Country: India
Organization: GOONJ
2) Sector of activity: Healthcare
3) Description of your products or services: Countless women in the villages and slums end up using the most dirty and useless cloth during menstruation,as they can’t afford anything better.This is reused many a times without proper washing or drying in the sunlight,catches moisture and dirt causing various life threatening infections and diseases.There are horrible cases from the places like Shikohabad,where a lady used a piece of blouse which had a hook & she died of tetanus and a lady in Tamilnadu died due to use of a cloth which had a centipede inside. Goonj is creating mass awareness on this most neglected basic need and offering clean cloth napkin as low cost and safer option to save millions of women from disease and death. Impact-Across the world millions are spent on creating awareness around better reproductive and women’s health issues but this basic problem is always ignored.The primary clients are adolescent girls,women in far-flung villages and urban population from lower income groups. Innovation- There have been no options available for most needy women in the villages keeping in view the high cost of sanitary napkins.Some low cost napkins, made of substandard material are also not affordable.Bigger problem is disposal issues(plastic in it)& cultural factors.The innovative and the simple aspect of this is to give the women something that they have been using i.e cloth but adds value,gives information and awareness about the related health issues and is affordable as its reuse of old cloth.
4) Description of the operational model: We work towards sensiting urban women on this issue. For most urban women in different age groups the appauling conditions of women in villages and the big health risks they face are a big eye opener. They are motivated by the easily available solution their old cloth can offer. Donated old cloth is washed and sanitized to make 12” by 12 to 24 ”(depending on the thickness)cloth sanitary napkins.Our trusted network of grassroots NGOs reaches it to the remote villages.We are targeting grassroots level women’s self help groups working in the villages to distribute this napkin and generate awarenss about the health issues involved.The emphasis is on talking about this "never talked about" but basic issue and provide a better piece of cloth. Innovation: Goonj's innovative approach involves looking for a solution for village women's basic need by involving a broader and yet a similar target audience of urban women. The strategy is a win win situation for all the stakeholders.The urban women discarding old unusable cloth, with better awareness and empathy on an issue she closely identifies with,is able to channelise this useless material as a resource for her less fortunate counterpart.The problem of both the groups finds solutions by articulating their common status as women.In one shot a big health hazard faced by poor women is addressed, a channel for recycling unutilised materialis formed and more significantly a link and empathy between urban and rural women is developed.
5) Description of the financial model: Partner groups are provided the cloth napkins at Rs 2/-for a pack of 10 which is MRP.It has proper loops,cord to hold the napkin and a pictorial leaflet about proper reuse and drying of the cloth with literature for initiating dialogue and discussion.The partner group decides the price to the beneficiaries depending on the local economic conditions.Since the benificiary will share a part,Goonj is subsidizing it,the local agencies are also motivated to subsidise it further. mechanisms : A well established network of grassroots NGOs, Panchayats,SHG,Indian army as partner across the country helps ensure a proper distribution,effective communication and reach. Long-term funding sources:Raw material is generated from our existent project Vastradaan and its network.It's an effort to provide better alternatives within the same system but with more awareness and participation on the basic issues related to this.Initial investment is not much and we are getting sponsors for the same.Running and scaling up costs come from benificiaries,sponsors & contributions from urban women as it’s not just a source of funding but but also a great relationship and empathy building measure in the proces
Client fees represent this approximate percentage of operational budget: 5%
6) Key operational partnership: GOONJ has in place a strong relationship with a large number of corporates,Resident associations,Schools,Colleges and Ladies Clubs due to its Vastradaan and School to School programme.To reach the beneficiaries GOONJ has a strong network of over 100 voluntary organisations,SHG,panchayats, activists,network of Ashoka fellows in 14 Indian states.Our strength is our 7 years of work in generating resources out of waste material.Vastradaan and S2S as nationwide programmes ensures supply of large quantity of cloth & other material.Apart from this the biggest advantage is the low cost of this product and the easy replicability of the model . The challenge is to create awareness about this taboo topic and talk about the appalling conditions in which the village women live in these 5 days.The first step is to get people especially women talking about different kinds of practices and experiences around this subject.The idea is to make even unrelated groups like young school girls,men,older women become aware of the deplorable state in which women live in villages.The challenge is to initiate discussions and build awareness among the donor and benificiaries on realities and solution.
