19/02/2024
Founding Story;
Over the last few months, Richard Tugume Tulyahikayo, an impact investment consultant based in Uganda, and managing an Impact investment consulting firm that works with foreign funds that deploy impact investment financing in the greater East, Central and Southern Africa region, had been mulling over the idea of how the evidently increasing hopelessness and desperacy amongst the poor segments of the Ugandan population in particular and the global population in general, could be stopped and even reversed, in a manner that was simple, scalable, easily replicable and yet sustainable. He also thought about how this could be achieved by leveraging the use of the abundant resources owned by the well to do, in a manner that would not involve any need for them to sacrifice the quality or their lifestyle.
The entire jig saw puzzle came together for him on Friday 16th Feb 2024 while driving to his farm in Kyankwanzi district, NW of Central Uganda, and the next day, Saturday 17th Feb 2024, he pitched the idea to his family- wife Jackie Davis, sons Tevin and Tierney and daughter Tiffany, for brainstorming and validation. The idea was unanimously approved and we agreed to have it start right away by sorting the clutter from own home and clearing out one of our stores to work as our first clutter collection centre.
Richard chose the name “Clutter for Dignity” for the Not for profit organization that will operationalize this concept, based on his argument that from his more than 15 years working in impact investment, he’d realized up close that the biggest loss caused by poverty to its victims, was the loss of human dignity, where the poor becomes outcasts whose opinions on any subject don’t matter and who are unable to meaningfully engage in anything of importance in their communities. We intend to use clutter to restore the dignity of the poor.
Problem Statement
According to the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index report of July 2023, released by UNDP and Oxford University, 1.1 billion out of 6.1 billion people (just over 18%) live in acute multidimensional poverty across 110 countries. Sub-Saharan Africa (534 million) and South Asia (389 million) are home to approximately five out of every six poor people- https://reliefweb.int/report/world/global-multidimensional-poverty-index-2023-unstacking-global-poverty-data-high-impact-action
Multidimensional poverty stricken persons are those that can’t afford basic needs like food, accommodation and shelter, let alone the second tier needs like health care, education and transport.
This has led to a significant segment of the human population living in a state of hopelessness, desperacy and unhappiness (HDU), akin to patients in a high dependency unit, where they can’t survive using their own natural organs but need artificial support to do so. These are persons who have failed to succeed financially, in the current world economic order that is largely capitalistic with a focus on maximizing profits at all costs.
The inherent risk of such a significant number of persons (more than 1 in 6) being in acute multidimensional poverty, is that because they have no stake in whatever good there is for the well to do, their hopelessness, desperacy and unhappiness could drive them to commit acts (crime, riots, etc) that could threaten the sustainability of the life of the well to do. This state of affairs is arguably the biggest threat to the world’s social, political and economic stability.
Solution;
Philosophical anchoring;
One of the most effective solutions to breaking out of poverty, under a capitalism economic order, at scale is for the poor to get a formal education which allows them to qualify for better quality employment opportunities, to start and better manage their businesses, to use the internet to learn new ideas from all over the world and also use their literacy to communicate and relate with a wider base of persons outside of their limited localities.
This formal education, would be further fortified with long term mentoring of the beneficiaries in soft skills, values and ethics that would make them even more competitive in a crowded field, especially given the fact that they would be coming from a disadvantaged background.
An item or asset that is owned by someone but is of no use to them can be very useful to someone else who needs a piece of food in their empty belly, a cloth on their back, a shoe to cover their foot, a roof over their head, an education, health care, etc. There is an opportunity for the well to do to improve the livelihoods of the world's most disadvantaged people, to live a more hopeful, happier, more useful and more meaningful life, significantly reducing the increasing hopelessness, desperacy and unhappiness in a huge segment of the population. This would be done in a manner that would cost nothing for the well to do, by simply getting rid of their household and office clutter (items they still own but no longer use) like shoes, clothes, beddings, electronic appliances, utensils, jewelry, furniture and books which are taking up valuable space in their homes and offices, and yet could be used to get funds that can improve the lives of very many under privileged persons.
