Fueled by their goal to help families around the world escape the poverty cycle, two young residents of Plant City have already enacted a plan to provide necessities for mothers and their children.
The students’ ability to add the positions of CSO and CEO to their resumes is just an added bonus.
Last semester, Bijen Patel, who was valedictorian at Plant City High School in 2012, heard about the Hult Prize, which is a competition for social entrepreneurship start-ups. He wanted to enter and began putting together a team.
“He wanted to work with me, since I’ve been in school with him since first grade, so we got together with some of our other friends from University of Tampa,” Trent Lott, also a 2012 graduate of PCHS, said.
The other two team members are Vignesh Parameswaran, a graduate student from Chennai, India, and Caio Amaral, an undergraduate student from São Paulo, Brazil. All of the men on the team are studying disciplines related to business.
Patel, Lott and the other team members started meeting regularly last fall to brainstorm ideas for their business.
They decided to produce hygiene kits containing diapers, sanitary pads and toilet bags. A $3 kit provides a month’s supply of these products. The kits are affordable for impoverished people living in the world’s urban slums because the products are made from bamboo. Bamboo is inexpensive because it regrows quickly and sustainably.
The hygiene products meet a need that people in the slums are able to immediately recognize. But many of these families do not spend what little money they have on educating their children, especially children younger than age 6.
“We know that they are so behind when they get to primary school that they can’t keep up, and they continue through the poverty cycle,” Lott said.
That is why BamBoost kits also include early childhood education materials. Some examples are: a flute, to increase cognitive abilities and develop listening skills; a ball-in-a-cup game, to promote concentration and motor skills; and a chalkboard, to develop writing instrument grip and creativity. All of the educational materials are also made of bamboo.
The team used their connections in Asia and Brazil to form partnerships with international manufacturers, distributors and sales representatives. They tested BamBoost in the slums of Rio de Janeiro, and the 30 families who purchased the initial kits reported that they loved the products.
The plan is to start with Brazil and India, and eventually expand to East Africa.
BamBoost won the Hult Prize competition at University of Tampa, beating out nine other teams. When the team moved on to the regional competition in Boston, they came in second, placing higher than teams from many Ivy League schools.
Only the first place winner in Boston continued to the finals, but the BamBoost team hasn’t given up hope. There is still a chance for them to advance as the “wild card” if their fundraising campaign on indiegogo.com is more successful than the other competitors’. Their fundraising deadline in May 8, 2015.
Even if they do not secure the wild card spot, Lott, Patel and the team expect to keep BamBoost running.
“Right now we’re trying our best to raise as much money as possible. If we do have a successful campaign … we can start operations and start helping families in Brazil,” Lott said.
JOIN IN
The BamBoost team is trying to fundraise as much support as possible by May 8 to make it to the next level of the Hult Prize competition. But they also ask for support on social media.
Donate: Indiegogo.com (search “BamBoost”)
Like and Share: Facebook.com/BamBoostLife
Follow and Retweet: @BamBoostEdu
Website: BamBoost.life