MP3forLife

URIDU uses smart ideas to educate and empower illiterate rural women in developing countries. They are the key to eradicate poverty and hunger. And we do that with innovative technologies like solar-powered MP3 players, plug-in micro SD-Cards, mobile-friendly websites without data charges and crowd translation projects.

Empowering illiterate rural women is the key to eradicate poverty and hunger in developing countries.

They will invest their time and money in the future of their children and communities. But how can you efficiently provide vital knowledge to remote areas that have no electricity? We are tackling this challenge using solar-powered MP3 Players.

Our rugged players contain more than 400 relevant questions and answers about health, nutrition, family planning, child care, income generating activities and more. More than 10.000 volunteers worldwide are currently working to translate the contents into more than 100 languages.

We analyzed the major reasons why micro-entrepreneurship is failing. We found that depression is prevailing in many areas and subsequently analyzed the major factor leading to it. Based on this analysis we came up with a three step model of empowerment: (1) health information and prevention (2) life skills and resilience and (3) self-esteem and economical empowerment. 

See http://www.uridu.org/model_of_...

The goal of our solution is to empower (illiterate) rural women in developing countries. Our model of empowerment is designed to improve their health, their family situation and to empower them economically. Given the fact that 500 million women on this planet are illiterate we are deploying our contents using audio files. We are using our own solar-powered MP3 players and plug-in micro SD-Cards for other products. We are also using a mobile-friendly web page that we are deploying free of charge by being a partner of Facebook Free Basics.

Track visits to www.uridu.com - 1 million visits to our mobile friendly web site per month

Analyze number of distributed Players and impact by analyzing its usage - 1 million women empowered by our solar-powered MP3 players

Analyze sales numbers of the corresponding products. - 10 million women reached through integration of micro SD-cards in other solar-powered products.

The core of our project is the distribution of knowledge using audio contents (MP3) to illiterate rural women. Today we are doing this using solar-powered MP3 players,micro-SD cards and accessible web sites. But we are structuring our contents in a way that will make it usable using technologies like natural language processing in the future. This will enable us to build chat bots and digital assistants for illiterate rural women in developing countries in the near future.

Most of our contents are based on 30 years of field work and expertise. The process of implementing our solution locally involves local NGOs that help adapt the contents to the needs of local rural women. Our approach is flexible: our technology can be used to create additional contents locally and update them in the field using a specially designed update device. We encourage local NGOs to add specific contents that support their local projects.

Each solar-powered MP3 player can be used by a group of up to 12 women. They are either sponsored by us (in limited way) or purchased by local NGOs. The plug-in micro SD-Cards are included in the purchase price of the corresponding solar-products (solar-panel with lamps and MP3/radio devices). The access to the mobile-friendly web site is free of charge in most countries  thanks to our partnership with Facebook Free Basics.

Being a registered non-profit social enterprise we will sustain ourselves financially through donations, crowdfunding, Corporate Social Responsibility sponsors, grants and subsidies. In the long term we are planning to use our brand to sell products manufactured by the rural women involved in some of our projects.

There are really not many: financial constraints, lack of partners - oh, and sudden death of the founders ...

http://www.uridu.org

https://www.facebook.com/uridu.org/

https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/15190967/

We are looking for partners and open minds that help us scale and further develop our solution. We have a good product and a solid strategy that needs to be implemented and scaled. And we have a long-term strategy that includes the use of natural language processing and other technologies to deliver our contents to rural women in future applications. 

Local NGOs we work with to distribute the solar-powered MP3 players. And distribution channels for products that we can use to integrate our audio contents (like other solar-powered products).

As far as we can see, we do not have any direct competitors in our field.