In cooperation with the WIDE foundation I am going to do a project in India. After finishing my bachelors I thought it would be time to give something back to society. This is why I am going to help out in an orphanage and provide the orphanage with the ability to cook on solar power. This will not only help them reduce costs on cooking using gas, it might also give them a source of income through selling food or making solar cookers for other people.
Below you see the original assignment as given to me by WIDE.
Project Duurzaam Energiegebruik: Bakkerij op zonnewarmteStichting Support WIDE Children’s Home heeft een solar cooker of beter gezegd een solar cooker gedoneerd gekregen. Op het moment zijn we bezig met het transport en het uitzoeken hoe het apparaat in het Indiase klimaat gebruikt kan worden. Wij denken aan bakken met granen, omdat de kinderen nu vooral het niet zo voedzame rijst eten. Afwisseling met granen zou goed zijn. Omdat het koken/bakken/stomen op zonnewarmte niet gewoon is moet geëxperimenteerd worden met recepten en werkmethodes. Hiervoor zoeken wij nog een vrijwilliger die dit als project op zich zou willen nemen. Als het zonne-stoom-bakprincipe aanslaat willen we een bakkerijtje beginnen. Niet verkochte graanproducten kunnen door de kinderen van het weeshuis opgegeten worden, dus verliezen zullen er dan niet geleden worden. |
I rewrote the assignment according to my expertise. I want to focus on making the solar steamer more user friendly (if necessary) and try to make a little business out of the entire solar cooker idea. Either by making a profit out of selling the food cooked in the solar cooker of by producing solar cookers for people in the surroundings of the orphanage.
Before going to India I will focus on gaining sponsors and getting things over to India, the solar cooker needs to get to India and the children could use some more cloths. This is why I am promoting the orphanage with flyers and a sponsor letter.
I subdivided the entire research into two parts; the product research and the feasibility study.
Product research
The solar cooker is currently in Holland and needs to be transported to India. The cooker is pretty big and heavy; this raises the question whether the whole device should be transported to India in one piece or that it has to be stripped down to the most important parts and transports those to India. In order to make sure what is important about the solar cooker I will need to gain a lot of knowledge on different aspect of the solar cooker. Questions about the solar cooker can be subdivided into the questions I need to answer in Holland and questions that can also wait and be answered in India.
Questions in Holland:
1. How does the solar cooker work?
2. What parts does the solar cooker have? And what do they do?
3. What is the weight of the parts?
4. What parts can also be produced in India?
5. What do you need in order to cook?
Questions in India:
6. How well does the solar cooker work?
7. Is the solar cooker easy to use for the users in India?
8. How long does the cooking take?
9. How much food can be produced with this solar cooker?
I will try and answer the Holland questions before I am leaving for India. Talking to people who did similar projects and searching the internet will hopefully give me some more information. If the weather allows me I am going to test the solar cooker in Holland. I am going to contact Jonne who did something with food in Tiruvannamalai, and I am also going to contact Hester who is doing a project with a solar cooker in Kenia. I will test the solar cooker in India to find answers to my other questions. With the help of the kids in the orphanage I will try and make food with this solar cooker every day for two weeks in order to find out how it works and if it works well for their kind of cooking. I am planning on getting up in the morning and prepare some food for the solar cooker, with one or two kids, which we might eat at lunch. I hope that some children of the orphanage can help me with traditional food, and their likes. If the cooker works fast enough we might prepare more food for dinner.
Feasibility study
After finishing the product research I need to find out if it would actually help the orphanage to use this device. These questions can also be subdivided into food related questions and questions related to the solar cooker:
Food related questions:
1. What do people eat in India?
2. How many times do people in India eat a (warm) meal?
Questions on the solar cooker:
3. How do people in India cook now?
4. Does the orphanage need a bigger solar cooker in order for the solar cooker so supply them with their everyday hot food? Is it possible to make a bigger solar cooker?
a. How much bigger does it need to be?
b. How much bigger can it be?
c. What materials should be used?
d. Are these materials easy to get in the area?
e. What would happen if something breaks? Can they fix it?
