Airborne Aid: zero cost, zero waste, big impact.

We're sharing health and humanity and minimising waste across the globe.

How? First, we divert useable medical surplus from incineration and dumping (healthcare systems can be very wasteful). Second, we send healthcare facilities in need across the globe the specific medical supplies and equipment that they currently need (not 'dead aid' that just ends up wasted). Third, we utilise the excess baggage space of travellers, otherwise wasted (who uses 30 kilograms anyway?).

Here's the kicker: our aid donation packages are provided to our aid transporters and to receiving healthcare facilities free of charge.

That means zero cost, zero waste, big impact.

In 5 years of operating, we have delivered over 1436kg and $311,133 of tailored medical aid to 36 countries.

Scaling this solution would mean improved access to healthcare, improved quality of healthcare, and improved health and wellbeing for millions of people across the globe.

In certain parts of the world, healthcare is compromised by a lack of adequate resources.

Elsewhere, large quantities of usable medical supplies are regularly discarded by healthcare facilities.

The reasons for this waste are complex, boiling down to poor resource management at all levels.

We hope to work ourselves out of a job, finding that adequate healthcare exists across the globe, and that usable medical supplies are never wasted.

This major change can happen at a policy level.

However, currently, millions of people all over the world suffer from illnesses and diseases, and their healthcare systems cannot provide them with adequate care without the supplies and equipment required. Their life expectancies are 47 years lower than ours.

Medical aid is not tailored to the needs of receiving healthcare facilities, often leading to waste, or 'dead aid', that does not solve the problem. This includes inappropriate medications (e.g. high-grade antibiotics where penicillin is best practice), supplies that are incompatible with pre-existing equipment (e.g. ECG electrodes that cannot connect to the leads/machines, syringes that cannot connect to the needle type), and supplies that are not suitable in the receiving location (e.g. advanced ventilator equipment in areas without access to consistent power).

Co-design with beneficiaries is a principle built into the fabric of Airborne Aid, as we seek to counter the 'dead aid' phenomenon, which ultimately exports waste to other countries. Instead, we liaise directly with the receiving healthcare facility to design a medical aid donation package according to their specific and current needs. In this way, we are an innovative and impactful complement to existing major aid distribution systems.

In addition, we deliver aid packages directly, and without any middlemen, for free, to healthcare facilities of all sizes, located in urban, rural, and inaccessible areas. By giving directly, we empower local healthcare professionals and support local healthcare systems.

Finally, we have developed partnerships and relationships with organisations including Work the World and Doctours. The professionals and students we provide medical aid donation packages for through these partnerships have a high level of penetration in healthcare systems across the world. This direct contact with these healthcare systems provides us with a valuable feedback loop, which helps us to improve our work and services.

There are six steps in the aid transporter process: Register, Design, Receive, Repack, Deliver, and Report. First, a person travelling abroad or to an indigenous community in Australia completes a Typeform on our website to register their interest in transporting aid, including the amount they are interested in transporting, and the name and contact details of their receiving healthcare facility. If they have not chosen a receiving healthcare facility, we reach out to our network of organisations at the traveller's destination, and select a receiving healthcare facility.

Next, we liaise with the receiving healthcare facility to design their aid donation package. We provide a stock list, and the receiving healthcare facility advises us which items them would like donated. We also ask the receiving healthcare facility which other items they are in need of.

Once the aid package has been designed, it is allocated to the Airborne Aid chapter serving the aid transporter's departure location. The package is prepared from our store of donated supplies, and requested items are sourced. Transfer of the package and documentation to the aid transporter is then arranged.

The aid transporter repacks their package in their luggage, and delivers their package and documentation to the receiving healthcare facility at their destination. Both the aid transporter and the receiving healthcare facility complete the proof of delivery and receipt document, and the aid transporter takes photos to document the transfer.

When the aid transporter returns from their trip, they receive an automated reminder email to report back, and they upload their document and photos through a Typeform on our website.

