching vision we have. We have been limited in taste testing our new food products and have yet to begin business operations. We are still researching about food preservation techniques since cost and the environment are constraints on the shelf life of our products, as well as contribute towards the post harvest losses of subsistence farmers.
  • What are the metrics for success for what we’re producing?
    • Our metrics for short-term success depend on if we are able to achieve the sales projections we have created for each of our food products. Prior to being able to taste test and sell in Sierra Leone, our metrics of success will depend on the development of recipes and identifying viable food preservation techniques to introduce during field work.
    • In the long term, the success of the business will depend on scaling production according to our demand. However, the impact our business intends to have will be measured by assessing the reduction of micronutrient deficiencies in children correlated with the consumption of our food products. Using metrics like height and weight over a long period of time will help identify the effectiveness of our products.
• Roles
  • Who is responsible for which deliverables?
    • Creating new recipes and their corresponding nutritional facts: Samantha Cardenas
    • Creating business models for each recipe: Gabby Alves
    • Research on food preservation techniques: Samantha Cardenas
    • Research on cold systems for food preservation: Gabby Alves
    • Research on Moringa and Bouillon cubes to develop a recipe to incorporate into our venture: Rob Corvalan
  • Which deliverables that require collaboration, subgroups & individual work? Who does each person depend upon to succeed?
    • Most of our project is each person doing individual work and bringing it together to create a venture. We all depend on each other to achieve this.
  • Do we need a project manager to coordinate?
    • Not necessarily, as we are in a way project managers of our section of the project.
  • What are the deliverables each person is accountable to produce?
    • We all work together on the presentations we have to present for midterms and finals.
• Procedures
  • Decision Making – What process shall we use: consensus, majority rules, deference to expert, default to the loudest, or?
    • For decision making, our team aims to reach a consensus on decisions we make to be sure to include everyone’s voice in the direction our venture goes
      • However, if there are many differing opinions on a subject, we attempt to use a majority consensus when making an important decision for our venture.
    • We also consult with our advisor, Lori Herz, who is also included in the team when making decisions or having a majority opinion
  • Effective Meetings – Focus on key, timely decisions together vs. status/update (offline)
    • We have formal meetings every week on Mondays at 5:00pm to discuss weekly accomplishments and progress towards goals in our venture with our team advisor
      • During these meetings, we maximize productivity by writing a weekly brief that highlights these accomplishments and progress to know what we discuss at each meeting.
  • Meeting roles: scribe, facilitator, time keeper
    • Since we have met, we have never established roles for our meetings. Our focus is on reviewing and informing one another about the individual progress we have made to be able to reassess and determine the direction we need to head for the future. Each member presents to the team what we have learned and accomplished, to which we conclude with summarizing and finding areas that need improvement or collaboration if the tasks are not manageable by the individual.
  • Communication – FTF: frequency, time, location; type of technology: (Google docs, Hangout, etc.);expectations for responsiveness; ‘best time to work’ (AM, PM, weekends?)
    • We meet every week on Monday at 5pm, which was decided by making a WhenToMeet to find out what time worked best for our whole team
      • We meet through Zoom and always expect for each member to sign onto the meeting at the scheduled time unless otherwise specified previously
    • We use Google docs to work on our briefs, and put all of our research together in a team drive, categorized by different aspects of our project.
• Relationships
  • Team Diversity – What is the diversity on our team? Disciplines to tap for solutions;  individual learning styles for the stages of invention;  overall team learning style strengths and places to supplement;  cultural backgrounds , work experience,  dreams to leverage for scope & impact of goals, new roles, better procedures;  languages for more diverse customer set, bigger market
    • Our diversity is evident in our team when one observes our academic interests. Gabby’s business expertise has helped with the development of rudimentary business models and determining the viability of different food preservation methods meanwhile Sam and Robert’s background in health has allowed them to focus more on product development.  We all have polar, interdisciplinary interests that feed into our venture’s goal
  • Listening – Notice my binary thinking, auto-rankism, and go beyond it.
    • We acknowledge each other’s roles and trust one another to communicate what we have learned, keeping us updated as a venture on where we are going and how we can help each other.
  • Team Name–What’s a team name that captures who we are and what we’re going to do?
    • We are Newtrition and reducing Malnutrition is our mission.