5. Are there enough people in the orphanage that can help out with a “bakery” or the production of the solar cookers?
To gain answers to these questions I hope to communicate with /talk to the community a lot and look around in the area. Apart from that I will ask the children of the orphanage for help.
But also
If there is time left there is also a secret third part to my project, which I will have to shape while I am in India. I think my original project would be a excellent way to learn the children things about solar power. I want to focus on teaching them things about radiation, reflection and absorption. If the children are interested I also want to involve them in building two new solar cookers in India. In this way I want to teach them how to make such a device. Whilst doing so they can teach me how to work my way around in India and they might even be able to help me gather materials.
| Dates | Tasks | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
| 18-04/ 24-04 | PR | | | | | Q1 | | |
| FS | | | | | | | | |
| MEET | | | Nienke | | | | | |
| 25-04/ 01-05 | PR | | | | | Q2,Q3 | Koningin-nedag | |
| FS | | | | | | | ||
| MEET | | | solar Kenia | | | | ||
| 02-05/ 08-05 | PR | | | | | Q4,Q5 | | |
| FS | | | | | | | | |
| MEET | | | Yonne | | | | | |
| 09-05/ 15-05 | PR | | | | | | | |
| FS | | | | | | | | |
| MEET | | | | | | | | |
| 16-05/ 22-05 | PR | | | Leaving for India | | | | |
| FS | | | | | | | ||
| MEET | | | Orphanage | | | | ||
| 23-05/ 29-05 | PR | | | | | | | |
| FS | | | | | Q1, Q2 | | | |
| MEET | | | | People on the street | | | | |
| 30-05/ 05-06 | PR | | | Q6, Q7 | | | | |
| FS | | | | | | | | |
| MEET | | | | | | | | |
| 06-06/ 12-06 | PR | | | Q8 | | | Fun weekend with the kids, create stuffed animals | |
| FS | | | | | Q4 | |||
| MEET | | | | | | |||
| 13-06/ 19-06 | PR | | | Q9 | | | | |
| FS | | | | | Q3.a | | | |
| MEET | | | | | | | | |
| 20-06/ 26-06 | PR | | | | | Report | | |
| FS | | | | | Q3.b,c,d | | | |
| MEET | | | | | | | | |
| 27-06/ 03-07 | PR | | | | | Report | | |
| FS | | | | | Q3.e | | | |
| MEET | | | | | | | | |
| 04-07/ 10-07 | PR | | | | | Report | Teach children about reflection, radiation and absorption | |
| FS | | | | | Report | |||
| MEET | | | | | | |||
| 11-07/ 17-07 | PR | | | | | | | |
| FS | | | | | | | | |
| MEET | | | | | | | | |
| 18-07/ 24-07 | PR | | | | | | | |
| FS | | | | | | | | |
| MEET | | | | | | | | |
| 25-07/ 31-07 | PR | | | | | | | Back to Holland |
| FS | | | | | | | ||
| MEET | | | | | | | ||
In my schedule you can find PR, FS and MEET which means Product Research, Feasibility Study an MEETings respectively. Then you see a few red marked date’s that represent special deadlines. For Konninginnedag which is a big deal in Holland, I am supposed to come up with a good idea to raise money. There is a big fair in Holland on this date and I want to come up with something for people to do on this day which will create an income for WIDE. The day I will leave for India means that I need to have answered all the questions I am supposed to answer in Holland. And the day my I go back to Holland means that I will need to have all the answers to my questions, after this date I can only work on my report.
I want to plan my days in such a way that I can spend time with the kids but also work on my project. In the morning I will help out with the kids, while during the day I will work on my project. I will need to go into the city for materials as well. I also want to take on a weekend to teach the kids how to create their own stuffed animal. (see the yellow block) The second yellow block says that I am going to teach the orphan children how heat transfers. I am going to involve the children as much as possible with the cooking and the building of the two new solar cookers. As I do not know the whole situation in India just yet, date’s might change which I will correct in my schedule, but for now this schedule goes.
