ESADE team's experience in the 2014 Hult Prize competition

The team of ESADE Business School MSc students responsible for Harambee, one of the six finalist projects in this year’s edition of the Hult Prize competition, made an amazing pitch to a panel of experts presided by former US President Bill Clinton and including the Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus.

The final pitch-off took place last Tuesday in New York City at the Clinton Global Initiative’s annual meeting. The ESADE team was made up of the MIM student Caela Tanjangco and the MIE students Gabriel Rojas, Tamara Zakharia, Bijan Mashagh and Rubén Camerlynck. It was the second year in a row that an ESADE team reached the finals.

With nearly 11,000 participants each year, the Hult Prize is the world’s most prestigious social entrepreneurship competition for university students. This year’s challenge was to address non-communicable diseases in urban slums.

The ESADE students’ months of hard work were reflected in their words and faces. According to Ms Tanjangco, the experience was "extremely difficult, but also worth it". "Working on a start-up requires a lot of determination and a lot of flexibility, but at the end of the process the result is very rewarding", said Mr Camerlynck.

Exhausted but satisfied, the Harambee team members have had an intense year. Although they can now enjoy a few days off from the hectic weeks of business plans, classes, meetings and presentations around the world, when they return, there will no doubt be new challenges to face.

Harambee’s vision

Harambee’s vision is to offer every slum dweller in the world access to affordable, quality glasses by empowering communities. Over 40% of people living in urban slums suffer from poor eyesight but lack access to affordable eyeglasses. This is not only a health problem: it prevents children from getting an education and limits the types of work that adults can perform.

"When students come up with this sort of initiative," says Josep Franch, Dean of ESADE Business School, "it shows that we are on the right track in terms of creating an appropriate culture to promote social entrepreneurship." Harambee aims to provide slum dwellers with flexible, lightweight but very robust eyeglasses made from simple wire, pre-made clip-on lenses, and a shrinking tube, eyeglasses that can be locally produced and are both customizable and visually appealing.