Questions We Could’ve Answered Better:

1. How are you planning on marketing the sweet potato muffins to mothers?
   1. Mentioned the stickers and posters and the director of nutrition, but should’ve specified we meant the country’s director of nutrition
   2. Also forgot to mention that we are relying heavily on word of mouth as means of advertising 
2. How is your research on food preservation technologies relevant to your venture?
   1. For this question we needed to have a set concrete system in place along with having the knowledge of which technology we are going to use in our venture. We need to be very specific with who are we distributing these technologies with, especially with its use with either farmers or the production of our food products
   2. Since our venture is working with locally sourced produce, we need to have a method of being able to preserve our products to reduce the amount of food waste that is present with limited resources such as electricity and refrigeration. By identifying a food preservation technology we can use, we can teach and distribute to other subsistence farmers that can benefit from having 
3. Pretty interesting that you guys are looking to use moringa…is it something you have been considering to use since last semester?… And curious, as to what the source will be for that.
   1. Could have answered in a more concise manner when identifying World Hope as an initial, temporary source for moringa, as well as local markets until we found a partner to purchase wholesale moringa or moringa powder from. Careful of generalizations with the use of terms such as“obviously” 
   2. Is it available as a commodity crop or something small farmers will have, or both?
      1. Should have been identified as a specialty crop. Undermined credibility by saying “I believe both”; Market availability may vary depending on if it is sold raw or processed into a powder or oil. 

Top 20 FAQs:

