I M P R O V I N G T H E H E A LT H A N D I N C O M E O F

IMPOVERISHED RUR AL FA MILIES THR OUGH

KNOWLEDGE

Literacy Bridge - GSBI™ Class of 2010

Headquarters: Seattle, WA, Problem Statement:

United States
For hundreds of millions of rural people, learning new health
Established: 2007 practices and agriculture techniques can drastically reduce poverty,
malnutrition, and child mortality. But vital knowledge like this is
Impact Areas: Ghana, Expanding not reaching them due to illiteracy (774 million adults) and lack of
to Nigeria in 2011
electricity (1.5 billion people). Outreach to remote villages is costly
Type: Non-Profit/NGO and ineffective; people often forget what they’ve heard when it
finally comes time to apply it—particularly when illiteracy prevents
Sectors: Economic Development, them from taking notes.
Information & Communications
Technology (ICT) No Intervention Intervention
Staff Size: 4 and 240 volunteers
Annual Budget: $130,000
Major Funders: Amazon.com,
Yahoo Employee Foundation, Seattle
International Foundation
Awards: 2009 UN Global Alliance
for ICT and Development, 2010
International Conference on ICT and
Development

Theory of Change:
Local experts understand the prob-
lems, context, and practical solutions
for the regions in which they work;
they also speak the local languages.
Literacy Bridge allows them to
record and distribute their health and
agriculture knowledge to allow easy,
on-demand access by people with
no formal education or exposure to
technology. This leads to learning
and behavior change that saves lives
and raises income.
Solution:
Literacy Bridge improves the health and income of impoverished
rural families by providing easy, on-demand access to locally
relevant knowledge. We accomplish this today using our “Talking
Book”—a low-cost audio device designed for the learning needs
of oral cultures. This allows local expertise to reach more people,
more effectively, so they can learn and adopt practices to fight
poverty and disease. When provided with such on-demand infor-
mation, 91% of farmers learn and apply the new practices.

“In our Ghana pilot program, farmers using Literacy Bridge’s Talking Books learned to pro-
duce crops worth nearly $3000 in the first year alone. Surpluses were sold to pay for fertil-
izer, health insurance, and school fees. Our partners can implement this program for $1000
today.” - Cliff Schmidt, Executive Director

| literacybridge.org | info@literacybridge.org | +1 425 780 5669 |

 I M P R O V I N G T H E H E A LT H A N D I N C O M E O F
IMPOVERISHED RUR AL FA MILIES THR OUGH
KNOWLEDGE

Milestones Achieved: Impact to Date:

2007: Studied problem in Ghana
2008: Built Talking Book prototype, re-
turned to Ghana for feedback, finished
v1.0 with less $80,000
2009: Strong pilot results; UN Under-
Secretary General calls Talking Book
a “real opportunity for developing
countries.”
2010: The Government of Ghana be-
comes first major customer. 47 NGOs/
govts request Talking Books.
• Farmers with access to Talking Books increased crop pro-
duction by 48% compared with non-users decrease of 5%
• A farmer’s use of a Talking Book led to an extra $89 of
crops (controlling for other likely factors)
• Health clinics report that people waiting in line listen to the
recommendations recorded on Talking Books by their nurses
Annual Budget vs.
Outcomes:

Growth Plan:
2011: Sell 11,000 Talking Books; im-
pact 330,000 people; complete devel-
opment of custom microprocessor
2012: Decrease cost of goods from
(health and income)
$25 to $9; expand sales to 40,000
units; impact 1,200,000 people Cost per Successful Outcome:
2013: Sell 100,000 units; impact $14
3,000,000 people
2014: Sell 200,000 units; impact
6,000,000 people; earned income fully
supports expenses

“A great thing about this device

is the amount of corn its lessons
enabled me to harvest. I’ve never
harvested even ¼ bag from that
piece of land, but this year I got Investment Required:
more than a full bag from the same Grants and/or debt totaling $500,000 will allow us to reduce
piece of land.” device-manufacturing costs below $9/unit and grow sales to
- Anthony Dery, Ghanaian farmer create self-sustainable earned income in four years.

This profile was developed during the 2010 Global Social Benefit Incubator™, the signature program of
Santa Clara University’s Center for Science, Technology and Society.
Updated 8/26/2010. www.scu.edu/sts/gsbi

| literacybridge.org | info@literacybridge.org | +1 425 780 5669 |