Bridge financial gap between the poor and well resourced.
The project solves the problem of inadequate shelters addressing historical injustice and bringing material benefits to the parties involved. Many people are affected that are working but living in applauding houses in informal settlements.
Over 270 000 domestic workers in Cape town alone are affected. Some working in factories living from hand to mouth not affording to improve their own living conditions. Ikhaya Lekhaya bridge's this financial gap and enables the resourced entities or people to assist and improve the quality of the lives of many.
Ikhaya Lekhaya is a co-financing shelter upgrading model that enables employers to directly assist their employees. Bridging the financial gap between poorer households and well resourced entities or individual's.
Most informal settlements are affected by fire and floods. Ikhaya Lekhaya has a prototype that is fire and flood resistant and this structure solves the problem of frequent fires and floods. The klip and locking of the material solves the security issue in informal settlements. These material's are not affordable to those affected so Ikhaya Lekhaya has a model that bridge's the financial gap and enables the well resourced people to assist the poor households.
These individuals or entities co- finance Ikhayalami's Fire and flood retardant shelter's following a needs assessment of the employee's living conditions. This structure solves the problem of frequent fires and floods. The klip and locking of the material solves the security issue in informal settlements. This prototype has been made reachable to those that really need it.
We have a well established team that has an ability to connect the sort of sponsors to beneficiaries. been working in informal settlements for the past 4 years and have acquired enough information to understand the needs of the people that live in the communities that we work.
We work together with community leaders within the settlements we work in. We do an assessment that helps us taler make a solution for each family.
- Provide new ways to accurately assess credit-worthiness of MSMEs and individuals, including methods that reduce bias against borrowers who have traditionally lacked equitable access to credit
- South Africa
- Pilot: An organization testing a product, service, or business model with a small number of users
42 families
Ikhaya Lekhaya Project solves the problem of access to financial institutions by the poor, giving them an opportunity to improve their living conditions and improve the environment in which they live in. Our well connected employees help bridge the financial gap between the poor and well resourced people.
- Financial (e.g. accounting practices, pitching to investors)
- Public Relations (e.g. branding/marketing strategy, social and global media)
- Technology (e.g. software or hardware, web development/design)
The initiative has potential to change the landscape and not only in terms of money but also in terms of bringing the gap between the rich and the poor. This changes the environment and deal's with the current severe weather conditions, it's scalable spending little money and is able to reach many people.
We hope to reach out to over 600 families in the next 2 years and potentially 1500 in 5 years. Our bridging finance facility will attract investment from local and international foundation's and cooperates. We hope to create in the long term a rotating fund that would allow a institutional sustainability less dependent to the sponsors, as a rotating fund we will ensure a high level of repayment rate and manageable cost of lending.
We also aim to be national, coordinating with the state to provide infrastructure such as sewerage system and legal electrical connections.
- 3. Good Health and Well-being
- 6. Clean Water and Sanitation
- 9. Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
- 10. Reduced Inequalities
- 13. Climate Action
- 17. Partnerships for the Goals
We measure our progress by the number of partnerships we form and the number of families that benefit from the finance facility. The growth of the program based on good collections of the fund's from the beneficiary's and the number of shelter rebuilds done in a period.
Our theory of change is based on growth in equalities between the rich and the poor in our societies. For eg. more than 25% of people live in informal settlements with almost no infrastructure. Many of them have no possibilities of improving their living conditions due to the lack of access to financial facilities, furthermore these individuals are generally neglected even by the government.
The problem is not regional but global, so providing a solution to this challenge will not only solve a South African problem but an international problem especially to the communities specified above.
We have a prototype produced by Ikhayalami development services which is s fire and flood retardant upgraded shelter which is quick to build providing safety.
We have facilitated partnership's which have improved the living conditions for 42 families. The interest for further such partnerships is growing mostly initiated by the beneficiary's influenced by their neighbours who have benefited from the upgrade. We have seen a collection rate of 92%.
- A new business model or process that relies on technology to be successful
- Manufacturing Technology
- Materials Science
- South Africa
- South Africa
- Nonprofit
We understand our diversity as South Africans being black,white and coloured. We further more even understand the diversity of our cultures and our product cuts across this boundary as the need for the financial bridge is common across all. We have a mixture of culture even in our own organisation as we look at skills and not color or race. Even in the workplace we speak a language that can be heard by all, we don't encourage that anyone feels left out.
Providing a finance facility that aid's in the shelter upgrade to facilitate and bridge the gap between the poor and the rich. We want to make the facility sustainable by creating a rotating fund that is repayable with affordable interest.
In the long run we continually ensure improvement to the livelihoods of many and provide a solution that ensures resistance to severe weather conditions.
- Individual consumers or stakeholders (B2C)
In the short term the program will depend on investments through the employer employee funding model and also through the cooperate funding where the a funding pool can be created. Where the people who are not employed can also have access to the credit and improve their livelihood.
The beneficiary's receive support in the form of a loan and they pay it back with marginal interest. With the volumes which we intend to reach in the next few years we should be able to break even and receive some surplus to furthermore sustain the program and assist more beneficiary's in the long run.
We have received grants that have been invested into the 42 families that we have worked with and improved their livelihood. Almost all of them have managed to repay their loans with a low default rate.
We have received a total of $66549 grant funding and were able to issue 42 loans thus far. We have issued loans of $65333 and have been able to collect $30555 at the moment as the beneficiaries are given a term to pay back. All the capital collected is injected back to help more beneficiary's. The interest collected thus far is $6000.
The Grant money has been repayed with interest and has and will continue to finance further builds.