The Year in Photos: Unreasonable Global Institute 2015
Brittany Lane
Photo from Ignitia.
Reap Benefit is developing the first gamified problem-solving app in India for youth to identify and solve local urban problems. Here, two students build a drip irrigation system in their school, saving 30-40% of water used for gardening.
The managing director of Ignitia meets with Ashai Abdul and his son, who are rice farmers in Ghana. Ignitia’s daily and seasonal weather forecasts via SMS help farmers know what seeds to buy and when to fertilize, minimizing risk and increasing yield.
OnlineRTI.com promotes transparency and good governance in India by simplifying the Right to Information Act of 2005. The GetUpForChange team processes all citizen requests from their office in Bangalore.
The Open University of West Africa created an entrepreneurship curriculum for pay-as-you-go smart phones. Via animated lessons, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs teach Android users in countries like Ghana and Liberia how to make their micro-enterprises more profitable.
In rural Rwanda, a trained facilitator and alumnae of Resonate lead a group of high school girls in a leadership workshop. Resonate uses storytelling to engender confidence and agency in local female leaders.
Iron deficiency affects 3.5 billion people around the world. When boiled in water or soups, this little “Lucky Iron Fish” fits in the palm of a hand and releases up to 90% of daily iron intake for up to 5 years.
The maymay app is the first mobile health app in Myanmar that sends messages to users’ phones with information on maternal and child health. Koe Koe Tech created this for pregnant women and their partners.
Colombia’s education system is ranked low in Latin America. CoSchool helps students identify problems and design projects. Here, a group of 15-16 year-olds on Colombia’s Pacific Coast takes a break from collecting trash to play music with it.
A rural Bangladeshi family registers with the Amader Daktar service. Now, with this app built by mDoc, rural patients can access teleconsultations with qualified doctors in the city—from their local village bazaar.
In Kenya, about 40% of water pumps break down prematurely with no sustainable maintenance system. Susteq engages local entrepreneurs to build safe water taps for over 20,000 people in western Kenya.
Tonlé is an ethical fashion company in Cambodia, with 90% of materials coming from recycled fabric deemed unusable by large manufacturers. This photo showcases the company’s next collection of hand-woven, zero-waste products.
In Pakistan, 75% of female medical school graduates are currently not practicing because of socio-cultural barriers. DoctHERs connects home-restricted female doctors with female community health workers in low-income communities via tablets for consultations.
In July 2015, twelve ventures from around the world convened in Boulder, Colorado, for five intense weeks for the sixth annual Unreasonable Institute. By surrounding the entrepreneurs with over 50 world-class mentors and exposing them to over 100 potential funders, the Unreasonable Institute’s goal is to help each of these ventures scale up to meaningfully impact the lives of at least one million people each. Watch their TED-style talks and read their stories here. Click through this slideshow to see glimpses of their work. As the year recently concluded, it’s high time to celebrate these ventures of 2015.