1. What are the leading causes of malnutrition in Sierra Leone?
   1. In SL, malnutrition is caused by a micronutrient deficiency in Vitamin A, iron, zinc, and iodine.
2. How many kids are affected by malnutrition in SL?
   1. In 2013, a study in SL found that 38% of children did not fully grow or develop due to malnutrition
3. How did you choose what ingredients to use in your foods?
   1. A programming code, AMPL, was used in the beginning of our venture to optimize what ingredients were best to use. This was especially helpful in the development of the sweet potato muffins and banana pudding. 
   2. During our 2019 fieldwork, we found common foods people in SL consume daily, and incorporated some of these nutrient dense foods into the new recipes we have developed
4. What products are a part of your venture? 
   1. Products that are 100% completed are the sweet potato muffins and the banana pudding. The business model for the sweet potato muffins is also completed, but not for the banana pudding because we still do not know the logistics of its distribution. We are in the process of finishing the recipes and business models for the Moringa-fortified Bouillon cubes, nut butter bites, mango muffins, porridge, and banana biscuits
5.  How are you going to distribute your products?
   1. As of right now, we plan on distributing our products through purchase at Betteh bakery, our kiosks, and through street vendors.
6.  Where are your products going to be made?
   1. Currently, we have a partnership with Betteh Bakery in Makeni, so we plan on having our operations run there in the beginning.
7. How much does it cost to make the sweet potato muffins? How much do you plan on selling the sweet potato muffins for?
   1. It costs ~$0.0662 to manufacture one muffin, and we will be selling them for ~$0.15. Our goal is to price them at an affordable rate so more people will purchase and consume our product.
8. How do your food products compare to your competitors?
   1. Our current competitors are plumpynut and Bennimix. They have both tried to immerse themselves into SL, but their products were too costly for families to afford. Our products are affordable enough for daily purchase. During fieldwork 2019, mothers were asked how much they typically spend on snacks for their children, and our price of ~$0.15 per muffin is within their budget.
9.  Who else is involved in the venture outside of your team members?
   1. We are partnered with World Hope International, which is well established in SL, Betteh Bakery in Makeni, and have government support through Sierra Leone’s Director of Nutrition.
10.  What motivated you to start this venture?
    1. The country’s Director of Nutrition, Aminata Shamit Koroma, requested for us to start this venture due to the high rates of malnutrition.
11. What is the reasoning behind using Moringa as a new ingredient in your food products?
    1. During the last research group’s fieldwork, moringa sparked interest after being identified as a “superfood” high in vitamin a and iron.
12. How do you plan on marketing your products?
    1. In SL, advertising is very simple. We plan on marketing our product with visuals such as stickers and posters, and will also be relying on word of mouth, as it is a predominant method of advertising in the country.
13. What is the source of Moringa for the bouillon cubes and how do you plan on distributing it?
    1. At the moment we are looking to temporarily source our moringa from World Hope and purchase it raw at the local market. We have identified potential partners for moringa powder such as from MorVigor and the Binkolo Growth Center and are in the process of evaluating who would be most viable based on our production needs and costs.
14.  How do you know people will purchase your product?
    1. During 2019 fieldwork, taste testing was conducted with mothers and their children. There were over 400 participants. The sweet potato muffins had a 98% success rate, and the banana pudding had a 97% success rate, with the success rate meaning that the mothers would purchase this for their child. We plan on conducting more taste testing with our new recipes once we are allowed to travel to SL.
15. How will you increase demand among people in SL for your food products?
    1. There is existing demand for nutritious food products in SL due to high childhood stunting rates, but we plan on increasing demand through increased marketing and exposure to our products as a substitute for snacks that mothers already purchase in the market
16. What kind of equipment is involved in the production of your food products?
    1. We minimize the equipment used to produce our food products to make them inexpensive. We only use an oven to bake some of our products, measuring tools, and bowls to mix the ingredients used in our products
17. What is the technology behind how the clay pot refrigerator works?
    1. The clay pot uses evaporative cooling to cool the foods or produce inside it. There are 2 pots used in the clay pot refrigerator, one smaller than the other one. The small pot inside will contain the produce or foods it is keeping cool. The heat from the small pot will evaporate away from it, which goes through the sand in the middle of both pots and the large pot giving away the heat from the small one
18. Why did you decide to research food preservation technologies?
    1. We has a meeting with 2 connections we have from World Hope, Musa and Allieu, and they expressed the need for food preservation techniques to extend the shelf life of nutrient dense foods
19. Do your food products use any preservatives and if so, what are they? 
    1. We have identified ascorbic acid, sodium benzoate, and 
20. How does your venture plan to address food preservation when resources such as electricity and refrigeration are limited?
    1. With the use of food preservatives and low cost technologies such as pot in pot refrigeration, we will be extending the shelf life of our products and educating farmers about how they can reduce post harvest losses with their use of technology.

No team members because my zoom was not working during class, but I worked with Rob Corvalan on it

Part 1

Step 1: Determine the facts in the situation

• Ethical Issue: Finding the balance between feeding children who are malnourished with foods that may have pesticides or continue feeding them breastmilk and increasing the risk they will get HIV from their mothers who may be HIV positive (HIV+)
• 35% of children in a region of East Africa are stunted due to poor nutrition
• Children in this region of East Africa are breastfed until around 24 months of age, and when they are 2 months old, their diet is complemented with gruel of maize and bananas
  • Scientific research has shown that this gruel does not provide key nutrients
• HIV/AIDS is prevalent in this same region of East Africa
• The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends only breastfeeding until a child is 6 months old because the longer a child is breastfed with a mother who is HIV+, the higher the likelihood the virus will be transmitted to the child
• Entrepreneur has received a grant to establish a women’s cooperative in this region of East Africa
  • ~500 women from 3 sublocation have indicated interest in joining the cooperative
• Cash and subsistence crops are grown in this area of South Africa, including:
  • Maize
  • Sorghum
  • Cassava
  • Varieties of legumes/dried beans
  • French beans
  • Coffee
  • Pineapple
  • Bananas
  • Pumpkins
  • Tomatoes
  • Carrots
  • Kale
  • White Irish potatoes
  • Sweet potatoes
• Pesticides are used to grow some crops in this region of East Africa
  • These pesticides can have adverse health implications for infants
• The women are skeptical about using the porridge because it is not a food they are familiar with, it is a new product that past generations have not used

