'Put a needle though poverty.'

Ed'z latest marketing campaign is connected with a guerilla marketing scheme that will be running during week 12 at Swinburne University. Ed'z has selected strategic positions around Swinburne University that will promote 'Put a needle through poverty.' 

Ed'z stands for creating change within sweat shop and child labor manufacturing processes across the globe! 'Put a needle through poverty' has become a stand out line for Ed'z that is a message we want to share with the world. But we can't just put a message out to the world without telling a story of the Ed'z generation and how you can help.

Ed'z Threadz is passionate about changing the manufacturing processes that underpin poverty and do not allow workers to get an education, which can trap people into a cycle that leaves them with little power or choice.

Ed'z changes the issue with the collaboration of manufacturers, concumers and the workers themselves. Ed'z stands for Educational Threads. Essentially Ed'z brings education to sweat shop manufacturing for free in third world counties, changing the poverty cycle.

So please get behind Ed'z and support us to change poverty.  

Josh Collins 

UNDERSTAND IT!!!! Before you try and fix it

Tim - "Oi Collo, can I just chuck this shelf up here and nail it to me wall?" 

Josh - "Maybe Bennett, let me have a quick look and see what we can do. Few things I would double check before you start destroying the wall."

The mission - to install a new shelf from Bunnings above my desk in an attempt to create more real estate and also to portray an image of success and knowledge by displaying books on a shelf. 

Problem - I have never put up a free hanging shelf and to be honest I am a little scared by it. 

Solution - Collo. 

Now the above exert of conversation may not be an exact and accurate transcript, but the point is there. What Collo proceeded to do was go outside the house and start tapping the outer side of the wall to identify if we could indeed nail a shelf to it and not bring down the south side of the beautiful Victorian home we find ourselves residing in. 

Collo identifies some internal beams through a series of knocks and taps and returns to mark several points in the wall which would be safe to drive a nail into. After realising the marked space he has to work with is going to be too small to fit the finest and most expensive (no sarcasm at all) shelf money can buy, he then choses to take to the shelf with a saw and shave off about 20mm. After a few more taps and a bit more cutting I have a fully functioning shelf and the rest of my housemates still have four walls around them! Success! High fives are now in surplus. 

If you have stayed with this wild goose chase of a blog thus far, no doubt you are saying, "Tim you honeybadger, I don't care about your Bunnings shelf and Collo's processes of installing it...much." Well that is fair enough. However, I am getting to the point where you will say "oh now I see where he is going with all this BS (not an acronym for behavioral science)."

The point I want to make here is one that I see well reflected in Collo's way of doing what he does best - problem solving. He doesn't rush into something that he is not familiar with nor does he chose to become arrogant on what is something he knows so very well (what with being a qualified carpenter.) His logic is that he wants to firstly understand the problem before he even attempts to work out a possible solution. And it is this concept and process which has become very applicable to some of the work we have done with this unit on Social Responsibility.

Picture it like this - imagine if a class at an overseas academic institution was given my shelf problem and asked to find a solution. They could do some research, see that I had room above the desk and could simply nail a shelf to it! Bang! Done. But wait... how would they know about the internal beams that are not visible? How would they know where to start swinging the hammer? That kind of expertise can only come from really being there and getting a grasp and handle on the problem. 

Perhaps in some ways the whole notion of helping out and doing some good isn't so different at all, at least in my own experience anyway. 

And how can I possibly relate this Edz? Well here I go with an example from my own persoanl experience. 

I was lucky enough to spend my 21st birthday last year in Papua New Guinea with my father walking (or struggling?) along the Kokoda Trail. PNG's capital, Port Moresby, is one of the most dangerous cities in the world and corruption runs rampant throughout this country which is not so far away from Australia. It was here that I, much like my work in Kenya and north Tanzania in 2008, was exposed to what is considered to be people living in poverty. 

The 10 days that followed were tough and grueling to say the absolute least, but maybe the most amazing aspect was getting to know around 15 local Papua New Guinean guys who were leading our group of roughly 20 Australians. What I discovered over this period through campfire chats, long conversations that sprawled over hours whilst trudging and slipping through mud, climbing up slippery rocks and sweating more than I do in a sauna was that these men and boys were breaking a mould.

The market for taking Australians and New Zealanders along the Kokoda trail is dominated by Kokoda Spirit and Kokoda Treks - businesses owned and run by Australians and an Irish guy I saw halfway along the trail, who I might just add was someone my dad would label 'a sir who has seemingly left his brains at home.' These companies employed local guys as guides and porters, but from the word along the trail, didn't really treat nor pay the locals very well at all. 

