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.