Step 2: Define the Stakeholders

• Entrepreneur:
  • Primary stakeholder
  • The person who received the grant to begin the cooperative
• Mothers:
  • Primary stakeholder
  • 500 mothers who are interested in joining the cooperative and have children
• Children:
  • Primary stakeholder
  • Children who are malnourished and are at risk for stunting and HIV
• Government
  • Secondary stakeholder
  • National government and healthcare system in this region of East Africa
• Donors
  • Secondary stakeholder
  • Person who gave the grant for the cooperative

Step 3: Assess the motivations of the Stakeholders

• Entrepreneur
  • They want to improve the nutritional status of the children and decrease the stunting rate present in that region of East Africa
  • They want the cooperative to be successful and build up its goal so they can help the children in this region
  • They want to build up their credibility in this project to gain more opportunities in the future
• Mothers
  • They want their children to receive the right amounts of nutrition needed
  • They want to decrease the risk of their children of getting HIV/AIDS
  • When they participate in the cooperative, they want to receive an incentive for their work too
• Government
  • They want to reduce the stunting rate in children and want to decrease the transmission of HIV in this region of the country they are in charge in
  • They want their community to be healthier so they can prosper more as a country and appear in a good way to other neighboring countries
• Donors
  • The donors want to improve the nutritional status of children and lives of rural households
  • They want to see their money to be put towards and effective and productive manner to make an impact

Step 4: Formulate 3 alternative solutions

• Solution 1: Minimize additional ingredients
  • Potential solution
    • A potential solution could be to use the gruel to make a new nutritious recipe. When making the gruel, additional ingredients are added to the gruel, such as local crops, but the researchers should minimize the additional ingredients added. The women participating in the cooperative would grow the crops themselves, and then sell it to the local cooperative, so that they use these crops to make a more nutritious gruel recipe. These additional ingredients will be familiar to the mothers already and will also make gruel more appealing to children to generate more demand for the product
  • Ethical principle/code:
    • Beneficence: Attempting to reduce the potential of malnutrition in children by adding ingredients that have nutritious value to the original gruel recipe to work and reduce stunting growth rates
    • Non-maleficence: Promoting the new gruel recipe is a balance between risks and benefits because although reducing the risk of spreading HIV is addressed as less children will be breastfed for so long, promoting the new recipe can increase the risk of being exposed to pesticides
  • Pros
    • The entrepreneur will have a goal to target the nutrients that the children are lacking in their diets, which will allow them to improve the nutritional status and stunting rate in children
    • The entrepreneur’s achievement in helping reduce the malnutrition rate in children will be highlighted
      • Their success will increase the credibility they had
    • The mothers will be more familiar with gruel, which makes them more inclined to try it rather than a new food as a solution to better their child’s health and increase the nutrients they consume
    • When the mothers participate in the cooperative, they will benefit from selling the crops
      • Since the mothers will grow the crops, they will be more inclined to use the gruel recipe since they produced the crops themselves and will be less skeptical about using it
    • The children will consume more nutrients without the breastmilk that will decrease the chance of them getting HIV and will be healthier to live a longer life
  • Cons
    • There could be pesticides in the gruel that could cause adverse health reactions in infants
    • Mothers could still be reluctant to use the gruel instead of their breastmilk to nourish their children
    • Mothers still may use breastmilk even though there is another form of gruel available
• Solution 2: Involve community health workers or local leaders
  • Potential solution
    • A potential solution could be to educate women in a culturally appropriate manner to show them how breastfeeding can increase the risk of HIV transmission, instead of making a new recipe, so they can learn to stop breastfeeding instead
  • Ethical principle/code
    • Autonomy: We are providing information to the women so they can make an informed decision on whether their children should consume breastmilk or a nutrient-dense food
  • Pros
    • The entrepreneur will have an established goal to cooperate with the community involved with the cooperative, and allow the malnutrition and stunting rate to decrease while minimizing the risk of HIV transmission through education
      • As these risks are minimized, the entrepreneur will gain recognition of doing an effective project in their venture
    • Mothers will receive information to make an informed decision of how they will go about providing nutrients to their child and making them have a healthier lifestyle
    • Mothers will not have to do labor to be involved in the venture, which may not be appealing to them
    • The children will be healthier because there will be a lower risk of them getting HIV
    • There will be no pesticides because there will be no new recipes used, which could decrease health risks associated with it
  • Cons
    • There might not be any community health workers or leaders willing to teach mothers without an incentive, and there are currently no funds to pay for their time
    • Mothers might want to stick to traditional breastfeeding anyway, so there is not a lot the researchers can do with that
    • Mothers might fear breastfeeding after they are aware of its consequences, and might not have enough money to buy alternative nutritious foods, and this could increase the malnutrition rates

