Changing Lives with Innovation
About Us
EcoVation Bangladesh is a research & innovation-based social enterprise researching to innovate Do-it-yourself solution to some vital problems in our society. Our projects revolve around renewable energy, clean water, menstrual hygiene, livelihood & micro-enterprising etc.
Our initiatives focus on United Nation’s SDG1, SDG6, SDG7, SDG9, SDG11, SDG13, SDG17.
We Innovate to Impact, We Innovate to Change the World.
What We Do?
Lighting up underprivileged lives free-of-cost, ensuring clean water for communities, providing menstrual hygiene solutions, bringing livelihood opportunities for the deprived, serving Rohingya refugees, building a plastic-free Bangladesh; these are the activities EcoVation Bangladesh doing.
Impact in Numbers
89
Projects and Campaigns designed and implemented since 2015
117
Communities empowered in Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar including Rohingya refugee camp.
40,000
People directly impacted with improved livelihoods through our projects
2,50,000
Electricity deprived people assured with solar lighting solution for free-of-cost.
60,500
Metric ton carbon dioxide (CO2) emission reduced by the eco-friendly solutions implementation.
Project LightGiver
Project LightGiver is mostly a volunteer run project, where volunteers make innovative products or devices with their own hands to improve peoples’ living standard. Young volunteers make hundreds of solar lamp and streetlights using small solar panel, used plastic bottle, bamboo, LED light & small circuit materials. These lights are then distributed free-of-cost to electricity-deprived communities such as costal areas, hill tract areas, island, slum & refugee camps etc. EcoVation Bangladesh aims to lit up at least one locality free-of-cost every month.
Project SolarPreneur
Project SolarPreneur is an Enterprise Development Program, where we train underprivileged youth how to make solar lights. So that, they can make lights and sell them to earn livelihood. This program has started from January 2020 at Teknaf. Underprivileged youth whom are unemployed in Teknaf, we trained them and produce solar lamps and streetlights by them to provide it to International NGOs and UN organizations so that they can distribute free-of-cost to underprivileged community.
Project Bishuddha Pani
Project Bishuddha Pani (Purified water) is an innovative social initiative first implemented in 2020 by EcoVation Bangladesh which empowers marginalized communities through safe water access. We install and do the maintenance of solar-powered water purifying filtering system in the school, madrasa, mosque and similar social community places free-of-cost . The project initially uses donor or corporate CSR funding to set up a safe water system in community places and then teaches community members on how to technically and financially maintain them to ensure sustainable safe water access in the long run. Currently we are active in Chittagong & Cox’s Bazar, ensuring safe water for 50,000 people. Soon we will expand our this noble initiative countrywide.
Project MyPad
Approximately 95% of the menstruating females in Bangladesh do not use sanitary pads because they cannot afford them, leading to illnesses and increased absences from school or work. It causes vital diseases, even some end up dying. Also, single-use sanitary pads become environment hazard as it doesn’t degrade easily. To solve these problems, ensuring menstrual hygiene, and save the environment, EcoVation Bangladesh started Project MyPad where we train underprivileged females on making cheap reusable napkins from garment scraps. It brings livelihood scopes, as well as ensuring low-cost sanitary napkins to underprivileged females. Our model demonstrates a possible solution: a low-cost sanitary napkin made of garment waste. Low-cost sanitary napkins can drastically change the lives of women working in factories.
Project Rohingya Response
After generations of statelessness and marginalization in Rakhine State in Myanmar, extreme violence an estimated 706,000 Rohingya people came to Bangladesh for shelter.
We started providing bottle solar lamps, streetlights to the refugee camps. We are partnering up with International NGOs and donor agencies. Rohingya & host community youths are get training for self reliance and then they make solar lamps & streetlight to sell them in the camp.
Project LightUpTogether
Project LightUpTogether is a project we started to spread our innovations & technologies around the country to solve society’s problem nationally. We partner up with nonprofit voluntary organizations, university clubs & other community service entities to implement our initiatives locally. We train the organizations on making solar lamps & streetlights out of easily available materials, then they raise funds locally and lit up their own locality by volunteer-made lights. We share tutorials of our innovations online so that anyone can adopt the technology and lit up communities.
Project AntiPlastic
800 thousand tons of plastic garbage are produced in Bangladesh, where only 23% are recycled. 73,000 tons of plastic garbage ends up in the sea by Padma, Megna and Jamuna River. People are bound to use plastic as there are not many alternatives available. Keeping that in mind we launched Project AntiPlastic to design & promote plastic alternatives that are eco-friendly. We are promoting and training on making clay and bamboo utensils such as water bottle, plate, spoon, that’s helping reduce the plastic use. We up-cycle plastic to make lights, recycle them into eco-bricks, eco-block and train the underprivileged on how to make them. We are developing a portable plastic recycling machine that anyone can use to turn waste plastic into plastic bricks which is cheap but stronger than the clay bricks. It will reduce plastic garbage and also help people to earn livelihood from selling the plastic bricks. We are also researching an ecobrick manufacturing setup, which is also a cost effective yet eco-friendly process to manufacture clay brick alternatives that are better than clay brick.
PHOTO GALLERY
PARTNERS
❝Light is very important element in our life. Many crimes happen in absence of light. Bangladesh Police will be with EcoVation Bangladesh‘s amazing lighting up lives project which also helps reduce crimes❞
❝In humanitarian context,
lighting is really crucial for safety and wellbeing of the
refugees. EcoVation‘s
SolarPreneur program helps ICCO Cooperation
achieve livelihood goals for Rohingya refugees and host community❞
Silvia S. Rovelli
Head of Humanitarian Response
ICCO Cooperation
❝Being an environmentalist by passion, I find EcoVation Bangladesh‘s Project AntiPlastic an impactful initiative to reduce plastic use, as well as promoting recycling & upcycling plastic will turn waste into wealth at large scale❞
M Sabbir Hussain
DMD & Chief Operating Officer
BRAC Bank
❝The EcoVation team is innovative, young and impact-driven, and I see the vision to change peoples’ lives in a positive way in them. I believe their dedication will bring impactful change in our society in long run❞