Social Ventures
Wessex Social Ventures (WSV) helped OCA to build ideas and projects for sustainable social businesses. We currently run three enterprises, targeting communities living on less than $3 per day. The three enterprises are businesses that create a positive social impact on the target communities. WSV provide the business models, financial resources and the training. This aims to create true empowerment by providing long term fulfilling jobs and powering the local economy
The three enterprises are:.
Roots constructs Eco-San toilets in schools in order to transform human waste into 100% natural fertilizer. The fertilizer is then sold to local farmers at a lower price than alternatives. And with cleaner toilets, more children are motivated to attend school in an improved environment, whilst the schools also save on latrine-emptying costs. The roots toilets and fertilizer have the following key features;
- The toilets are clean and hygienic. The community feel safer using them.
- Roots entrepreneurs educate their communities so that they understand the science behind hygiene and the importance of hand washing.
- Ecosan fertilizer is more affordable, it greatly increase on crop yields which translates into better income to farmers; it reduces human waste that spread disease into water sources and food by transforming waste into a profit for the community
Farmers are sensitised on the advantages of solar lighting in comparison to paraffin. Farming communities are made to understand solar lighting not just as an alternative light but as an environmentally clean, healthy and cost effective energy.
Famers now purchase the lamps and use it to do house chores, run businesses and allow their pupils to read at night.
Petal business produces affordable, reusable sanitary towels that are made and sold by the local people. This ensures that women are not confined to the house for up to a week each month, and also facilitates the attendance of girls at school.
The petal sanitary towels have three important features:
- The towels are re-usable in nature. It can be washed and reused multiple times between 4-6 menstrual cycles before it’s discarded.
- Petal entrepreneurs educate their communities so that they understand the sciences behind menstruation and the importance of using the sanitary pads.
- The price of the towels is a lot cheaper compared to the disposable towels.
With support from IRT, we are helping to get these small businesses off the ground, allowing budding entrepreneurs to strive for a sustainable future, no longer reliant on hand-outs, and at the same time providing affordable solutions to some of the communities’ problems.
