Emer Beamer is one of the co-founders of Butterfly Works, an Amsterdam agency that works to solve the problem of poverty from a design perspective. Butterfly Works believes in co-design, that is, working together with those living in poverty in order to make something. Their model addresses specific social needs, and works to find a solution by which they can produce revenue streams, in order to create income that leads to a longer-term solution.
One example is dealing with early childhood development in Venezuela. Butterfly Works discovered that Dick Bruna, creator of the Miffy character and books (Nijntje in the Netherlands), is a goldmine of inspiration for best practice in early childhood development. The group began their research by asking the children in Venezuela to draw their favourite animal. The sloth came out as the cute and cuddly “bunny” of the region. So the Butterfly Works team created a new character, Yoyo the sloth, which will be used in an awareness campaign about the importance of early childhood education, and also to create books for sale to generate revenue for other projects.
Poverty solutions from sneakers to sloths
Other projects include the Get H2O board game, which highlights caring for the community in order to win the game, and sneaker brand !SYOU, co-created with talents from Burkino Faso.
Combining forces to make creative solutions that tackle poverty is the focus at Butterfly Works. Creating products makes an opportunity for revenue streams that looks at the longer-term longevity of people living in poverty. Visit their site for more information.
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