Dial 1298 for Ambulance: Access for All via Acumen Fund Blog
Acumen Fund Fellow John Tucker Interviewed via Acumen Fund Blog
Analyzing the Low Income Healthcare Market in India via Acumen Fund Blog
Editor’s note: New bloggers Shaila Parikh and Biju Mohandas work for Acumen Fund, based out of Hyderabad. Shaila is a Summer Associate and a Master of International Affairs candidate at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. Biju is Acumen Fund's India Business Manager. Before joining Acumen Fund, he served for five years in the Indian Army's Medical and Dental Corps. Later, Biju completed his Post Graduate Program in Management with a dual major in analytical finance and strategic marketing from the Indian School of Business.
By Shaila Parikh and Biju Mohandas
In the middle of June, Acumen investee LifeSpring opened its second low-cost maternity hospital in a peri-urban area near Hyderabad. They plan to have six hospitals opened by the... Healthcare for the Forgotten: Sehat First in Chashma Goth via Acumen Fund Blog
This past Saturday, Sehat First held an inauguration ceremony for its first health clinic in the village of Chashma Goth, a remote fishing village on the coastal outskirts of Karachi.
Sehat First is a social enterprise that provides quality health consultation services and pharmacy services to lower income communities. Each clinic provides healthcare support to patients using an e-sehat (health) tele-consulting application that remotely links up doctors and specialists with their patients via the Internet.
Remote. That is what really resonated when I saw the location of the village. Even though it was only thirty minutes outside Karachi, the population was sparse with limited access to many social services like health facilities and education centers. These are the forgotten... Design for Social Impact: What Does It Mean and Why Should We Care? via Acumen Fund Blog
Guest blogger Jocelyn Wyatt works for the design firm IDEO, leading its base of the pyramid projects. Prior to joining IDEO, Jocelyn was an Acumen Fund Fellow in Kenya. She holds a MBA from Thunderbird. Jocelyn blogs at Design and Reach.
By Jocelyn Wyatt
As NextBillion.net mentioned last week, The Rockefeller Foundation and IDEO recently presented their research on how design firms can get more involved in social sector work. We presented this work in the form of a how-to guide and a workbook on how to use design to intentionally create positive social impacts and have posted the deliverables online.
Before I joined IDEO, I wondered (like most of you probably do) what application design could have to addressing some of the world’s largest problems. Tim Brown does a great job laying... Untapped Talent via Acumen Fund Blog
This post first appeared on the Acumen Fund Fellows blog.
In July 2007, Charity Njuju retired from more than 20 years as a nurse with the Kenyan Ministry of Health. Despite the Kenyan law mandating nurse retirement at the age of 50, Charity felt she had many productive years ahead of her. Just as she finalized her retirement paperwork, Charity heard from former colleagues about an opportunity they’d taken advantage of: to become a Sustainable Healthcare Foundation (SHF) franchisee.
“I could tell from the way they looked and the way they dressed that they were comfortable,” Charity recalls with a laugh. “I also knew that as a trained nurse there was a need of helping people. I can’t stay at home and do nothing when there is a need.”
Charity and her retired colleagues... Can a Hospital Be a Breakthrough Innovation? via Acumen Fund Blog
LifeSpring’s maternity hospital outside of Hyderbad, India, is full of surprises. The building is clean, simple, and pleasant to be in. Expectant mothers dot the waiting room, along with their mothers (or mothers-in-law, who do most of the talking), and new babies. The halls are buzzing with energy. And the hospital is a simple, no-frills yet quality-focused model designed with the low-income market in mind.
I first visited LifeSpring on Mother’s Day, where, as part of a free vaccination offering, the hospital sat new mothers and their families for photographs. Later that week, I visited with LifeSpring CEO Anant Kumar and Acumen Fund Fellow Tricia Morente.
LifeSpring addresses a powerful and daunting problem. Fewer than half of Indian women are cared for by a skilled attendant... A Beacon of Hope via Acumen Fund Blog
Editor’s Note: New contributor Noor Ullah is a Portfolio Associate based out of Acumen Fund’s Pakistan office. Before joining Acumen Fund, Ullah served as a consultant for the World Bank, and as a business development consultant for a number of multinationals and private enterprises. He holds a B.A. from Lahore University of Management Sciences.
Last month, Sehat First opened its doors to patients for the first time in the village of Chasma Goth, a peri-urban area of Karachi. In the first two days, they treated over 22 patients and had sales over 3,000 Rupees! One of the patients at the clinic remarked, “You are all angels, sent to answer our prayers.”
Sehat First is a new social enterprise that provides quality health consultation and pharmacy services to lower... At Scojo India’s Vision Camp, Seeing Is Believing via Acumen Fund Blog
What It Means to be Patient: Drip Irrigation in Pakistan’s Thar Desert via Acumen Fund Blog
Today, we had the pleasure of meeting with the MicroDrip team to discuss their drip irrigation systems being rolled out in the Thar desert region of Pakistan. Dr. Sono is the visionary founder of the Thardeep Rural Development Program (TRDP), which is incubating MicroDrip as a for-profit to serve poor farmers living in the desert. TRDP, the non-profit, provides support services, like education and training, to these farmers.