• Solution 3: Gruel nutritional supplement
  • Potential solution: 
    • A potential solution could be to add a nutritional supplement to the existing gruel without adding any additional ingredients. Then, this would be marketed and sold to the mothers instead of them making it themselves or buying a different brand. The researchers would be involved in adding the correct supplements to this new gruel recipe
  • Ethical principle/code
    • Beneficence: The researchers would be able to reduce the malnutrition and stunting rate in East Africa by adding nutritional supplements to the existing gruel recipe
  • Pros
    • The entrepreneur will be able to do work and reduce the malnutrition and stunting rate in that region so that they can make an impact
      • Their ability to make an impact and the venture a success will increase their credibility among their community
    • The mothers will already be familiar with the gruel and will be more inclined to buy the gruel with the knowledge that it will supplement their children with nutrients
    • This product saves the mothers time in making the gruel, allowing them to purchase it instead of making it
    • The children will be able to be more healthy because they will have more nutrients
    • The children will not be exposed to pesticides that can cause health abnormalities
  • Cons
    • There will need to be another form of gruel marketed, and mothers may decide to make it themselves because they feel more secure feeding that to their child
    • Mothers may not feel inclined to purchase the gruel for their children because they do not know of the supplements in the gruel
    • Mothers may feed their child breastmilk any way because they would not think that it has no harm

Step 5: Seek additional assistance, as appropriate

• I am working on the malnutrition project with my team, and this case study is similar to our project’s goals.
• Throughout the project, I have learned that it is important for children to enjoy and want a specific food product that is marketed, so that their mothers are more inclined to purchase it
• I have learned from people in my project that some mothers in their culture may acknowledge and show enthusiasm for a product, but it does not mean that they will actually use it, so it would be important to involve them in the cooperative to make sure they know what is going on to make them more secure about using a new product/innovation

Step 6: Select the best course of action

• The best course of action that satisfies the highest core ethical values is the first solution of using crops to make a new modified recipe for the gruel.
• This solution is unique from the others because it incorporates mothers in the process of making a new recipe for the gruel. The mothers are already eager to participate in the cooperative, but this method allows them to be directly involved by growing crops for an incentive. It is important for the mothers to grow these crops because they will have more security in what their child is eating since they are the ones cultivating crops that will be used in the new gruel recipe. They will also receive incentive for doing so, which means that the mothers are not used as free labor, which would be another issue.
• The mothers will sell these crops to the people in charge of the cooperative so that the researchers and other associates can make the new gruel recipe to sell to the community. The mothers would be a crucial part of their child’s health, and the children will be more healthy as they consume the gruel instead of breastmilk.
• The gruel product should be inexpensive to make sure mothers can afford to buy it, and should also be marketed as a fortified and inexpensive food that is more convenient to feed children.
• This solution also allows the entrepreneur to make an impact on this community, which was the initial goal, and will help them generate their credibility
• Other issues in the class also revolved around educating mothers on the consequences of using breastmilk and farmers on the dangers of pesticides. Although education is important in this community to give the ability to people to make an informed decision, it should not be a solution alone. I believe our solution is more effective because although it incorporates education on breastfeeding, this solution is not reliant on it for success. Instead, our solution focuses on creating nutrient dense food products and with its use, it would minimize breastfeeding and HIV transmission on its own

Step 7: (If applicable) What are the implications of your solution on the venture.

