Country: Colombia
Organization: DAVIDA Asociation
2) Sector of activity: Healthcare
Physical, sensory and cognitive health rehabilitation
3) Description of your products or services: Rehabilitation is a process of continuous, coordinated short-term intervention aimed to help disabled persons in their personal and social development. Rehabilitation comprises a set of consistent measures, support services and aids provided simultaneously and successively to persons who have been rendered handicapped through an accident or illness. It is a continuous process whose goal is to reincorporate the disabled person into normal activities for his or her age group in order to lessen the burden on surrounding family members and loved ones. By providing these services, the association wishes to minimize the disadvantages that disabled persons are often confronted with during the social integration process. The DAVIDA Association offers the following services:
1. Social Work 2. Psychological Services 3. Prevocational Workshops 4. Vocational Workshops 5. Medical Physiatrist 6. Neuropediatric services 7. General and Pediatric Medicine • 7.1 General Medicine • 7.2 Pediatric Medicine 8. Odontology 9. Nutritional Counseling 10. Gerontology 11. Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation 12. Occupational Therapy 13. Phonoaudiology Therapy 14. Child care services exclusively for disabled children
4) Description of the operational model: Currently the DAVIDA Association offers its rehabilitation services to handicapped individuals who are most disadvantaged socially, economically and educationally. The association offers a valuable opportunity to underprivileged families, so that through therapeutic and rehabilitative processes specially tailored to their needs, their quality of life will be improved.
All the activities of the DAVIDA Association are intended for the benefit of the disabled population, and in addition, are developed within a framework of fundamental values such as respect for life, respecting differences, valuing aptitudes and the expression of potentials. All this is within a framework of non-discrimination on the basis of gender, age or social group, that reinforces the participative ideals of sympathy and acceptance in which a new culture is constructed, favoring the handicapped individual.
5) Description of the financial model: with this new focus towards service providing, the association will be able to receive additional economic resources, which are currently needed in order to handle the operation and cover the costs generated by the comprehensive care of 186 handicapped persons. The rehabilitation and habilitation packet offered includes the aforementioned services and will be priced at 1,680,000 per month and includes 4-hour sessions with each specialist for a total of 28 hours of monthly services. The hourly cost of 15,000 is rather inexpensive considering that a rehabilitation professional attends between 1 and 3 patients per hour, and once the diagnosis is made some professionals can hold individual and/or group therapy session, giving him or her between 10 and 15 patients per 4 hours of work. Assuming that the DAVIDA’s fixed costs remain unchanged and that we reach our goal of 10 service contracts during the first year of the project, DAVIDA can expect to have a net profit superior to 6 million pesos (about 600,000 U.S. dollars) for that year, and for the following years the profit could reach above 7 million pesos (about 700,000 U.S. dollars).
Client fees represent this approximate percentage of operational budget: 20%
6) Key operational partnership: Governmental Alliances: * Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar (The Colombian Institute of Family Welfare): Principal role: Sales
OTHERS: *Ashoka Associates Compartamos con Colombia: Associates and Partners Conexión Colombia: Resource managers * Tiendas Jual Valdez: Donation *Hijos de La Tebaida: Donation
7) Current outreach:
We are at the Scaling Up stage. DAVIDA’s more than 10 years of experience in the social sector has secured its position as a strong proponent of special rehabilitation services in the region. The hard work of the DAVIDA Association and of its directive body has been recognized by important governmental, private and non-profit organizations in Colombia and abroad.
How many clients have benefited from your product/service in total? Over the last year? Beneficiaries of the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare: 34 Direct beneficiaries served by DAVIDA: 186 Transitory Beneficiaries from rural areas: 50 TOTAL 270
What percentage of your clients is below the poverty line ($2 per day)? 99% 99 to 100% of our beneficiary population lives below the poverty line, meaning that what
they earn does not cover their basic necessities since work opportunities in the region
are scarce. The main activities of the town are agriculture and to a lesser extent
cattle. For this reason, job offers are few and are determined by the temperament of the
harvest.
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):
The service packet has a cost of 1,680,000 pesos per month and includes 4-hour sessions with each specialist for a total of 28 hours of monthly services. The hourly cost of 15,000 pesos is rather inexpensive considering that a rehabilitation professional attends between 1 and 3 patients per hour, and once the diagnosis is made some professionals can hold individual and/or group therapy session, giving him or her between 10 and 15 patients per 4 hours of work. Assuming that the DAVIDA’s fixed costs remain unchanged and reaching a goal of 10 service contracts during the first year of the project, DAVIDA can expect to have a net profit superior to 6 million pesos (about 600,000 U.S. dollars) for that year, and for the following years the profit could reach above 7 million pesos (about 700,000 U.S. dollars). Very attractive figures when compared with the current losses of more than 4 million (about 400,000 U.S. dollars).
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?
The needs and limitations of the social welfare institutions in the region have been identified, and it has been determined that these institutions do not have the capacity to cover the entire disabled population, which is the most affected by their financially disadvantaged status. Because of this, we intend to offer our services to the 12 districts of the department of Quindío, which are: Córdoba, Génova, Montenegro, Pijao, Circacia, Filandia, Calarca, Salento, Buenavista, Quimbaya, Tebaida y Armenia. For a total of 1717 beneficiaries.
Which specific areas - and why - in your field would benefit most from investment by corporations, foundations, and other investors:
• The biggest challenge that we have as an organization is being able to get ten service contracts during the project’s first year
9) The organization: How does the initiative fit with your overall organization's strategic goals and priorities? How did the initiative start?
The DAVIDA Association was founded with the objective of offering self- fulfillment to the those with physical, sensory or mental handicaps in a framework of equal opportunities and exercising of rights, within the family and social core. As a result of the social problems that are faced by the disabled population, there arose a concern from Mrs. Luz Dary Chavez, who in turn formed a group comprised of a large number of families with the single goal of calling attention to the therapeutic process and to the rehabilitation of handicapped persons. In 1993, The DAVIDA Association began its social works with 25 beneficiaries, and now there are 186 handicapped persons (about 34% of the regions handicapped population) that receive direct care from the association. The district of La Tebaida has 29,302 inhabitants.
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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: Leverage the power of communities as both consumers and producers
Contact Information:
Name: Luz Dary Chávez López - Director
Organization: DAVIDA Asociation
Mailing address: Calle 17 Carrera 9 Bis Esquina Urbanización Los Cristales, La Tebaida Quindío
Country: Colombia
Email: davida@telesat.com.co
Tel: 7541766 - Cel. 315-4014214
Fax: 7540270
Website: www.davidalatebaida.org
Organization's legal status: Non profit
Number of Employees: 29 employees, 10 volunteers
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