Hi, this is Mirajul, a promising young social entrepreneur based in Bangladesh committed to bringing positive changes to the lives of under-served segments of society through entrepreneurial novelty.
I was moved by the fact that around the world over 300 million children are walking around shoeless because they can not afford shoes due to high price. Every year over 1 million of those children die from preventable
diseases caused by the lack of proper shoes.
I have therefore developed a business solution that addresses shoelessness for children in an innovative and cost-effective way which can save lives, increase family income and improve the environment. I launched “Aashar
Phool” a social venture in 2011 that will produce 45 cent shoes from water hyacinth, an aquatic plant found abundantly in the waters of Bangladesh.
By 2020 my venture will:
• Save 2.5 million children’s lives
• Reduce shoelessness by 10%
• Save disease cost of around 2 billion USD
My venture was much appreciated in some of the most celebrated social entrepreneurship competitions such as GSEC-2012 organized by Foster School of Business, University of Washington, GSVC-2012 organized by Haas School
of Business, University of California- Berkeley and Rice Business Plan Competition-2012 by Rice University.
Though I possess an undergrad degree from the best business school of my country, I still feel the need of getting trained abroad by some of the best experts of the field to widen my domain of knowledge, sharpen my
skills and learn the best practices of the field.
I realize a program as comprehensive as Summer Social Innovation Lab will enhance my capability to run my venture in a more efficient manner and help me serve the underprivileged segment of the society in a more robust
way.
Unfortunately, at this moment as I have invested almost all my life-savings in my venture, I am in kind of personal financial crisis and therefore do not have sufficient money right now to cover the 2 way airfare (almost
$2000) from Dhaka to Boston despite being accepted with full-scholarship in this year’s Summer Social Innovation Lab.
Your small contribution may help me fund my trip to Boston and thus enable me attend the Lab with other 19 promising entrepreneurs from around the world. Supporting me in this way, you can
ultimately help those poor shoeless kids in third world countries in the long run.