C4D’s financing model is a unique and sustainable one where the well to do donate their home and office clutter to "Clutter for Dignity" (the Not for profit company operationalizing this concept) where C4D picks it up from homes and offices of donors, cashes them in flea markets organised periodically, and uses the funds to support the disadvantaged persons to cater for their children’s school fees and mentoring services.
Clutter collected will be sorted, graded and sold at competitive prices (lower than prevailing retail market prices) because they would have been received at zero cost and C4D would be looking to converting them into cash at the fastest rate which would allow for creating more space for more clutter, at the collection centres, and also allow for supporting more beneficiaries in a shorter time.
The beneficiaries will be profiled, tracked and reported on, in a fully transparent manner for all stakeholders to be kept abreast of the progress of the organisation’s activities.
We innovated to use clutter because most charity organisations raise philanthropic funds in cash from individuals and organisations which is ultimately not sustainable because they get fatigued and cash contributions involve the donors having to sacrifice a real benefit for themselves, to help others- which makes it a difficult proposition. Clutter on the hand is value tied up in items that are no longer of use to persons who own them, which makes them giving them away, especially for a noble cause, an easy proposition. Clutter also has a wide collection base from well to do persons and re-accumulates over time, making it a sustainable source of funding for this endeavour.
Target Area & Beneficiaries
The long term plan is for C4D to operate on a global scale, but because a journey of a thousand miles starts with one step, pilot operations for clutter collection will start from Kampala (Uganda) and the beneficiaries activities will start from Kyankwanzi district, in the North Western part of Central Uganda, in East Africa, where our personal efforts to help poor families with school fees support have been invested before, and once resources increase, the activities will spread out to other parts of the country.
Growth Plans;
Once the country blue print is perfected, C4D will then start opening new country branches in Africa and other continents like Europe, Asia and the Americas in order to spread the clutter collection and beneficiaries base. It is envisaged that C4D branches in the developed countries could be used to collect and cash the clutter, which cash could then be deployed by C4D branches in the developing world to widen the base of sustainable economic opportunities, mainly through provision of formal education to those who can’t afford it.
Goal
To build a more inclusive global society where the currently poor live a more meaningful life - more hopeful and happier.
Outcomes
(a) Creation of a new value chain, complete with inputs, activities, jobs and beneficiaries, from items that currently exist but are not in use and circulation.
(b) Creation of a new segment of formally educated persons who would never had gotten a chance to do so, and further improve them with consistent and well-designed mentoring in values, ethics and soft skills.
(c) Reduced segment of the global population stricken by acute multidimensional poverty and increased hopefulness and happiness.
(d) Reduced challenges and burden of illegal and legal economic immigration of poor persons from developing to developed nations.
(e) Increased global social, political and economic stability because of reduced hopelessness, desperacy and unhappiness
Monitoring & Evaluation;
KPIs for this concept include the following;
(a) Number of donors of clutter
(b) Value of clutter collected;
(c) Value of clutter sold
(d) Number of beneficiaries reached
(e) Value of support offered to beneficiaries
These KPIs will be measured and reported on a monthly basis
Ask;
1- We are requesting all persons interested in the concept to respond to our call for donation of their home/office clutter for this cause;
2- We are requesting for persons who have currently unused open space land in Kampala, to lend it to us for a few months, for use as a centre for collection, sorting and selling of clutter, which will be in addition to a small collection centre we have in Muyenga, Kampala.
3- We are requesting for volunteers to help us in various aspects of the organisation’s activities that include; spreading the word to potential clutter donors, sorting, grading, cleaning and selling of clutter, mapping out the expansion plan and ex*****on of entry to new areas.
Founder Team;
Richard T. Tugume- Board Chairman and CEO
Jacqueline Davis Tugume- Public Relations Manager
Tevin T. Tugume- Operations Manager
