Anuja Jaitly says low-income families in developing countries are rarely prepared for setbacks. There’s just no money to be proactive, so she’s formed a company selling the universal symbol of protection – umbrellas.
“Each of those umbrellas provides a year of insurance to a family in need," she explains. "Our whole vision is sort of protecting yourself and protecting someone else at the same time.”
Working with non-profits and firms that sell insurance in Africa and Asia, Umby provides extensive coverage.
“We focus on health insurance, life insurance, crop insurance and livestock insurance and then disaster insurance,” Jaitly says.
Jaitly says salesmen in the field identify people in greatest need — usually women farmers or single parent households, because they can’t often afford insurance.
The bright yellow umbrellas are designed to raise awareness here.
“We sort of frame our work as sunshine on a rainy day,” she says with a smile.
Umby charges $25 for a kids’ umbrella and $35 for a full-sized model. The fabric is made from recycled plastic bottles, the frames from recycled aluminum and the handles from bamboo. Cases are crafted by artists in developing countries. So far, about a thousand families have received insurance policies in the Philippines, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania and Mali.
