The project titled Using Innovative Products to fight against exclusion of marginalized groups, poverty and global pollution (SIT)? examines the personal perceptions and exclusion concerns of marginalized in Sierra Leone. Although there are policies meant to promote the inclusion of marginalized groups in Sierra Leone, the efforts are not well coordinated to enhance this happens at the fast and speedy rate. The broad topic of exclusion of marginalized persons from the development process has received attention from the government, but there are little innovations to address this problem. The project focuses on making use of its four focal areas eWaste, eTrees, eTech and eSkills to develop innovative products and services to address extreme poverty, exclusion and pollution. The project promotes business models that are sustainable and can grow fast with small funds.

The organization eWomen has already started an Innovative Trash Bin made from waste tyres. This invention won the 2019 Social Innovation Competition hosted in America by Impaction and Because International. Persons with disabilities played a key role in developing the prototype of that bin. The cutting and designing of the tyres were done by hearing-impaired young men with proficiency and accuracy. This project shall upscale this product towards addressing the littering problem in Makeni city. Many people with disabilities shall benefit directly or indirectly from this business. Some will gain employment through collecting waste tyres and others shall collect used bolts and nuts from scrap vehicles to assemble the tyres into bins. A lot more will be trained in cutting the tyres and designing the bins. The project also has educational activities which involved organizing education seminars about the bad effects of littering and the importance of the effective use of the bins.

The project shall also upscale the collection of plastic waste to produce plastic paving stones. The goal is to make Makeni City Zero Waste city as a pilot case. Mostly, women and persons with disability are very effective in convincing the public to help in the collection of recyclable waste and the project aims to give people generating such waste empty used bags to put their waste. When the bags are full, the organization shall send its staff to collect the filled bags. This is very effective.

Another innovative idea that we want to roll out is the making of unique and well-designed bead slippers. Knowing that persons with disability can sit for hours in one place and actively use their hands, bead slipper making will be an interesting art for them to engage in. This has been experimented with persons with disability who are polios. They will make enough bead slippers and the good thing is the slippers can be easily sold. Females buy these slippers on daily basis. There is a high market potential for this and hence, a guarantee for job creation for the marginalized.

The project has a tree planting component as another innovative business that creates opportunities for persons with disability. This has been piloted as a case encouraging people all over Sierra Leone and the world to donate trees that are planted for them, and a girl child is detailed to follow a donated tree for life. This idea proved to be very attractive. The project also aims to develop an app that people around the world will install on their smart mobile phones to order/donate trees to be planted in the green space. This experiment has already two students from the University of Unimak (UNIMAK) currently researching on the possible features of the app and they will be responsible for developing the app guided by the Chief Innovation Officer of eWomen.

The project will also build synergies on other ongoing initiatives implemented by the government, multilateral and bilateral aid agencies such as WHH, Councils, GIZ, US Mission etc. The project is an integral and combines different focal areas of GEF SGP including Climate Change, Land Degradation, Capacity Development, demonstration project and information networking.