This my second chance to meet Dr. Sono, who spoke at Acumen Fund’s 2007 Investor Gathering and Celebration last November. Dr. Sono was joined at the meeting by Saqui Khan, the COO of Micro Drip, and Javaid Chaudhry, MicroDrip’s Technical Sales Manager.
MicroDrip is a for-profit company that sells and distributes drip irrigation systems to farmers in the Thar... Building Community, Brick by Brick: Visiting Saiban via Acumen Fund Blog
Editor’s note: Sasha Dichter is Acumen Fund’s Director of Business Development.
Earlier today, I visited Saiban’s development at Khuda Ki Basti-4, about 30 minutes outside of Lahore. Saiban’s potential seems limitless. Simple, clean, brick homes for people making between two and four dollars a day, in a self-contained community with full plumbing, electricity, commerce, schools, and even playgrounds. Someday, this will be a full, vibrant community of 2,500 people who have moved away from rental and slum dwellings.
There is still a long way to go. 45 families have already moved in to the Khuda Ki Basti-4 (KKB-4), out of 115 plots that have been sold and booked. There is also a 3-room school, a small playground, one shop in place and another three planned.... A Happy Customer via Acumen Fund Blog
On Kenya: Let the Healing Process Begin via Acumen Fund Blog
We have a deal!
With those words, Kofi Annan announced recently that Kenya’s leaders had agreed to share power in a coalition government. I was on my way back from Embu when the radio DJ interrupted Rihanna’s “Umbrella” - a favorite here - to announce the news. My taxi driver, Samuel, pulled over and gave me a big hug and we both got choked up. “At last,” he said with a huge grin. After weeks of anxiously watching violence and then negotiations, celebration erupted in the streets and bars of Nairobi and Kisumu.
Spirits are generally high at the moment, though not everyone is celebrating yet. I sent my friend Alex an IM: “Good news?” “I’ll believe it when I see it,” he replied. The 2-page document signed by Kibaki and Odinga... President Bush visits A to Z in Tanzania via Acumen Fund Blog
Yesterday???s visit by President Bush to the A to Z Textile Mills factory in Arusha, Tanzania, was a tremendous boost for Africa???s fight against malaria and for African economic development. A to Z is now the only manufacturer of long-lasting insecticide nets in Africa, supplying nearly 8% of the continent???s demand for these life-saving products and employing over 5,000 people.??ABE, another local company that we have supported,??has a long-term supply agreement to produce Artemisia, and by the end of the year should be producing about 15% of the world???s supply.??ABE also employs thousands of farmers in cultivating a valuable cash crop.??
As we reflect on our experience with these two malaria ventures, we think that the President???s Malaria Initiative could go further in spurring...
Jamii Bora and the environment in Kenya via Acumen Fund Blog
(Photo: Gabriel Kadidi)
It has been several weeks since both Pakistan and Kenya began to experience political and social unrest.??As Jacqueline initially reported (here??and here), Acumen Fund???s communities on the ground remain safe, but the environment in both countries has taken a decided turn for the worse.
The past weeks in Kenya have been heartbreaking. Tremendous excitement about an election year has turned to frustration over the process and its impact on the country???s stability.?? Kenya was on the rise as an economic model for East Africa. Acumen Fund investee Jamii Bora had overcome legal obstacles to begin to realize the dream of Nairobi???s poorest to build a new town for its members. By December, nearly 500 homes were under construction???Dedan ??? JB???s bicycle messenger... Update on Acumen in Pakistan via Acumen Fund Blog
The Acumen Fund team is devastated by the tragic events in Pakistan.??We mourn the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and are worried about the many families and individuals affected all across the country.??I wanted to let our community know where things stand, especially as far as the Acumen community goes, and we will keep in touch as events unfold.
The major cities are experiencing a great deal of unrest — riots and a general breakdown so that all of the shops have been closed and emotions remaining very tense.??The government has declared three days of national mourning but has indicated that January 8 general elections remain on schedule.??
All of our team members and our two Acumen fellows are safe and at home.??Our investees’ teams also are safe, though a couple of TRDP...
From the Nairobi slums to the Beijing Paralympics via Acumen Fund Blog
As the holidays approach, I thought it appropriate to share this piece of news with you from our Housing Portfolio.?? We have an investment in Jamii Bora, a community development organization founded by Ingrid Monro. She has been working with slumdwellers in Nairobi for more than a decade, helping form a community that runs their own microfinance institution and, most recently, housing development company.??Our investment is focused on helping to build houses for people who want to change their own lives.??Ingrid shares our values and belief in the power of every human being and it was her resolve that enable her to start Jamii Bora with a group of fifty beggars (there are now more than 150,000 members).??This is a story about one of them who has literally grown up with the organization.... Violence in Pakistan via Acumen Fund Blog
I’m sure you all have heard about the bomb blasts in Pakistan that have killed more than 125 people and left hundreds injured.??Our team is safe and working today, but we are proceeding with caution and closely watching any fallout that might develop.?