The group who took us, named Kakapetta Tours, was on its first ever tour, and even though most of the 'boys' had walked the track before (a guy named 'Puksy' said he had done it well over 100 times) there was an air of both the Australians and the PNG guys doing something new and for the first time. 

I found out that the guys all lived together, in a housing estate named Kakapetta, and by going into business for themselves, they were taking a risk in competing with the dominant Australian run companies with the hope that they could have better conditions and be working hard for themselves. 

This was inspiring in itself and for me was a really different aspect of what I guess I try to study in Entrepreneurship. 

Being all locals, the guys from Kakapetta didn't have the rapport with travel agents in Australia or many connections with to get ongoing work, and he is the point of this blog. I was able to really grasp and understand their positions, in trying to break away and work for themselves and not for Kokoda Spirit and to create a better life for themselves and their families. (Just so we are clear when I say 'better life' I am meaning things such as one of the guys, 'Dicksy,' saw a better life putting a corrugated iron roof on his home which was about 10 hours away from Kokoda; which is considered luxury.)

It was through my understanding that I was able to then see ways I could assist them. For example I could connect them here in Australia, and get the word out that some PNG guys were running tours for much less with an even more amazing experience that encapsulated bonding with locals guys - something the other providers could not do. Through word of mouth and exposure on facebook I could help these guys to get a good name and ideally get some business from my story. In this case, I was firstly understanding how people were living and what they were trying to do before I could even begin to think of a way that I could help. 

So I guess something we know here at Edz is that we accept that we don't know loads of things, but that is what makes this whole process all the more necessary in the mission to be entrepreneurs with a socially responsible edge.

Just the same as Collo would do with your standard shelf installation; try and understand the problem you are dealing with and them maybe a solution that is actually needed may just emerge!!!

Love from Tim @ Edz

Threats to Education in the Developing World – A Response

 

After the great response we had to the previous discussion How do we solve poverty, Edz asked you guys to dig a little bit deeper into your hearts and minds, and come up with the reasons that stop people in poverty receiving an education.

This time the results were more split up, we couldn’t find a single reason to the problem! 

This goes to show that we are battling a complicated problem, that must be attacked from many different angles.

A comment we received from one of our followers, Nicholas, said that there is “no magic bullet” to solve the problem and that it requires a “multi-layered approach”.  We couldn’t agree with you more Nicholas.

Please guys, help us find more solutions to these problems, so we can bring education to those who need it most, and together help make poverty a thing of the past.

Thank you for the ongoing support.

The guys @ Edz

Posted by Will Zawadski

Securing Financial Fund for Social Enterprises

Relying on one source of funding is not a wise way for Edz Threadz or any other social enterprises. We need to find multiple ways to diversity the capital to create greater social impact. As the field of social entrepreneurship continues to mature, new trends in financing social entrepreneurship enterprises have emerged. Social entrepreneurs should seek funding by using a variety of financing sources such as government grants, international humanitarian programs, and seed funding.

The lighting for Africa enterprise is one a good example of how social enterprises can secure funding [1]. It is a social enterprise that aims to changeover kerosene lamps with lighting source that can be available to consumers of all economic levels of the society. It received initial funds in 2008 from several organisations. In addition, it received further $5.5 million fund last year, and recently won an award.

Another notable trend is social entrepreneurship awareness in the academic arena. Recently, universities have realised the importance of creating specific undergraduate and graduate programs that emphasise on social entrepreneurship. Such academic programs attract funders such as the Foundation for Youth Social Entrepreneurship which supports young social entrepreneurs globally [2].

One important way for Edz Threadz to secure a sustainable funding is to keep up-to-date data and to publish social and environmental achievement reports. Investors are more likely to fund and continue funding proven well-established projects that have great impacts on society and the environment. Some investors have started to use some financial tools to track their investment.

Marwan Albahar

[1] http://www.lightingafrica.org/

[2] http://www.fyse.org/

 

Back The Pack!!! H2o

The 'H2oPack' is the lowest cost, ergonomically correct way to manually transport water from a water source to home in developing counties. It is the first purpose designed transport product that has been produced in a way is economically affordable for developing economies and disaster relief conditions.

