PROXIMITY DESIGNS - Empathy-Driven Solutions for Rural Rice Farmers in Myanmar (Burma)

“We wanted to treat people as customers, not as aid beneficiaries. It’s about giving people choice and therefore dignity. We don’t decide what people need, they tell us through the marketplace whether our products are valuable.” Debbie Aung Din, Co-Founder Proximity Designs Until two years ago, Myanmar was very isolated with no access to things that most farmers around the world had, such as credit, proper equipment and roads to get goods to market. In this Skoll Foundation visit to Myanmar, Proximity Designs co-founders Jim Taylor and Debbie Aung Din show how their organization has helped cause a 15 percent increase in rice yield. Before Proximity Designs, farmers spent up to eight hours a day carrying buckets of water to irrigate their fields. Now, with a low-cost pump operated by feet, they can water their crops in two hours, and make up to triple their previous income. Watch and get a glimpse of the Proximity pumps in action; see farmers getting hands-on training, and finally, meet a farmer who can’t stop smiling as he shows off his new tractor. It’s a tractor he can afford because of Proximity’s products and services, and he’s proud. Smallholder farmers are often trapped in a life of subsistence, weathering crop failure and other setbacks on their own. Neither government nor foreign donors provide information, skills and tools. Private companies overlook smallholders and rely on large producers to supply their customers. Jim and Debbie Aung Din Taylor met as 20-year-old community activists working to fight poverty in the Mississippi Delta, where they learned that before anyone can help people, they must live with them, and truly understand them. They took this philosophy with them when they moved to Burma in 2004 to found an organization they could scale up quickly to help the 4 million rice farmers struggling to lift themselves out of subsistence and poverty. That organization, which became Proximity Designs, designs and delivers products, services, and policy solutions to increase productivity and improve incomes. Its $13 plastic water pump, the “baby elephant,” doesn’t just replace sprinkler cans or provide an affordable alternative to metal pumps, it increases yields and enhances food security even in a debilitating political environment. PD designs and sells affordable foot pumps, drip irrigation sets, and water storage containers; offers financing services for those unable to afford upfront costs of products or seeds, and provides advisory services focused on helping farmers improve productivity, incomes, and resilience. http://www.proximitydesigns.org/ The Skoll Foundation drives large-scale change by investing in, connecting, and celebrating social entrepreneurs and other innovators dedicated to solving the world's most pressing problems. http://www.skollfoundation.org/ Video Credits: Director/Cinematographer Gabriel Diamond Editor Quinn Costello Additional Footage Proximity Designs Executive Producers Phil Collis Richard Fahey Suzana Grego Associate Producer Raymond Guthrie For information on obtaining permission to use these films, email info@skollfoundation.org or call 650-331-1031.