Refuge

Replace word pop up house with name of product.

Right after the Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines:

10-year-old Jenny Pelies hung on to her mother’s slightly tattered dress stumbling over her own tiny feet. She heard the whimpers of her little brother, only 6 years old, too young to understand why his surroundings were so unfamiliar. Jenny’s father was walking ahead of them, talking to another family, occasionally glancing back to make sure we were fine. In her young mind, Jenny knew that her home was gone, swept away by the thundering storm of the Typhoon. Haiyan is what they named it; silly to name a storm in her opinion.  What she didn’t know was that their family wasn’t going to be moving to another house; no they were going to have to stay at a temporary camp. She was but one of the 343,630 refugee’s of concern in the Philippines. While she doesn’t quite understand the meaning of the word refugee right now, when she is older she will. For that is her status now.

1 month:

The Pelies family was situated on block B, third tent on the block. Jenny was playing with the other children on the street with throwing stones. Her mother was out cooking with the other women, taking her little brother as well. Only her father was at home, finishing the last touches to their home. Jenny’s family is among the first to try the new more permanent housing system It was provided by the UN Human Rights Council, that gave the Philippines a budget of 4,906,059$ for such causes. The people in the camp were very welcoming to Jenny and her family; they gave what they could without any resentment or hostility of their presence. Jenny’s father always mentioned how lucky they were that they were able to get the pop up house  instead of the tents. Soon, the majority of the inhabitants of the camp would replace the tents with the pop up house as well.

6 months:

There was a large gathering of people in the Pelies’ house.  Jenny helped her mother serve the food that all the women helped cook earlier in the day. They were celebrating her little brother’s birthday today. There were a total of four families over- mostly their neighbors that the Pelies family had come to be close to. Normally it would be difficult to squeeze so many people into one of the pop up houses but with the addition of an extra room Jenny’s father had made they could now spread out into two rooms. Many of the families had made their own adjustments to their homes, some adding a separate bedroom while others making kitchens. With the devastation of their homes and the unlikelihood of being able to rebuild it from scratch it would be a long time until they could leave.  Jenny overheard the men talking avidly about their plans for the future, their ideas for expansion and customization of their pop up house.

1 year:

The entire camp had an air of excitement. A new school was opening; this would mean that the older kids would be able to get a more advanced education now with more room and utilities. Just last week church was opened as well, all this was accomplished because of the prosperity of the camp. With improved living condition the people could focus on the other necessities with greater fervor. More was accomplished and even though everyone came into the camp expecting it to be temporary they all knew that it would not be. Seeing all the progress made was surely a good omen for the future.

5 years

There was a constant influx and retreat of refugees at the camp. Some stayed for longer than others depending on circumstances. One thing that was for sure, was that whomsoever stayed at the camp made tremendous use of the pop us house.

Statistics and other important stuff:

Philippines: Leaving the Darkness

When typhoon Haiyan swept Tacloban City, it took with it what people need the most to see their way through any hard time: light, food and shelter. UNHCR has provided people of the Philippines with relief items that are helping make a difference. Relief items such as solar lanterns, plastic sheets, blankets and more than 1,500 family tents to families in this area.

UNHCR budgets for South-East Asia (USD)
Operation	2013 Revised budget (as of 30 June 2013)	2014				2015
		Refugee programme PILLAR 1	Stateless programme PILLAR 2	IDP projects PILLAR 4	Total
Bangladesh	12,609,556	11,410,451	12,510	0	11,422,961	11,356,138
Indonesia	8,007,336	7,950,312	155,005	0	8,105,317	8,238,418
Malaysia	17,477,520	18,875,102	1,231,502	0	20,106,604	21,695,610
Myanmar	68,481,570	6,051,000	12,940,291	49,073,119	68,064,410	67,772,726
Philippines	8,427,638	697,717	727,572	3,480,770	4,906,059	4,641,297
Thailand	28,044,521	32,090,244	710,059	0	32,800,303	37,233,459
Thailand Regional Office	7,564,224	6,584,919	577,849	0	7,162,768	7,817,007
Viet Nam	400,500	0	437,203	0	437,203	0
Total	151,012,866	83,659,745	16,791,991	52,553,888	153,005,624	158,754,655

Source: UNHCR Global Appeal 2014-2105

Which country hosts the most refugees?

End-2012

1638500

Pakistan

868200

Iran

589700

Germany

564900

Kenya

476500

Syria

376400

Ethiopia

373700

Chad

302700

Jordan

301000

China

267100

Turkey

Spook Shield

Our product is a colorful blanket (a shield) that protects children ages 3-9 from various imaginary monsters and darkness of the night. It comes with a colorfully illustrated instructions booklet that a child and a parent can engage with.