7) Current outreach:
We are at the Start Up stage. We have been able to generate massive awareness among the urban masses on this isse. The first consignment of 960 such pieces has already reached Shikohabad. In the coming week with the help of local people, SHGs & other village women groups we ‘ll be providing this to women. A feedback questionnare will help us collect more information from the women who’ll be using this cloth in the coming one month to further improve the final product. Although we have interviewed a large number of women and gynocologists on this issue but comments from the actual users are really eagerly awaited.
How many clients have benefited from your product/service in total? Over the last year? In the coming month the first batch of beneficiaries will be using our product. We are already in the process of dispatching consignments to many other parts of the country. The spread will multiply many folds after a month once we get the feedback from actual users and we start sending the improved version.
What percentage of your clients is below the poverty line ($2 per day)? 95%
What is the order of magnitude of the potential demand for your products or services? Which
other low-income groups, countries or regions could benefit from it? Try to quantify (number
of clients, market size in currency):
We are addressing a women’s basic need.As the beneficiary gets access to a better and safer option at an affordable cost,there is a huge market present not only in India but all over the world. The success is in replication of the idea as every country can produce the same and it can be utilised there itself.
8) Scale-up strategy:
How many low-income individuals do you plan to benefit in three years from now? How are you planning to scale up or replicate your solution? What are the major constraints to scale up?
Over 2 lakh women will be benifiting in the 3 years.The idea is to make it a regular supply chain.Started from a small consignment, many dispatches are in pipeline.With a network of over 100 agencies to reach benificiaries distribution network is strong. The problem of raw material is also solved as we will be able to convert lakhs of Tsunami wastage cloth into this.Constant effort of sensitising urban women is resulting into good support in terms of raw material and small financial contributions for the initial phases.We are involving all the network partner one by one to reach to the maximum people in the remotest areas. Also tying up women SHGs for stitching etc. so that it generates employment in the villages and the cost further comes down.In Nepal we are all set to launch this initiative along with VASTRADAAN and organisations from some other countries are also in touch with us.
Which specific areas - and why - in your field would benefit most from investment by corporations, foundations, and other investors:
Long-term investments are needed in the area of communication,fuelling discussion and awareness so that more and more women,both rural and urban,come out and talk about this benefit from this learning.The campaign will address women in the cities,working women in corporates, housewives,young collage goers and also a broader audience of facilitators i.e. policy makers,health experts,through mass media,direct interaction with the beneficiaries.On the other hand a strong and sustained communication is needed to build awareness and understanding among the women in the villages.The use of one to one interaction,roviding literature,interacting through their opinion leaders, health workers and addressing their group meetings will help us reach them.We also need machines and material to like washing machines,sanitizers,packing machines,cleaning material for this.
9) The organization: How does the initiative fit with your overall organization's strategic goals and priorities? How did the initiative start?
For the last 7 years since its inception Goonj has been working in the area of channelising resources from the cities to the villages of India.Our emphasis has been on highlighting the importance of cloth as a basic need.This project highlights an aspect of cloth that most people including women haven’t paid much attention to.For most people in the cities especially women the reaction is one of shock or simply why-didn’t-I-think-of-it.Our aim is to highlight that even a useless piece of cloth can make a big difference in someone’s life.This initiative came from our extensive interaction with women in the villages while travelling and establishing Vastradaan.We also consulted and are getting feedback from our partner groups around the prevalent practices.In our research we spoke to and gynaecologists about the relate health hazards and found that most doctors also fail to see the direct relationship between cloth and urinary and reproductive diseases.
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10) On the mosaic diagram, which of these factors is the primary focus of your work?
- Factor: Poor understanding of the human and social capitals of low income communities
- Principle: Design products and services that tap into the wealth of poor
Contact Information:
Name: Mr. Anshu K. Gupta - Founder Director
Organization: GOONJ
Mailing address: J-93, Sarita Vihar, New Delhi-76
Country: India
Email: anshu_goonj1@yahoo.co.in
Tel: 91-11-26972351, 9868146978
Fax: 91-11-26972351
Website: www.goonj.info
Organization's legal status: Registered as Society
Number of Employees: 15
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