Our very own Haley Burns ’20, brought home a first place win in the community track of the NH Social Venture Innovation Challenge yesterday! Haley currently works as a fundraising administrator for V'ice Haiti (@vicehaiti), a Social Venture that provides an innovative solution to two of Haiti's most overwhelming obstacles: massive unemployment affecting 70% of the population, and a nation-wide vitamin and protein deficiency impacting both children and adults.
V'ice delivers affordable vitamin supplementation to the people who need it most through snow cones and protein bars, and employs Haitian youth and mothers as micro-franchisees to sell the product in Haiti. In just one year they've perfected their vitamin formulation, designed and built innovative 3-wheel recumbent bicycles to sell V’ice on the streets, and opened their first office and hub of activity in Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital and poorest city.
"I decided to enter because I really believed in our business model and how this was empowering to communities that needed it. I just wanted to take it and run with it. And I thought as a student what better way to do that then enter this competition?" Haley said. "In life you never really have the time, so you have to prioritize the things that matter to you. What mattered to me was: how can I empower other people? It feels like all my hard work has been worth something. I really commend everyone who was a part of this for taking a stand for the communities they care about."
The NH Social Venture Innovation Challenge (SVIC) is an idea-stage competition with the goal of inspiring a large and diverse group of students and community members to develop innovative, solution-oriented thinking and providing a forum to shine a light on these ideas. The SVIC engages aspiring and practicing student and community social entrepreneurs in designing novel, sustainable, business-oriented solutions to some of society’s most pressing social and environmental challenges.
Congratulations, Haley!
