KOYALA: an android app for rural India

<p>  </p> <p> <strong><u>The context: women micro-entrepreneurs recycling charcoal in rural India</u>   </strong><img alt="Inbarlogo" height="65" src="https://kkbb-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/project_image/image/64930/INBARlogo.jpg" width="126"></p> <p>  </p> <p> Thanks to the support of <strong>local NGOs</strong> and the <strong>International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (</strong><a href="http://www.inbar.int" target="_blank">INBAR</a><strong>)</strong>, rural women in <strong>Rajasthan, India</strong>, have created <strong>micro-enterprises</strong> to collect used charcoal produced as a waste by-product during the daily cooking with firewood/bamboo. Each household collects the charcoal over a week and this is sold by households from nearby villages to a collection centre which then processes it into briquettes as cooking fuel.</p> <p>  </p> <p>  </p> <p> <img alt="Pic1" src="https://kkbb-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/project_image/image/60703/pic1.png"></p> <p>  </p> <p> This new activity has raised a <strong>huge interest</strong> in the community, and the number of households coming to the collection centers to sell their used charcoal keeps growing. Currently there are already <strong>12 charcoal collection centers</strong> with about 800 women registered in each, so <strong>9600 women </strong>already impacted so far.  </p> <p>  </p> <p> <img alt="Fig" src="https://kkbb-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/project_image/image/61237/fig.png"></p> <p>  </p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong><u>The problem: poverty and low literacy level make it hard to manage efficiently a micro-business   </u></strong></p> <p>  </p> <p> This success is of course a great reward and motivation for the women micro-entrepreneurs, who all come from <strong>very poor families</strong> and have a <strong>low education level</strong>. On the other hand, they now face <strong>growing difficulties to manage their micro-businesses</strong> efficiently and lack a simple solution to register their users, keep track of their deposits, manage their bookkeeping, etc.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong><u>The solution: a customized Android app on a solar-powered tablet </u></strong></p> <p>  </p> <p> This project will provide Indian women micro-entrepreneurs<strong> a solar-powered Android tablet </strong>with a<strong> simple application called KOYALA</strong> (<em>charcoal</em> in Hindi), specially designed to help them manage their charcoal activities. As a volunteer Android developer (with extensive experience in developing countries, including in India), I will spend one week with them in the field in order to <strong>customize the application</strong> according to their needs, and to <strong>give them a training</strong> so they can learn how to use their new equipment. The tablets will be equiped with solar chargers since electricity is hardly available in the target rural area.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Besides its offline enterprise management functionalities, KOYALA will also allow the women to use occasional internet access to easily send updates to an <strong>online web platform</strong> where the public and funders from all over the world will be able to follow the progress in the field.  </p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong><u>Scope of the pilot project </u></strong></p> <p>  </p> <p> This initial pilot will focus on one collection area with <strong>3 collection points</strong> covering <strong>800 households</strong> in <strong>Sirohi district, Rajasthan</strong>. Each woman managing a collection point will be given a tablet with its solar battery, and the needed training. Another tablet will be lent temporarily to <strong>volunteer households</strong> in order to geolocate their villages and houses, take pictures or videos of their families and bamboo plantations, and thus improve the project mapping and online reporting. A fifth tablet will be used for development and testing purposes. </p> <p>  </p> <p> <img alt="Map" src="https://kkbb-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/project_image/image/60663/map.png"></p> <p>  </p> <p>  </p>