WORLD’S WORST

COMMUTE

EVERY DAY. 5 HOURS. 45 POUNDS ON HER HEAD.

We’re Anza and our solution is simple. It’s a cart. It takes the work off her head and gives her half the day back to earn a living and escape poverty. Can a cart change the world? Help us try.

 

THE CHALLENGE

TIME IS MONEY

 

It’s as true for a farmer in Tanzania as it is for an executive in New York. And yet, even in this day and age, African women and children lose 5 hours each day walking miles to collect necessities like water and firewood, then hauling them back using nothing but their heads.

The practice is called “head carrying,” and in communities across Africa it’s a tragic necessity that turns rural poverty into a vicious cycle. Children miss school. Mothers are robbed of time to make a living. Families sink deeper into impoverishment.

 

More than a day each week is lost to headcarrying.

 

We can break that cycle.

At Anza, we believe that by freeing women and children from the grueling and time-draining task of head carrying, we can unlock the entrepreneurial power of Africa's rural communities. With the right tools, millions of families will no longer be forced to choose between accomplishing subsistence tasks and making an income. They will finally have the time and the power to lift themselves from poverty.

After years of experimenting, Anza has developed a simple, cost-effective tool that will make this revolution possible--one product that will change lives.

 

We can make this happen.

 
 

THE SOLUTION

MEET THE ANZA CART

The tool that will end head carrying.
 

It’s simple. It’s affordable. And in a year long pilot project, 30 Tanzanian families used it to increase their incomes by an average of 90%.

How? By making the basic tasks of gathering water and wood 6 times more efficient, leaving time for women to start businesses and children to attend school.

We didn't come up with this product in an office somewhere or by tinkering in a lab. The Anza Cart was developed working with actual African farmers. We did a lot of listening and learning, and ultimately discovered that carts were considered a crucial tool for many rural businesses. The only problem: most families couldn’t afford them. We’ve filled the gap in the market.

 

We designed the Anza Cart for:

Three key features of the Anza Cart: 300 lb capacity, packs 3" flat, costs $20.

300lb Capacity

The cart transports 300lbs of goods or 120L of water—6x more than the average woman can carry.

 

Flatpacking

The cart packs to just 3 inches flat, making it easy to ship anywhere in the world for cheap.

 

Affordability

At $20, it’s less than half the price of other carts currently available.

Putting it all together...

Hundreds of millions of families rely on head carrying in Africa.

We think every one of them should have an Anza Cart instead.

 
 

SUCCESS

STORIES FROM THE FIELD

Everyone who has used an Anza Cart has a tale to tell.

Abdallah had a three hundred percent increase in income.

Abdallah: Pay Day

Picture going to work tomorrow and having your boss triple your salary. That’s the transformational impact the Anza Cart created for Abdallah.

“I can’t imagine life without the cart,” he says.

With only a small plot of land to his name, Abdallah depends on a shop and odd jobs to support his family. Before buying the cart, he had to rent a car for $2.50 to move goods to his shop. Now, he just walks to town and carries the goods back himself. Abdallah also makes an additional $1.00 per trip into town by picking up items for his neighbors.

School, uniforms, and books for his newborn child. For Abdallah, that’s the meaning of the Anza Cart.

Jenny saved enough time each day to start a new business.

Jenny: New Business

“I spent all morning collecting firewood, fodder, and water when the tap near my house ran dry,” Jenny says. “Now that I have a cart, I never spend more than an hour doing my chores.”

Jenny dedicates her newfound time to her family and micro-entrepreneurship. During the two harvests each year, the Anza cart allows Jenny and her family to save $75 by collecting their crops without hired labor and trucks.

Firewood, fodder, water, and a 100% increase in disposable income. For Jenny, that’s the meaning of the Anza Cart.

Abdallah had to carry water all day instead of spending time in school.

Baraka: Study Time

Baraka is ten years old.

Before his family joined the Anza cart pilot, he had to carry twelve 45 lb. jerry cans of water from the tap every day after school.

With the Anza cart, he only has to make two trips to the tap each day. Two friends come with him now, and they make games out of chasing each other with the cart.

A break for his back, fun with his friends, and more time to dedicate to his studies. For Baraka, that’s the meaning of the Anza Cart.

One cart. A world of difference.

 
 

ABOUT US

WHO WE ARE

 

So you’ve gotten to know about Anza’s cause. But what about our team? Instead of rattling off a long story, we’d like to share a few facts and figures that should give you a taste of what we’re about.

 
 

22 Years Old

Co-founder Drew Durbin was twenty-two when he started his first development company, Solarcycle, in 2008. The company continues to grow under local leadership as 23,000 people and counting are using Solarcycle's sanitation equipment in Mozambique.

 

$10,000 from the World Series of Poker

Stephen Cellucci transformed from a poker whiz-kid to a social entrepreneur after visiting Drew during Solarcycle's launch in Mozambique. When Drew left SolarCycle to found Anza, Stephen jumped in and donated his winnings from the 2010 World Series of Poker to co-found the company.

 

6 Countries

Anza’s team traveled around six different countries—by plane, by bus, by moped, by ox-drawn cart—to search out unique cart designs and learn how they were used in different local cultures.

 

310 Interviews

We interviewed more than three hundred people ranging from farmers and day laborers to NGO leaders and corporate executives while developing our idea and business model.

 

10 Prototypes

Our engineering team led by Alex Surasky-Ysasi went through countless design iterations and built ten prototypes before settling on our final cart design. One had wheels made of recycled soda bottles. Cool in theory; less cool in practice.

 

31 People in a Van

We spent the better part of a year testing carts in Tanzania. To do it, we commuted to small farms every day with thirty-one other people in a 12-seater van.

 

In short:

We’re young.

We know far too much about hand carts.

and

We are more than happy to risk our health
and comfort to bring the Anza Cart to life.

 
 
 

LAUNCH

THE 1000 X $100 CAMPAIGN

Anza is ready to start changing lives one cart at a time.

1,000 donations of $100 each will help us:

 
  • Produce and ship our first container of carts.
  • Cover salaries for our small staff in the USA and Tanzania.
  • Coordinate the logistics of an international product launch.
  • Refine our product and business model for scalability.
  • Bring a life-changing tool to thousands of African families.
 

Make a tax-deductible donation.

For $100, the cost of a night out, you can help us launch this project and lift six Tanzanian people from poverty.

+ 

 
 

Tell 5 friends about our campaign.

We’re a small startup, and we’re not going to get to 1,000 donations of $100 by our lonesome. So spread the word via the email form on our site, Facebook, Twitter, smoke signals—however you like.

= 

 
 

Launch Anza’s operations in Tanzania.

 
 
 

With your donations, the Anza team will travel this winter to Himo, Tanzania, a market town at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro, to launch the Anza Cart. There, our staff will work with established microfinance organizations including FINCA, Brac, and Plant with Purpose to connect with the local farmers and sell our carts.

 

Launch 1,850 Anza Carts.

Empower 10,000 farmers to lift themselves from poverty.