I know that everything in India takes a lot longer than here in Holland. This is why I plan on doing everything but I need to keep in mind that I might not be able to do everything. This has mostly to do with the fact that I will also be helping the orphanage with everyday things and that I Wide is fine with me doing as much as I can as long as I can figure out if this project has any potential.
· Learn to set up and execute marketing research in practice, having limited resources.
· Learn how cross cultural bridges during the research, as a western student, while, on the other hand, preserving the achievement of the project goals.
· Learn to achieve project goals, operating in a country with a foreign language; Tamil.
· Learn to set up business relations in an entirely different culture.
· Learn to analyze which relevant information is needed to build a start-up abroad and gather this information in the specific context in an effective and efficient way, making smart use of local networks and other resources.
· Learn to analyze a product in such a way that I can reproduce it, and even improve it if necessary. Learning how a solar cooker works.
· Learning how to make a product with local materials, while being in a foreign country.
· Learn to raise money for an organization, get sponsorship.
The role of the entrepreneurship is mostly mentioned in the questions on the feasibility study. I would like to investigate the Indian market, and see if our orphanage bakery would be profitable. In essence I am going to create a little business in the WIDE orphanage; the solar steamed bakery. With this project I am also bringing the cost of the food and gas down, which is of great benefit to the orphanage.
Again you can find more about the role of technology in the feasibility study and also in the product research. I want to find out how the solar cooker works in essence, if I can improve it and if I can reproduce it in India. I am going to have to work with the technology in India to make this product and need to keep in mind that I will have to use local materials and things that they can replace if it breaks down. This means the cooker will have to be user friendly and easy to fix.
My primary goal is to give a definite yes or no to this project, giving an answer to the question; does WIDE need to continue working on this project? And if they do in which direction should they move? I also want to come up with a more user friendly and maybe even better working solar cooker, if this seems nessesary. But everyting goes slower in India, that is why I will at least deliver a report on how to continue with this project, with all the questions in my research proposal answered. Apart from that I hope to get sponsors for the WIDE organization. I will maintain a blog with which I hope to gain publicity for the organization.
An extra thing I want to do in India is to get the orphan children interested in solar cooking. I want to try and let some children help me build the solar cooker. In this way they get to learn about solar cooking and might even learn a few skills they can use for the rest of their lives. With this project and the solar cooker I also want to teach them things like reflection, absorption and radiation.
| Preparation | | | |
| Vaccinations, etc. | (tuberculosis, Malarone) | 100€ | 100€ |
| Visa | | 65€ | 65€ |
| Pharmacy on the road | First Aid | 15€ | 15€ |
| | Mosquito net | 30€ | 30€ |
| | Pills for on the road | 80€ | 80€ |
| | | | |
| Traveling costs and accommodation | | | |
| Flight costs | Brussels-Chennai | 510€ | 510€ |
| Accommodation | (3mnd.) | 3*300€ | 900€ |
| livelihood | (3mnd.) | 3*100€ | 300€ |
| Travel insurance | | 100€ | 100€ |
| | | | |
| Project costs | | | |
| Research costs | (print costs, books) | 100€ | 100€ |
| Material costs and transport costs of cooker | (solar cooker casing and lid, incl. glass window) | 450€ | 450€ |
| Cooking utensils and food for in the cooker | | 270€ | 270€ |
| Personal transport | ( Bus, train, bike hire) | 150€ | 150€ |
| Communication | Internet connection | 30€ | 30€ |
| | Internet costs(-3mnd.) | 3*10€ | 30€ |
| | Telephone connection (-3mnd.500min) | 3*500*0.02€ | 30€ |
| | | | |
| Closing costs | | | |
| End report | Final reports (hardcopy; mentors, sponsors) | 5*10€ | 50€ |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | Total | 3210€ |
I am going to pay half of this money myself and the rest will have to come from sponsoring.
