In a conversation recorded at the Aspen Design Summit in June 2006, IDE founder Paul Polak and Professor Jim Patell of the Stanford Design School's MBA program discuss the challenge issued to the Social Entrepreneurship design studios. Polak and Patell connected through Polak's work with IDE, and Patell's role with the "Design for Extreme Affordability" course at Stanford, where students are charged with using design to improve the quality of life for the poor.
They speak about the implications of designing to make a difference, how they challenged participants to design for more than 5% of the world's wealthiest population, and most importantly, how to make it fun.
Our Life is Much Better An IDE Success Story from Zambia
Before learning about IDE, Peter Chakanyuka, along with his wife and six children, farmed a ½ hectare plot of land. Depending upon rain for irrigation, his family could only grow maize and peanuts, with yields that were too small to sell.
After purchasing a treadle pump from a local IDE representative, the Chakanyuka family increased its irrigated land to more than two hectares in a single season...
I Am Not Worried About My Children's Future An IDE Success Story from Bangladesh
“Four years ago, I thought poverty was my destiny, a chain that confined me, and was going to confine my family too,” says Nazrul Islam, whose family of five lived on less than a dollar a day prior to learning about IDE’s treadle pump program in Bangladesh...
A Good Job and a Secure Future An IDE Success Story from Vietnam
Years of war have left Phu Da commune with vast areas of sandy, infertile land pockmarked with bomb craters. IDE’s affordable hand pumps enabled farmers in Phu Da to grow better quality, high value crops even during the dry season. But, thanks to IDE’s entrepreneurial approach, it’s not just the farmers who benefit.
