BARBARA'S IDEA: International tours that give travelers the opportunity to help set up robotics programs in under-served rural schools.
Our tours in rural South Africa and India are fully operational and ready for travelers. Now we're looking for marketing support to promote these trips to our target market for 2022.
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+ What is your name?
Barbara
+ Are you submitting as a team or as an individual?
Team submission
+ Where are you located?
The United States
+ In one sentence, tell us about your idea.
Setting up and executing a Robotics program in under-served rural schools, as part of an international tourism package.
+ Describe your ideal collaborative partner or partners.
True Places, along with my partners, Science in a Suitcase, have already completed 2 successful pilots; in South Africa we taught 120 kids, in 4 schools in the very remote school district in Western Cape...in 4 days. We also completed a program in remote Maharashtra, India. Our collaboration partners include National Instruments, Lego Foundation, and local sustainability partners in South Africa and India to ensure the program thrives after the tourism is over.
Layered within this tour is an environmental component. In South Africa, we partner with GreenPOP to help reforest areas of cities like Cape Town, as well as rural areas throughout South Africa.
+ What is the most immediate or most pressing challenge you're facing right now?
Our tours in rural South Africa and India are fully operational and ready for travelers. Now we're looking for marketing support to promote these trips to our target market for 2022.
+ What is it about your idea that makes you feel good?
I have seen this approach be a win for the kids (I wish you could see their faces when they build their first robot), a win for the local tourism resources (we get off the beaten track where they really need tourists), and a win for the traveler because of the positive impact on the community and by working side-by-side with local community members.
+ What makes your idea innovative? Why has no one ever done it before?
Getting all the pieces in place to create a sustainable, scaleable program that could be executed in 4 days was the challenge and took years to perfect. The partnership with Science in a Suitcase was the catalyst. They have the program knowledge (the founders are engineers that put the brains in the Lego Mindstorms that we use) and True Places has the travel expertise to execute a hybrid program of travel and giving back.
+ Who will benefit the most from your idea?
Rural students in under-served areas of any country.
+ Ideally, when would you launch this idea?
I've already launched my idea
+ Indicate which UN goals your idea relates to?
Quality Education
Decent Work and Economic Growth
Gender Equality
+ At Sigmund, we are interested in ideas at the intersection of People, Planet, and Profit. How does your idea relate to these three categories?
This 10-day to 2 week tour can immediately improve the lives of children, through the robotic program. Built into all True Places tours is a hands-on environmental component with a local partner to ensure that travelers are given the chance to get to know the environmental issues affecting that local area. In South Africa, for example, we have a reforestation overnight camping experience with GreenPop planned for the next robotics tour.
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