A typical package might weigh anywhere between 2 and 20kgs, and might contain gloves, surgical instruments, syringes, needles, surgical gowns, bandages, gauze, tourniquets, sharps containers, cannulas, dressings, masks, tape, sterile drapes, oxygen masks, sutures, cleaning agents, ECG electrodes, airway supports, sanitary pads, and more.

Delivering tailored medical aid in this way rejects the model of providing 'dead aid' to developing nations. It also diverts hundreds of kilograms of needless resource-heavy waste from landfill, and in this way contributes to the development of a sustainable, circular economy.

We use Typeform and Zapier to automate our information collection. Our database tracks every detail of every package that has been delivered from 2013 to present, including transporter details, package details, recipient details, and documentation. This data enables us to track our impact, and generate insights about our work.

Medical aid is often transported in large shipping containers, hired for the express purpose of transporting aid, and delivered by coal-powered ships. This method increases c02e emissions and incurs hefty transport costs. This aid is also not tailored to the needs of receiving healthcare facilities, which means well-intentioned medical aid is often reduced to exported waste. Finally, this aid is primarily provided to large, coastal hospitals within proximity of major shippings ports, which are often already among the most well-resourced healthcare providers in a given country. Ultimately, any of this aid that is useful can only reach people within proximity of and access to large, coastal hospitals.

Us? We utilise the excess baggage space, otherwise wasted, of those already travelling abroad (a carbon and humanitarian offset). We tailor aid packages to the specific and current needs of each receiving healthcare facility. We provide aid packages directly, and without any middlemen, for free, to healthcare facilities of all sizes, located in urban, rural, and inaccessible areas. That means our method costs nothing, wastes nothing, and has a big and direct impact on people, on healthcare systems, and on providers of all types and sizes. It also gives those privileged to travel the opportunity to be more than just a tourist.

See the difference? So do we.

The steps in our process are united by software and platforms including Typeform, Zapier, Mailchimp, Google Drive, Google Sheets, and Google Calendar.

When an aid transporter registers their interest in transporting aid, their information is automatically entered into our database from Typeform to Google Sheets via Zapier. The aid transporter's departure and return dates are also automatically picked up by Zapier and sent to Google Calendar, where they are used to automatically create an event with the aid transporter's details. Through Zapier, both the departure and return dates trigger emails to the aid transporter, reminding them of the requirements and details of their Deliver and Report steps respectively. When an aid transporter completes the Report step, the documentation and photos uploaded through Typefom are automatically labelled and added to their relevant folders on Google Drive via Zapier.

These photos, for which a release has been signed, are used on Facebook, Instagram, and in applications, proposals, and presentations to show the power and impact of our services and aid donation packages.

Our Google Sheets database is also set up to autocalculate our impact statistics from our activities and outputs by year, by departure location, and by destination region. Our major metrics include number of aid packages delivered, kilograms of aid delivered, value of aid delivered, transport costs saved, waste diverted, and number of countries. We can easily retrieve any impact statistic; e.g. the percentage of kilograms of aid delivered to Central/South America in 2016 that departed from our South Australian chapter.

In 2015, Annabelle, a University of Adelaide medical student, delivered 5 kilograms of medical aid to a small hospital in Iloilo in The Philippines, where she was undertaking a placement. The medical aid donation package included paediatric breathing masks, to replace the ones the Filipino nurses had resourcefully fashioned for the children from cardboard. These masks were surplus stock donated by a private Australian hospital, and were otherwise destined for landfill. In the small hospital in Iloilo, the masks were washed and in use within 10 minutes, delivering vital care to ailing young children.

We have dozens of these stories, documenting the lives saved and changed by providing healthcare facilities with utterly essential medical supplies and equipment otherwise unavailable to them. In other words, our chief activity – providing tailored medical aid donation packages for free – leads to the desired output – tailored medical aid is delivered for free to destinations in need – and in turn to the desired outcomes – improved healthcare, reduced waste, and more responsible tourism.