• Impact on technology aspects
  • Our solution would allow mothers will learn more about the technological processes behind farming since they will be directly involved in these operations
• Impact on economic aspects
  • Our solution would allow their to be more economic growth in this community because mothers will have new jobs and make a profit from growing crops, while the cooperative will also make a profit from selling the gruel
• Impact on social aspects
  • Children will receive nutrients they need to live a healthier lifestyle, and they will be able to go about day to day activities with more energy
  • Mothers will have an opportunity to use time to work for themselves instead of just being a housewife
• Impact on environmental aspects
  • The amount of pesticides can be limited by the mothers in the solution because they will be directly involved in the process of cultivating crops

Step 2

Step 1: Determine the facts in the situation

• Women in the cooperative work for about 9 hours every day and earn KES 300, about $3
• Women have the opportunity to sell produce grown on their small farms to the cooperative
• The women working in the cooperative have a strong sense of community and identity
• The money the women bring from working in the cooperative they give to their husband, father, or brothers, and the money is not used to support their families but on frivolous things
• The entrepreneur is one of the 7 members of the leadership committee that oversees operations
  • The other 6 members are local women on the committee who are concerned of how the money women are earning in the cooperative is used and want things to change
  • Women in the committee believe the idea that men control money is not a problem and has always existed, but they are upset that they are not putting the money towards feeding the children nutritious foods and only want to change that
• the committee is elected on an annual basis
• The entrepreneur has 6 months left on the committee after the election and then will practically leave the cooperative

Step 2: Define the Stakeholders

• Define the problem:
  • The mothers want to use their money that they earn from working in the cooperative to sustain their families and feed their children nutritious foods. However, the men in their households use their money, and the problem lies in the fact that the women working want to use the money they earn for their own purposes they believe to be productive. The problem is that the entrepreneur cannot say anything about how the families in this community should use their money because money management with male figures is a cultural norm
• Define Stakeholders:
  • Entrepreneur: Member of the committee who began the cooperative
  • Mothers: Women working on the cooperative and have families
  • Women on the committee: 6 other women on the leadership committee who are locals and work with the entrepreneur
  • Children: Children of the mothers and need more nutrients in their lifestyle to be healthier

Step 3: Assess the motivations of the Stakeholders

• Entrepreneur (primary)
  • Professional
    • Wants to make an impact on the committee before leaving the position
  • Personal
    • Wants to make sure the mother’s money is put to good use and to feed their children
    • Wants to improve malnutrition and rural lifestyles
• Mothers (primary)
  • Professional
    • Wants to use their income in their household to benefit their family and feed their children
    • Does not want to waste their hard-earned money
  • Personal
    • Wants to make sure their children have nutritious foods to eat and have a healthier lifestyle
• Women on the committee
  • Professional
    • Wants to fix the problem of the fact that the money mothers are earning is not used smartly or to help their households
  • Personal
    • Wants to make sure women can feed their children nutritious foods and are upset it is not being done so
• Men
  • Professional
    • Wants to budget the household’s money and have a sense of control in the household
  • Personal
    • Wants to use money in the household for their own entertainment purpose
• Children (secondary)
  • Too young to have independent motivations; desires reflected in the motivations of their mothers

