Idea 368 of 500. Cluster 18: Sri Lankans abroad, both directions
Skilled-volunteer months for professionals abroad on leave: an accountant to a co-operative, a teacher to a district school
The mechanism, from the book
1.5 million people abroad who know how rich countries work, and who send home money and little else.
Every idea in cluster 18 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Ask 3 co-operatives or district schools what one skill they need for a month: accounts put in order, an English teacher, a plan for a new building. Write each as a one-page brief with dates. Then post the briefs in 2 professional groups for Sri Lankans abroad and ask who could take leave to do one, paying a fee for the arranging and the stay. One professional who completes a month, and a host who asks for another, is the proof.
- Who pays first
- A professional abroad with leave to use, who wants to give a skill rather than money and will pay for the month to be organised properly.
- What leaves today
- Sri Lankans abroad send money home but rarely their skills; a month of work leaves the skill behind.
The idea and the mechanism are from the book. The first step was written for this site as a suggestion; if you know a better one, say so.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
The only test any idea on this site has to pass. The four rules that go with it are here.
In the book
- Ch. EightWhat It Costs to Go First
What bonds sold to Sri Lankans abroad have and have not done - Ch. SixteenThe Bridge
The institutions that could carry value back
More from cluster 18
- 361A directory of Sri Lankans abroad: who does what, where, and what they will help with, verified
- 362Return-relocation services: the school, the house, the car, the tax, in one package
- 363Sri Lanka House in London, Melbourne and Toronto: a shop, a café and a desk, the Colombo model abroad
- 364Money-transfer products that buy a specific thing at home (a course, a machine, a roof) rather than cash
- 365Investment clubs of Sri Lankans abroad that own one business each at home, with a manager on the ground
- 366Import agencies in each city with a Sri Lankan community, stocking Sri Lankan brands and nothing else
Idea 368 of the 500 in the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? Every one can be started by one person, one family or one small firm.