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I know I share with you a deep sadness for what has happened, for the families of those who were killed, for Pakistan, for the world so in need of good news and more hopes for peace.??In looking at the crowds who gathered for Benazir Bhutto, it was striking to see hundreds of thousands of working class people who, whether warranted or not, want to hope for more opportunities.??Nothing justifies such carnage.??Our own sense of urgency around the work we do can only be strengthened. I’m also feeling very proud of our Pakistani...
Pakistan earthquake - two years later via Acumen Fund Blog
The Holy Grail of Mobile Application Development via Acumen Fund Blog
Written with David Lehr and John Paul
A while back, I posted my impressions of being a mobile consumer in East Africa, ranging from interactions with the woman who cleans my apartment to the varied uses of mobile telephony Acumen Fund sees among its portfolio companies. Things have evolved. Since then, my landlord fired her and the replacement cleaner, settling on a dynamic young woman named Juddy. She too communicates through mobiles, except in those instances where she runs out of prepaid phone credits and we resort to old-style human contact. My own account has been migrated to “postpaid,” meaning I receive a (outrageously high) bill at the end of the month instead of buying the prepaid credit that accounts for the majority of mobile usage here. Meanwhile, across the... Diary of an entrepreneur via Acumen Fund Blog
Bringing health services to the urban poor via Acumen Fund Blog
As an Acumen Fund Fellow, I have spent the past seven months working for Medicine Shoppe India, one of Acumen Fund???s investees, as the project head for the Sehat Clinic pilot. Medicine Shoppe is a well-established pharmacy brand in India, with over 130 stores already in operation. With Acumen Fund???s recent equity investment, Medicine Shoppe has launched the Sehat Clinics, an entirely new format aimed at the urban poor.??
The Sehat concept is simple ??? a health clinic and Medicine Shoppe pharmacy under one roof. The Sehat Clinic is staffed by a doctor hired by the Medicine Shoppe. Patients pay a nominal sum, usually Rs20, for the doctor???s consultation. If the patient purchases his or her prescription from Medicine Shoppe, the Rs20 is rebated back to them. As a result, the doctor???s... When to put away your camera via Acumen Fund Blog
Two-pronged social impact via Acumen Fund Blog
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Sometimes you see change in unexpected places, coming from unexpected people.
Meet Frances, a beaming driver for Advanced Bio-Extracts (ABE), a company that works with 7,000+ farmers in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda to produce a critical input into cutting-edge malaria treatment therapies, artemisinin. As a driver, Frances has job stability that many in Kenya lack, yet his income is still quite modest and his hours long. Frances lives with his wife and children in Nairobi, but a small, mountainous village two hours outside Nairobi is where he calls âhome.â His parents and brother still live in the village and tend to small plots of maize, arrow root and French beans.
Having never farmed for a living, Frances is an unlikely candidate to grow artemisia. But heâs doing... Toilet toil via Acumen Fund Blog
One of my toughest days working in this field was recently, when we went to the Mukuru slums to visit one of the sites operated by a business we are considering funding. I’ve been in some of the poorest places in the world - in places far afield as Peru, Pakistan, Honduras, India, South Africa, Brazil and beyond. But I don’t ever recall being as disheartened as my visit here.
Perhaps my discomfort was brought about by the subject matter at hand. See, the business in question, along with a few others we are looking at, is trying to improve the conditions of sanitation facilities (read: bathrooms) available to the residents of these areas. We take our tiled, marble loos for granted in the West, thinking more about which fixture would go best with our new mirror.
But here,... Images and impressions from India via Acumen Fund Blog
In January, the Acumen Fund board visited some of our investments in India, witnessing firsthand the impact that these enterprises are making. (Jacqueline Novogratz shared her journal from that trip in a previous post.) Board chair Margo Alexander also wrote about her experiences in this letter, which includes some great photographs as well as observations about the progress of our investees and the challenges they face.... Kashf recognized by CGAP via Acumen Fund Blog
Making more malaria treatments available via Acumen Fund Blog
Acumen Fund investee Advanced Bio-Extracts Limited (ABE) is working hard to fight malaria by producing low-cost artemisinin in East Africa. Artemisinin is a key ingredient in the new malaria treatments (artemisinin-based combination therapies or ACTs) recommended by the World Health Organization to fight the increase in cases of drug-resistant malaria.
As this recent article in The New York Times explains, until recently, the high cost of ACTs significantly limited the drugsâ availability to the people most in need. The high cost was a result of many things, including limited availability of the raw material used to produce artemisinin. In the past few years, ABE has played a key role in scaling-up raw material production and pushing the cost of artemisinin down. Whereas ACTs... Learning from our work in India via Acumen Fund Blog
Jacqueline Novogratz was recently in India along with Acumen Fund’s board, where they witnessed some of the developments in the Acumen Fund portfolio and pipeline. You can read about the learnings that are coming out of our work in India in the journal that Jacqueline kept....