Step 4: Formulate 1 alternative solution

• Solution 1: Store credit
  • What is the solution?
    • Instead of paying the women in the community’s currency, the cooperative could establish a marketplace where the women or men can only use the “money” or vouchers they receive in this marketplace
  • How does it solve the problem?
    • Pros
      • The entrepreneur will make an impact on the rural community they are working in because families will be better supplied with different resources they need, and have more micronutrient foods available for children
      • The women on the committee will create an option for women who are working to be able to purchase foods and other essentials, which is resolving their disappointment
      • The mothers will feel better that they or the men in their household can only use the money they worked for in one market to purchase essentials and foods for their families
      • The children and families will be better sustained when the money their mother’s earn will be put towards better use
      • Men can have a sense over control because there is still money to manage and spend, but it will also satisfy the women working because it will not be spent on frivolous things
    • Cons
      • Mothers might need other products than what is offered at the market established, so they might not use all their money they are paid
      • Families may see this form of payment as unethical due to cultural norms
      • There will need to be extra money and funds needed to establish a market with products to sell
      • Men will not be able to spend the money women receive for their entertainment purposes
  • How does it save the face of those involved
    • It saves the face of mothers because they do not have to tell the men in their household to not spend their money on their own entertainment, but instead they say that their payment from their job can only be used at one location
    • It saves the face of the entrepreneur because he does not have to tell families to change their lifestyle to support the women working, but instead changes how to money is used by creating limitations
  • Implications on relationships
    • Short term
      • Women will not have tension with the men in their household because now they have the peace of mind that they are only limited to using their money to buy things that will benefit their household
    • Long term
      • Children and families will have a better lifestyle because they will have materials and foods they need instead of money being wasted on entertainment
      • The children will be able to have a healthier lifestyle by consuming more nutrient dense foods
  • Implications on the venture
    • Short term
      • The leaders in the committee will need to put more initiative into the cooperative to build and establish a market
      • The entrepreneur and women on the leadership committee will have a good relationship because of the issue they resolved
    • Long term
      • The venture will expand and will have a greater impact on the people in this community through creating more opportunities through a market and ensuring that women will only use money to buy essentials for their families and children
      • The women working will continue to stay motivated to work on the cooperative because they see that their children are benefitting from it unlike before

Step 5: Seek additional assistance, as appropriate

From personal experience, store credit has always been offered as an alternative to receiving money in currency. It usually benefits the business because it creates a limitation in what those who receive money can spend their money on, so this tactic would be effective because the goal of this issue is to not change who controls the money in a household, but what it is spent on

Step 6: Best course of action

• This solution is the best course of action because it allows for a smooth change that will create an impact in the families involved in this situation. It is difficult to change cultural beliefs, and it can be perceived as insulting when one so bluntly attempts to alter them, and this solution is effective in not creating any tension between the entrepreneur and the country’s cultural beliefs
• The community is culturally accustomed to men controlling how money is used, so it would create too much tension to take away the money available. Giving food to the women working was an idea mentioned in class, but this idea could be seen as another ethical issue because the men in the household may assume that it is not worth it for the women to work because they do not receive any payment, but just food. This solution allows for men to see that women are compensated for their work through a voucher or currency only used for that specific market
• This solution is effective in making sure mothers can use the money they work for to sustain their children both with materials needed for the household like hygiene supplies and nutritious food to make sure they have healthier lifestyles. But this solution also balances the idea that men will need to manage and take the money, but they will be forced to use the money to buy things the family needs since that is the only place that currency can be used in
• This solution also expands the venture because there will be more opportunities to work since people will need to run the market and sell items. The entrepreneur and women in the committee will work closer together to establish the market, creating a closer connection. And their worries and frustrations about what the money workers make goes towards will be put at rest since this money can only be used at that specific marketplace

Step 7: List the sequence of actions you will take to implement your solution

1. Meeting with the leadership committee to discuss and agree to create a market, choose items that will be available, and establish pricing of these items with the vouchers
2. Announce that currency will be distributed in a different manner to the workers a week in advance to make sure women will anticipate the change
3. Hire different women or workers to run the market and control inventory
4. Establish vouchers that will replace money to pay the workers. Determine the value of each voucher based on how long a women works
5. Distribute the vouchers to the women depending on how long they work
6. Let individual families decide how they use their vouchers, who will budget their money, and what to buy