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More than a hundred students from ESSEC Business School, CentraleSupelec and Strate Design School were at ESSEC Cergy the 21st of March to offer solutions on organizations’ case studies, among them SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL, as part of the CPI (innovative product creation) programme.
After all projects were presented, the jury attributed the best project prize to one of the two student groups who worked with SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL’s technical support and its partner VINCI*. The project was a thermal insulation solution for emergency shelters designed for Syrian refugees in Lebanon.
After a first day at SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL’s head office, supervised by the Technical and Programme Quality Department, two groups of students were supported during 6 months. They started to work “from the very first day, explains Camille Madjarian one of the awarded students. We brainstormed with the Field Coordinator in Lebanon. Then we organized with her a weekly review about the feasibility of our propositions. We were also supported by VINCI’s technical teams.
On 28th of March, the two teams presented their project to SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL with, for the first prize winner group, a strong will to see their project being developed. “We hope that this project emerges and then improves the living conditions of Syrian refugees in Lebanon but also elsewhere”, says Anne-Lise Lavaur, in charge of the Technical and Programme Quality Department at SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL. Those two groups of students, without revolutionizing our humanitarian response, bring a new perspective thanks to their sense of entrepreneurship. They adapted, improved and reinforced the efficiency of solutions we were using.”
With such innovations to their shelters, the refugees and displaced people’s living conditions could be sensibly improved. The asset is an affordable production cost, which is essential to develop new solutions.
*The partnership between SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL and VINCI, since the emergency response to typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines in 2013 and the earthquake in Nepal in 2015, has already supported more than 200,000 people affected by natural disasters.