My grandfathers were professors and they used to teach me the value of work. They used to say that Work is not just a source of income, security and most of all work creates dignity. And creating good jobs is the ultimate joy.
As I went to study and work around the world, I started to realize what they meant. I met some very generous people in Delhi, Ahmedabad, London, Los Angeles, Dallas, Basel and Lausanne. And I am linked to most of them via the Linkedin network.
Then a static refused to go away - over 3,000,000,000 people on our planet live on $2.50 a day or less. Sometimes, the only skill our friends have is to produce handmade goods. However, most of the time, they do not get a fair deal for their efforts, hence the cycle of poverty persists.
After doing some more research realized that donating money to the poor is not always the best form of charity. As it does not always preserve or promote dignity. However, buying the handmade products at a fair price has the good chance of impacting poverty because the income comes over a period of time and families are able to plan education and save for healthcare and rainy days. But further research revealed that real handmade products make up a very low percentage of the total volume as they can prove to be expensive for the end customer.
So there was a gap in the market for companies that could shift large volume of handmade products without taxing the consumers with high price.
After many discussions with our good friends including great organizations like Vaud SELT and SEWA.ORG the concept of "Do Good & Get Goodies" took shape and majamba.me was conceptualized.
majamba.me is an incentive system for doing good - the more good you do (like supporting a start-up or helping someone promote a book, anything that is good for the society), the more credits you get. And with your credits you have 2 options:
- use the credits to reward others who help you (so here majamba is like a services exchange)
- get gifts (here majamba is a catalog of fair trade products)
We are now getting ready to launch on October 2nd and we are dedicating the next year to finding "majambassadors" - these are like-mided entrepreneurs from around the world who can promote majamba to their network or in their town or club or friends and get lots of majamba credits that they can use to seek help for their projects or get handmade gifts...and the virtuous cycle will grow.
Our videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/majambaME
Our full blog: http://majamba.blogspot.com/
Our alpha site: majamba.me
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