Idea 443 of 500. Cluster 23: The women who are not working
Elder-care visits for families in Sri Lanka, as often as the parent needs, daily, twice a week or weekly: a trained carer to help with bathing, meals and medicines, and to sit and talk, at a price a local salary can pay
The mechanism, from the book
The single largest unused asset in the country is sitting at home. Much of what keeps it there (childcare, safe transport, working hours) can be sold as a service, and the industries that would employ it can be built.
Every idea in cluster 23 uses this mechanism.
A first step
List the families in one town caring for an elderly parent at home, through a doctor's surgery, a temple or a pharmacy. Find two carers with first-aid training and good references, and agree visit times and a fee per visit that a local salary can pay. Start with five families on a weekly visit. The proof is every family booking a second month.
- Who pays first
- A family in the same town caring for a parent at home, who wants a trained person to help on fixed days.
- What leaves today
- Families care for their parents alone and untrained; a paid visiting service turns that care into skilled local jobs and safer homes.
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. OneThe Letter That Says Yes and Means No
32% of adult women in work, against 70% of men
More from cluster 23
- 436Childcare co-operatives run by mothers for mothers, licensed and inspected, in every town
- 437After-school clubs at the schools, paid by the parents, run by teachers who want the income
- 438Women-only transport services for the night shifts and the early trains
- 439Home-based work platforms that pay properly: sewing, bookkeeping, transcription, design
- 440Shared workspaces for women with childcare attached, in Colombo and the district towns
- 441Women's craft co-operatives with a single brand and a single buyer abroad
Idea 443 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.