Enable Buddy

Around one billion people around the world are living with a disability. Out of which almost 200 million live in Pakistan. These numbers also have a parallel network of care givers and support system that provide help in many ways. This network is mostly family members, friends or hired support but mostly family. Much of the support given goes unrecognised and affects many areas of life for everyone involved. There is no acknowledgement of service and or training programs to help understand the needs of people with disabilities and process just goes on without any special attention. The absence of a caregiver can also result in a disabled person´s life being completely dependent and disconnected from the society. Availability on the other hand can make a person with disability more Independent and integrate in the society in a social and economic way. 

The solution sees the problem as an opportunity and matches this high number of population with the student and young professionals community in Pakistan that are seeking work experience, community knowledge and some extra income. The idea is to follow an Uber model to connect people with disabilities with students who can receive requests like pick and drop, running and errand, attending an event, traveling etc and get paid either in money or in points from the disabled person. The money is great but enough points can give the Enable Buddy a certificate from us that recognises them as someone with deep understanding of inclusion and can be used to apply for future opportunities. 

The person with disability on the other hand can now pursue a lifestyle that can lead to economic and social freedom and they do not have to rely on family members to be their caregivers. The person with disability can either pay or give points to their enable buddy depending on their own economic situation. If they are employed, the company can also addon to this. 

The target audience are people with disabilities living Pakistan. Regardless of the financial situation, people with disabilities do need some extra care and have needs that are beyond their own control that needs to be catered to build a society that is equal. Our solution provides support for the community living with a disability to fulfill their care needing needs so they can easily pursue a social life, apply for a job, attend classes and more. The solution also builds capacity of our Youth to learn about caregiving and become inclusive leaders for future. In result of our solution being applied widely across Pakistan, we do foresee a large population being integrated in the society and be visually present in many areas of life. This would also lead to infrastructure, institutions, government, media and businesses to become more inclusive to cater to people with disabilities because now they are able to pursue opportunities with the help of their enable buddies. 

As a founder and a person with disability myself and also a female living in Pakistan, there were many instances where I wanted to get temporary help for a particular task and hoped for a solution like this one. Then when Uber came along, I thought why not have a similar service but for care giving? This was also reconfirmed by a friend, Maria who is visually impaired who would often ask me if I know someone who could give her pick and drop for job interviews. Then we formed a team of 9 women with disabilities to help each other through contacts informally. The budding has been happening for a while but now we have formed a prototype that will digitize the entire model and make it easier for anyone to get help even outside our network.

Solve has proven that the platform shows great commitment to under represented communities and populations who do need new solutions. We are applying in hope to get good mentorship and ideas to ensure our solution not just helps us but such a large population around the world. 

The solution is a starting point to solving many other problems especially around disability and inclusion. To begin with we need more solutions coming from the disabled population and for the disabled population. Then the solution is connected with a bigger population and called for a bigger opportunity of integration. Our solution is innovative because it solves our most basic issue of operating as a normal person before pursuing opportunities. Its the most basic of the basics. But it would be dignified for people with disabilities to know that through enable buddy they are also creating opportunities for other people and not just receiving help as a form of charity. This enhances their self esteem and removes the stigma of burden.

For this and next year we are hoping to launch the prototype and in the next five years we are developing partnerships with all institutions in Pakistan to integrate enable buddy as part of their graduation process for students. 

We will measure our success through number of sign ups from people with disabilities and those who want to become buddies along with qualitative measurement of meaningful partnerships and the results of the caregiving provided through enable buddy. 

Giving a person with disability right to live a dignified, independent life free of stigma will enable them to eventually become a contributing strong members of society which will enable inclusion on all levels ensuring harmony for all. 

We aimed for a web based solution rather than an App keeping in mind the feedback we got from most people with disabilities in Pakistan.

As a founder with disability myself who has worked on many solutions like girlythings.pk and A Town. Ensuring diversity and inclusion is a must for any good initiative. Along with that our team comprises of 9 females with disabilities that give their input in from time to time.

Our Business model is commission based on every transaction, partnerships with institutions, advertising on our platform and consultancy. 

We do hope to become financially stable once the platform has become popular in Pakistan and then we are able to share the technology in other countries too. 

Its been a great journey in terms of getting recognised for other projects that we have done. But so far for Enable buddy we Solve is the first platform we are applying to and hoping that this would be start of an amazing journey and success examples of inclusive practices.