It is very difficult to adequately quantify the number of people served by one receiving healthcare facility, and more difficult for dozens of facilities in 36+ countries. At this stage, we have no methodology to generate a number of people currently served.

Within one year, we hope to increase our outputs by 20% more than previously projected. We hope to increase our outputs year-on-year by 20%. If successful, in five years, our yearly output will be more than double our target output for this year, and our total output in the next five years will be more than double our total output in the last five years.

Our main goal is to achieve financial sustainability, so that we can continue our work and also grow. Our goals are also to launch additional Australian chapters, to launch international chapters, to secure our own dedicated warehouse/s and working spaces with full-time staff, and to expand partnerships, including with allied health schools and private medical organisations (e.g. medical indemnity companies, medical distribution companies).

A major barrier to financial sustainability is cultural; namely, the well-documented resistance to providing non-profits with funds for operations or overheads, versus direct program expenses. This barrier will exist in the next year, and we anticipate that it will exist in the next five years. This barrier is in direct conflict with our financial mode; our medical supplies are donated, as is our transport and delivery. Scaling our operations hinges on bringing resources into the central administrating unit that connects and manages the donated resources so that they can have the impact they do.

Financial sustainability is a flow-on goal; without it, our growth will be restricted, and our impact will likely reach a plateau within five years. Without achieving financial sustainability, we will likely be unable to launch international chapters, to secure dedicated warehouse/s and working spaces even in Australia, much less with full-time staff.

An additional barrier is the many misunderstandings in the general public about expenditure, procurement, inventory, and use of supplies and equipment in healthcare systems. This cultural barrier will exist for the next year, but we hope that it will diminish somewhat over the next five years as a consequence of ongoing societal conversations about waste, sustainability, and circular economies. As it stands, this barrier leads some people to misconstrue the nature and efficacy of our work - to them, why would medical supplies and equipment that their healthcare provider was going to throw away be suitable for medical use?

The cultural barrier to funding 'non-program' expenses is fortunately being challenged by many leading figures and organisations across the globe. For our part, we are committed to working and reworking our messaging and amplifying our presence, so that we may communicate clearly and effectively with a larger number of people. To this end, we are in the process of establishing a formal Board of experienced business and medical professionals, under whose guidance we will work to refine and improve our communications. 

We will also be significantly expanding our fundraising operations. We have launched a yearly Student Ambassador program, which will generate revenue from fundraising, and opportunities from the expanded network they provide. We will also apply for any grants that offer unrestricted or otherwise suitable funding.

In addition, we will seek unrestricted funds through sponsorships and partnerships. The extensive professional networks of our chief advisor and future Board radically increase the opportunities available to us in this area.

As the discussion and research around sustainability in healthcare increases, we plan to provide resources on our website, and to direct people to them through social media. We plan to prepare shareable fact sheets, infographics, and case studies to contribute to and augment this discussion. Importantly, we will also increase our storytelling, putting faces, names, and lives to the facts and figures. We also plan to work and rework our messaging around healthcare surplus and waste, under the guidance of a Board. 

Managerial team, including chapter heads: 5

Student Ambassadors: 24

Aid transporters: dependent on demand

Supply donors: dependent on supply

Accountants/business advisors: 2

Lawyers: 1

This solution requires trained, certified, experienced, and working healthcare professionals - who are typically very time-poor - to assess donated medical supplies and equipment. We have three chapter heads equipped with this highly-specialised medical training and experience, who are committed to and passionate about Airborne Aid. We are also connected to an extensive network of similarly qualified individuals, which we can tap into as we grow and open new chapters.

