Product/Service Development

Pit latrines are ubiquitous in conflict zones and refugee camps where resources like water and land are scarce. This causes nearby water sources to get contaminated by the leachates from pit latrines. Our innovative breathable laminate-lined pit latrines will protect the groundwater from fecal contamination without compromising safe excreta disposal. They will also provide an alternate sanitation solution to fully-sealed cess pits in high water table areas.

Eight years into the Syrian Civil War, the mental health needs of children (ages 5-18) across Syria are immense. There is a veritable shortage of available mental health professionals to address these needs, leaving children without access to care. Leveraging community-based resources by training and supervising Syrian women to deliver needed mental healthcare would increase access to care amongst vulnerable children.

Current humanitarian needs assessment approaches often require interviewers to convert complex responses into simplified quantitative data. More nuanced insights require the use of qualitative methods, but language barriers and lack of resources make proper transcription and translation almost impossible in conflict settings. As a result, operational decisions frequently fail to consider nuanced information about the specific needs and views of affected people - especially the most vulnerable.

Models of infectious disease outbreaks are essential to optimize health crisis response, especially in complex environments. It informs pharmaceutical distribution, immunization campaigns, medical care deployment, security provisions, and more. While data-driven approaches are standard they remain largely reactive, focusing on what happened and not taking advantage of newer, algorithmic methods that enable responders to instead ask what could happen and do so safely, cheaply, and effectively.

Yearly, 1.3 billion dollars of humanitarian aid funding is wasted due to outdated supply management practices in refugee camps (Van der Laan, 2016). As a result, an estimated 1,880,000 children, women and men per year cannot be provided with essential humanitarian supplies to keep them safe and in good health. Empirical evidence shows that this enormous human toll can be avoided through implementing better demand forecasting techniques within refugee/IDP camps.

A decade-long militant insurgency; many military operations in the northwest and natural disasters have displaced 5.3 millions of people from their homes in Pakistan. Mass exodus due to conflicts and insecurity have made it impossible for the displaced persons to attain basic health care. While on the other hand; 77% of the female doctors discontinue medical practice once they get married. Hence, health services, though available in the area, are already overstretched before the IDPs’ arrival.

The traditional approaches of delivering legal aid services to target groups are mainly based on human resources and interaction. Hence, they are limited by time, resources available, access constraints and geography while the legal needs of the target groups vastly outstrip the supply of services. Moreover, traditional non-digital case management approaches limit beneficiary access to case accurate real-time updates on progress and do not allow capable beneficiaries to self-serve their case.

Many children living in conflict areas suffer from stunting and malnutrition. Manual measurement to determine malnutrition has been the standard for decades but known challenges like cumbersome equipment, uncooperative children, and inaccuracy persist. Measurements are often not transferred from paper to digital records or they are incomplete. Without better data, scarce resources will be sub-optimally applied and individuals risk missing out on life-altering, early treatment.

The core issue we target is the unbearable working conditions of healthcare workers (HCW) fighting Ebola in the conflict affected areas of North Kivu and Ituri in DRC. These working conditions, due to inappropriate, disposable personal protective equipment (PPE) cause overheating and dehydration of HCW, self-contamination when removing the PPE, and logistical constraints. The limited face visibility makes HCW frightening, hampering an empathic relationship and trust with the patient/communities.

Our project addresses the lack of clean, affordable and sustainable energy sources for the over 2 million people in refugee settlements and host communities in Uganda, while increasing refugee and host households incomes by 940 CAD annually and reducing the need of subsidies by the UNHCR. Low income and lack of clean and affordable energy sources disproportionately affect women and children, who form up to 87% of refugees, while deforestation from firewood affects host communities.