Edz could work to create sustainable products like PackH2o that would be produced by Edz manufacturing partners in Bangladesh. This would fight poverty with a double edge, while giving work to poorer communities in Bangladesh where every employee gets an education from Edz while creating a product that helps to combate water issues in third world countries across the globe. 

"The Pack holds up to 20 liters of water and easily collapses when empty, allowing for safe handling and storage. The hole proof outer shell is made using an industrial grade woven polypropylene with a removable plastic lining which helps   combination of strength, weight and cost of any available material." (PackH20 help care hope)

PackH2o

Josh Collins 
PackH2o: http://www.packh2o.com/index.html

Sherrin in the midst of a Child Stich Up

Is it a question of a company losing control of their supply chains? Or is it perhaps a matter of contractor choosing to cut corners in their own self-interest and failing to inform their client. Whichever the case, based on a 12 month investigation carried out by the Herald, it has been discovered that Canterbury and Russel Corporation, two iconic football brands in Australia, have been producing sports balls in India using banned child labour. 

The children stitching footballs in Jalandhar are mostly girls and receive around 12¢ for a football, 19¢ for a rugby ball, and about 49¢ for both soccer balls and netballs.  

Fairfax Media Ltd’s investigation was publicly announced on the 22^nd of September and highlighted the use of underage workers in the production of ‘Sherrin’ branded synthetic footballs in the district of Jalandar, India. 

Leading the investigation was Ben Doherty who alerted Sherrin’s Managing Director Chris Lambert on the 19^th of September, 3 days before the findings would be released to the public. The consequent actions implemented in the 24 hours after being informed of the findings are truly insightful into how todays company’s look at being associated with child labour practices.


http://media.theage.com.au/news/world-news/footballs-secret-shame-3655658.html

Lambert set into a motion a series of actions that would reflect that of a company with a zero tolerance on using children to produce a product. Firstly, Sherrin ceased all dealings with subcontractors in India, issued a media release and held a national press conference and then waived North Melbourne’s fee of $20,000 for synthetic balls to be given out at a club breakfast. 

Would Chris Lambert have slept well in the 3 days before the findings would go public? Maybe not.

And lets get this clear, I am most definitely not having a go at Chris Lambert, who really acted as proactively and responsibly as he could have. But one comment I want to highlight was made by Lambert regarding Fairfax’s decision to investigate for 12 months and only inform Sherrin of their findings 2 weeks before the grand final. Lambert made the point in an open letter to The Age that it was ‘disappointing’ that the ‘previously unknown’ breaches in ‘manufacturing standards’ were not highlighted earlier so Sherrin could take immediate actions to try and rectify the ‘issues.’

Interesting point really. Should Ben Doherty have immediately informed Sherrin of the use of children in producing footballs as soon as he discovered it? Or has it been a better impact to conduct a thorough investigation and present the findings publicly? Is Lambert’s point simply an attempt to share some of the blame? And what about the intentions of both these men. Doherty ultimately must be seeking for a great story underpinned by a strong appeal to ethically minded people, whereas Lambert is being paid to try and keep the Sherrin name as clean as possible. 

When all these questions are raised and mulled over, finally you remember that this whole issue is founded by a situation where young children, mostly girls, are pushed into a way of living that just isn’t fair. When it is whittled down and these blame games and PR scrambling’s are aside, there are young girls in India who spend more of their childhood in a darkened room stitching balls instead of learning in a classroom.

 Makes all the media hype seem a bit different doesn’t it?

Tim @ Edz

Edz for Colombia

A community project in Colombia has sparked initiative in such a way that literally captures child labour in the act. Child labour in Colombia has become quite a problematic situation amongst young children and young teen ages in Colombia.  

Child labour can one of the most distractive elements of community, taking a child's right to be a child. Children in Colombia some instances have been forced work like that of the 20 year old man to sell, work or clean until the job is completed with out any consideration of education, family, or health of the child.

In Colombia alone child labour accounts for 1.6 millions children which are forced to work in slavery like conditions every day.   

                                             

The International Labor Office has estimated there are approximately 200 million physically and mentally disabled children in the world today from child labour.

According to the Colombian National Department of Statistics, some 9.2 percent of children aged 5 to 17 were classed as working in the country, while Kid Rescue claim the number of uneducated children there has reached 1.6 million. 

The app allows members of the public to tag their location at the time of the spotting, take a photograph of the child if possible and fill out a description of what they witnessed. For the sighting social workers in Colombia can then assess the case and decide if action needs to be taken. The following video demonstrates how the app works.

Josh Collins