Thunderbird D-Prize
The world has solutions to poverty. Can you distribute them to the people most in need?
Our society has invented many effective poverty solutions. Sadly, most of these fail to reach actual people in need. If we have already created solutions, why havent these solutions reached the needy?
The world needs entrepreneurs who can distribute proven poverty solutions in the developing world. Can you figure out a better way to distribute a solar lamp, or vaccine, or any other proven poverty solution to people in need?
Thunderbird D-Prize is a call to Thunderbird's daring entrepreneurs. Pitch your idea to solve one of the challenges below. If selected, we will award up to approximately $15,000 to pilot your new venture in Africa, India, or another other developing region this summer
Challenges
14 million unintended teen pregnancies occur annually in sub-Saharan Africa, and girls are 5x more likely to be infected with HIV. A one-hour “sugar daddy awareness” class is proven to reduce these risks by 28 percent. Can you teach “sugar daddy awareness” classes to 500,000 girls in the next two years?
600 million people in sub-Saharan Africa use kerosene lanterns to light their homes. Solar lamps are cheaper, cleaner, create cost savings, and increase household incomes by 30%. Can you design a plan to sell solar lights to 25,000 rural or slum-dwelling households in the next two years?
For $20, a child can be vaccinated against a range of infectious disease for life. Yet millions of vaccines are wasted. Can you create a simple management system that tracks vaccine supplies over one supply chain, with a plan to scale country-wide in two years?
You may also select any of the challenges currently listed on the D-Prize website.