This solution also requires a managerial team with expertise in medicine, global health, and non-profit management. Our CEO and Co-Founder is a practicing medical doctor, soon to complete an additional Master's degree in International Public Health. Our COO has a Master's degree in Public and Nonprofit Management specialising in Social Impact, Innovation, and Investment from NYU, and uses her skills and experience in private, public, and non-profit sectors to build systems, increase contributions, and grow our operations. Our chief advisor is an esteemed medical doctor with decades of experience across the world, in developed and developing countries, in private and public sectors, and in policy. In addition, through her extensive professional network, we are identifying opportunities for growth in our profile and our operations, as well as many like-minded supporters.

We have partnered with Kennards Self-Storage, who have provided us with a storage unit and working space for our South Australian headquarter chapter, where over 60% if medical aid donation packages are prepared, through 2019. Through this partnership, we are able to expand our team of volunteers, extend service hours to our supply donors and our aid transporters, provide more aid donation packages, and have more impact than ever before.

We have partnered with global health organisation MSAP to provide Boosted packages, designed to provide receiving healthcare facilities with more major and/or specialised equipment that they are sorely lacking.

We have partnered with global health organisation TIME MAP to provide aid donation packages to as many of its members as possible each year, as they travel to undertake international placements as part of their education.

We have partnered with Tindall Gask Bentley lawyers for legal advice and support.

We have partnered with Westwoods BGA Accountants for financial advice and accounting support.

We are registered with Planet Ark's Business Recycling program, which advertises our services to businesses all over Australia, providing an additional stream of medical supply and equipment donations.

Our business model provides value at every step of our process: first, to supply donors, who are able to reduce their needless wasting and carry out their corporate social responsibility, all at no cost; second, to aid transporters, who are able to offset their c02e and experience having philanthropic impact on a global scale, again at no cost; third, to receiving healthcare facilities, who are able to provide improved and/or additional care, once again no cost; and fourth, to the populations served by these receiving healthcare facilities, whose lives are changed and/or saved through their healthcare provider's access to utterly essential medical supplies and equipment. 

At present, we rely on donations, grants, awards, in-kind support, pro bono services, and volunteers to provide our services and aid donation packages.

Fundraising: We will be significantly expanding our fundraising operations. We have launched a yearly Student Ambassador program, which will generate revenue from fundraising, and revenue opportunities from the expanded network they provide. We will also provide an automated 'suggested donation amount' to aid transporters, who are provided with their aid donation packages and our services free of charge.

Grants: We will apply for any grants that offer unrestricted or otherwise suitable funding. In several years' time, we hope to qualify and apply for an annual grant through DFAT.

Partnerships and sponsorships: We will seek unrestricted funds through sponsorships and partnerships. The extensive professional networks of our chief advisor and future Board radically increase the opportunities available to us in this area.

Social enterprise: We are also considering options including establishing a for-profit business to support our non-profit operations.

We are applying to Solve at this stage in our solution to benefit from the ideas and expertise of the Solve community. After 5 years of operations, we have solid proof of concept and are punching above our weight in impact. We recognise that we are now entering a new phase, and that this is going to mean change and new challenges. We need the guidance and input of others to get from where we are to where we want to be. 

Through this process, we hope to refine, rework, and improve our solution, to improve our messaging, and to reorient ourselves such that we can move forward and achieve financial sustainability, grow our operations, and increase our impact.

We would like to partner with airlines, to provide additional luggage space to aid transporters.

We would like to partner with travel agents and other travel services to promote our services and free aid donation packages.

We would like to partner with allied health schools, so that every allied health student travelling abroad or to an indigenous community on a placement delivers a tailored medical aid donation package.

We would like to partner with organisations that offer customers the option to allocate a donation to an organisation (e.g. Amazon Smile).

We would like to partner with medical supply and equipment manufacturers and distributers, to source additional supply and equipment donations.

We would use the GM Prize on Circular Economy to expand our services, which extend the lifetime of resource-heavy medical supplies and equipment by rescuing these complex products from needless wasting (landfill or incineration).

These medical supplies and equipment are evaluated by a trained, experienced, registered, and practicing healthcare professional, and those deemed safe for medical use are sorted and stored before being repackaged into tailored medical aid donation packages.