One of the very first things I learned about MicroConsignment before heading down to Guatemala as a Field Leader for Social Entrepreneur Corp’s summer program (http://socialentrepreneurcorps.com/jobs/) was that one of the reasons the president and co-founder of SEC, Greg Van Kirk, invented the MicroConsignment model, and founded our local partner, Soluciones Comunitarias as a business, was in order to offer dignified solutions in a dignified way to families in last-mile communities.
Just to make sure we are all on the same (blog) page, “dignified” means worthy of respect, and we are proud to call it our 6th #CoreValue.
Dignity is incorporated in two key aspects of our work:
- The WAY we offer solutions
- The TYPES of solutions we offer
Let me explain:
Firstly, Social Entrepreneur Corps partners with Soluciones Comunitarias (SolCom), a social business that is locally owned and operated to directly address one of the roots of poverty in the countries in which we work: lack of access/sustainable access to solutions. SolCom is in operation year-round, so SEC interns are coming into a real business facing real challenges. Interns are not doing one-off projects (building a house, building stoves). Their work is incorporated into a sustainable business model; our clients benefit from their suggestions during but also after interns leave. In addition, dignity is how we work: we treat our student interns as adult consultants-in-training. In turn, they are expected to treat our employees, partner organizations, and most importantly, our clients, with the same respect.
The second aspect to HOW we provide solutions, is that the solutions we offer to clients are first consigned to local, primarily female, entrepreneurs, and are sold, not donated. There are several layers of dignity incorporated here: We show our local entrepreneurs we believe them worthy of respect by trusting them with inventory that they don’t pay for until after making a sale, and we treat our clients with dignity by requiring that they pay for a service. This assumes that they understand the need for the service they are investing their hard-earned money in, and that they will value it and use it once they have bought it. Most importantly, it is not demeaning; It does not assume that these people are incapable of making decisions related to their family’s health and economy, nor does it assume that they are incapable of saving up for something that is really important to them.
Secondly, the types of solutions we offer are dignified. I remember reading examples of not-so-dignified solutions before I got to Guatemala, but this really hit home when I was in the office with a local regional coordinator one day when he brought out a pair of glasses with the most ridiculous, enormous round lenses I had ever seen. They weren’t the cool types of round lenses that people have taken to wearing in the U.S. these days, they were just big circles. Way too big circles.
I asked, “why would ANYONE BUY those!?”
“Oh, no” the regional coordinator explained “these are donated.”
A light went off. I was suddenly living inside one of those stories I had read about, about how, when solutions are donated, they aren’t required to be dignified. It’s a donation, so the person is expected to be so overwhelmed with gratitude that they won’t care when something is not a suitable solution to their problem. However, since we offer solutions in a dignified WAY, this requires that the solutions themselves be dignified. We have to keep our consumer in mind, and be responsive to their demands.
We have to sell glasses people actually want to pay money for, glasses that they will actually wear. They, along with all of our other solutions, have to pass the dignity test: “Would I wear these glasses”? “Would I display this water filter in my home”? Which means we have to offer pink glasses with butterflies on them, or kids won’t wear them. We have to offer lenses that are sleek, transition sunglasses, or people will forego resolving their problem in the name of fashion.
In this way, the way that we offer solutions is very much tied to the types of solutions we offer. Either both are dignified, or we fail. That’s why dignified is one of our core values.