Its key features are:
It is multicolored and has a glow in the dark Spook Shield logo that helps to keep ‘monsters’
away;
Its conveniently placed pockets are made to keep a child’s toy from falling out of the bed at night;
And it is made locally, 99 per cent out of recycled materials, including product packaging.

What gave us the idea.
Some children really don't like being left alone in the dark, and become anxious when the lights are turned off in their room. Instead of falling asleep, they become very alert, hearing goblins every time the house creaks, or burglars with each gust of wind outdoors.

Many parents try to help their child overcome her fear of the dark by leaving the child's bedroom lights on, or the hall light on and the bedroom door open (often leading to the light shining right in the child's eyes), only to find that it still takes over an hour for her to finally fall asleep. One of the main reasons this happens is that, as demonstrated in clinical studies, light directly affects the brain's inner clock, and delays sleep onset. The brain interprets the presence of light as a sign that it is still daytime, and therefore much too early for sleep. This results in longer time to sleep onset.

What made us choose to recycle clothes rather than making our product from recycled raw material.
For our group the reason was environmental. There is so much over production and excess in the world right now.

North-Americans are buying, and discarding, clothes more quickly than ever. The average North- American throws 54 pounds of clothes and shoes into the trash each year. That adds up to about 9 million tons of wearable’s that are sent into the waste stream, according to the Environmental Protection Agency — a 27% increase in a mere eight years. Although resale shops are a good option for clothes that still have some fashion value, and charities will take items that are well past their prime, there are still an awful lot of ink-stained dress shirts and moth-eaten t- shirts that find their way to the dump.
What to do with that favorite old shirt you ruined by inadvertently spilling a glass of red wine down its front, or that well-worn pair of slacks that finally split at the seams, or that dress you loved last year but now wouldn't wear to save your life?
Goodwill and the Salvation Army will not sell defective clothes or shoes, but they do offload them to textile recyclers, who either ship them to Third World countries where they may have a chance of a second life, or sort and resell them to textile "de-manufacturers" who can turn them into materials that can be worked into new materials, whether it's cleaning rags, carpet padding or rubberized playgrounds.
Forty-five percent of recycled clothes are sold to other countries, 30% are turned into cleaning rags and 25% are turned into fibers for stuffing or insulation, according to the Secondary Materials and Recycled Textile Assn.
Recycling clothes, rather than making them from raw material, saves 72% in energy costs and 76% in CO2 emissions. 

Drop Attire

Members: Savannah Dares, Donna Kim, Alex Gunn, Emma Tsai, Ambika Pharma

Concept:

Our group made an ‘armored’ vest designed to protect participants of urban downhill sports against road burn. The vest acts as shelter in the sense that it is protection from the body against harm and pain. The majority of the protection comes from car tires, which we decided to use for multiple reasons. Tires are often disposed of: approximately 1 tire per person per year. Tires are the largest and most problematic sources of waste due to their large volume, 75% of which is void space. More than half of tires are burned for fuel which, resulting in toxic emissions. Also, tires are highly durable against concrete, making them ideal for extreme sports such as skateboarding or rollerblading. We decided to specialize in long boarding due to its high popularity in urban (concrete-laden) centres as well as the relatively higher speeds that long boarders can reach.  The other upcycled materials we used included fishing wire and military canvas tarpaulin, both of which we bought new out of convenience sake, due to the drop off depots being mainly in Northern Ontario. The non-recycled materials we used were a black nylon fabric, black nylon straps and black plastic side release buckles, ladder lock buckles and D-Rings. 

Materials:
-Tires
-Military Canvas
-Fishing Line
-Nylon
-Heavy Duty Threads
-Elastic Straps
-Pop Rivets

*some of these materials are also upcycled, while the tires themselves do not cost anything

Target Audience:
Mainly for long boarders, but can also be used for other downhill sports (mountain biking, dirt biking, others)

Sketches:

The tire pieces are attached mainly from the waist downward to protect from and lessen the impact of sliding on concrete/asphalt. The pieces are also cut into small sizes to retain flexibility.

Progress:

 

Final Product:

Logo:

We wanted to incorporate our purpose into our name, and so we came up with "Drop Attire," which can also be read as "Drop a Tire." The word "drop" refers to the downhill sports we support by making specialized clothing items that cater to their needs. 

Sketches:

Final Logo Design:

Presentation: