Susan talks about Burundi, where Search for Common Ground launched radio programs to help Tutsis and Hutus celebrate their heroes, those who risked their own lives for helping friends and neighbors from the other ethnic group.
These radio programs led into the Heroes Summit, where stories were shared publicly: "Previously seen as traitors, they are now recognized as heroes."
John talks about an initiative launched around the World Cup (the soccer/football global event) --soccer-based soap operas where players from different ethnic groups had to play together: "And if they don’t cooperate, they don’t score goals!"
]]>John Marks founded Search for Common Ground in 1982 to transform the way the world deals with conflict - away from adversarial approaches and towards collaborative problem solving.
As can be seen on this X-Interview, John and Susan are not only partners in social change but also in their personal lives. They are co-preneurs who "share love, vision and passion."
John Marks mentions a typical error made by social entrepreneurs as they launch their social venture: they think they know where they are going, when the process is in fact similar to Napoleon’s motto: "On s’engage et puis on voit." ("Let’s start, and we will see where this is taking us.")
Susan Collin Marks adds: "Let’s build a better world with congruence, with integrity. Let’s be clear that we come from a place of compassion, and that we are here to heal divisions, not to create more."
She concludes this first interview: "People don’t respect us for agreeing with them. They respect us for being true to ourselves."
]]>"Our work is so much data driven, and yet it’s so much about life," says Susan Burns. "And it’s not about future generations anymore. It’s about my life, our son’s life," echoes Mathis Wackernagel.
When he was born, human beings were using half the resources that the planet was producing. We are now using 25% more than what’s available, and it now takes a year and three months for the planet to recreate what was used by mankind the previous year.
And to conclude: "We are in a new century. In the past you could ignore resources constraints. If you do that in the future, we will be toast."
]]>His father was in the anti-Nazi resistance movement in Germany, and his mother fought against the British for the independence of Ireland. That’s how he realized that dreams could become realities. The first time he went to the Amazon, he dreamt that "Indians could have their own land and their autonomy --and that’s what we have achieved!"
Listen to Martin von Hildebrand as he shares with Global X his moment of epiphany. He went to the Amazon forest for the first time in 1970, spending four months on a canoe. He met Indians that were exploited by rubber barons, almost enslaved: "One fellow was in debt for buying a pedal-sewing machine for his wife... He had been working for 35 years to pay back the loan!"
His advice: "Don’t go in with the answers. Answers need to be built with the people, even if they are not the answers you expected, and even if it’s not the best one."
]]>His father was in the anti-Nazi resistance movement in Germany, and his mother fought against the British for the independence of Ireland. That’s how he realized that dreams could become realities. The first time he went to the Amazon, he dreamt that "Indians could have their own land and their autonomy --and that’s what we have achieved!"
Listen to Martin von Hildebrand as he shares with Global X his moment of epiphany. He went to the Amazon forest for the first time in 1970, spending four months on a canoe. He met Indians that were exploited by rubber barons, almost enslaved: "One fellow was in debt for buying a pedal-sewing machine for his wife... He had been working for 35 years to pay back the loan!"
His advice: "Don’t go in with the answers. Answers need to be built with the people, even if they are not the answers you expected, and even if it’s not the best one."
]]>His father was in the anti-Nazi resistance movement in Germany, and his mother fought against the British for the independence of Ireland. That’s how he realized that dreams could become realities. The first time he went to the Amazon, he dreamt that "Indians could have their own land and their autonomy --and that’s what we have achieved!"
Listen to Martin von Hildebrand as he shares with Global X his moment of epiphany. He went to the Amazon forest for the first time in 1970, spending four months on a canoe. He met Indians that were exploited by rubber barons, almost enslaved: "One fellow was in debt for buying a pedal-sewing machine for his wife... He had been working for 35 years to pay back the loan!"
His advice: "Don’t go in with the answers. Answers need to be built with the people, even if they are not the answers you expected, and even if it’s not the best one."
]]>He told his story in “Make The Impossible Possible,” and shares with Global X the case of Sharif Bey, an African-American who started in the program at age 13 and now has a Ph.D. in Education.
His advice: "Don’t do it by yourself! This profession can very isolating, it can be very difficult and challenging, particularly because it’s a young field. Surround yourself with individuals of like-mind, of like-energy, to test out your ideas and the quality of your life, your mental health and your physical well-being."
]]>As an "overworked, stressed Microsoft executive" trekking in Nepal, he met the head of a small school with a library that had no books. The headmaster told him: "We are too poor to afford education, but until we have education, we will always be poor."
Since this moment of epiphany that prompted him to leave Microsoft in 1999, Room To Read has built a network of 765 schools and 7,000 libraries with five million books, serving three million children.
His advice to fellow social entrepreneurs: "My favorite three letters are GSD! Get shit done, let’s get out there, let’s change the world, action is better than talk!"
]]>Her moment of epiphany came in 2005 when she was still with Witness and watched Al Gore deliver his slide show on global warming (it later became One Inconvenient Truth).
"We are all on this boat together and we only have one chance to make it right," says Gillian Caldwell in this three-minute interview.
Her advice: listen! "The essence of social change and effective work is the heart of human relationship. I don’t think we can really be in an active and right relationship with people unless we are hearing them."
]]>Jordan Kassalow’s moment of epiphany came 24 years ago as he was a young student in optometry doing volunteer work in Mexico. He noticed a seven-year old blind boy ("carrying his Braille book and with the typical blank stare of a blind person, living the life of a blind child in rural Mexico"), only to realize that this boy was actually profoundly near-sighted (prescription: - 22!) but not blind.
Jordan Kassalow remembers this moment: "I was the lucky guy who put the glasses on his face for the first time. The boy totally changed his expression from the blank stare of a blind person to the universal smile of joy of a seven-year old boy. This moment was infectious, it was powerful, and I knew I had to do more of this. His life changed as much as mine did at that moment."
From that time, Jordan Kassalow defined his success by how many more moments he could create just like that one.
]]>Nina Smith shares with Global X the story of Lakshmi who was able to break the cycle of poverty for her and her family. She was a carpet slave at the age of six and now speaks fluent English and works in hotel management and the tourism industry.
Nina Smith gives her piece of advice to emerging social entrepreneurs: "Clearly articulate the social impact you are having through your social venture!"
]]>She remembers the day she sat with 300 students ("All women!") to celebrate their graduation. Even though Sakena Yacoobi was with two men (her body guard and her manager), the women kept talking freely and didn’t even try to hide their faces as is the custom in front of men who are not close relatives.
She was so proud: "How much they have learned --they are now independent, self-sufficient, earning income, proud of themselves, famous!"
Sakena Yacoobi’s advice: "I listen to lots of stories --the women who share them are crying, they are weeping. But what I have learned is that rush, rush, rush is not going to work. You may save a life by listening."
]]>Global X had a hard time eliminating the stars he interviewed, but he was tough: neither Muhammad Yunus nor Jimmy Carter made the final cut...
Instead, he kept a valuable piece of advice by Kiva’s Premal Shah, a visually stunning introduction by d-light design’s Sam Goldman, Harsha Moily’s comments about the role of technology in development, and a moving story by Mumbai-based microfinance expert Urmee Mehta Mankar in which she demonstrates that social entrepreneurship is not charity.
Global X also kept a short segment taped in Dakar where Josephine Nzerem’s daughter plays with her mother’s mobile phone as she talks about passion in social entrepreneurship.
This three-minute demo reel ends with a powerful call for action from Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Jody Williams. Global X can’t help but have tears in his eyes when he watches this compilation --so many great individuals doing fabulous work to build a better planet.
And he can’t help wonder what pair of glasses he will wear when he goes to New York to get his award, as he owns seven pairs of Mikli!
]]>"People are often displaced through urban renewal processes," he says and the foundation helps them get back on their feet. He mentions a woman who was living on the street with her two children. The Tswane Leadership Foundation was able to place her in a shelter, give her a job in a laundromat and find a day care center for her younger child --a holistic approach. She is now the manager of the small laundry business.
Stephan de Beer grew up himself in the inner-city. He created a shelter for boys, but one of them died when the shelter burnt, forcing Stephan de Beer to ask himself big questions "on issues of inclusion and exclusion, who is welcome in the city and who isn’t, and this led me to a commitment to build healthy communities where even the most vulnerable are welcome."
His advice to fellow social entrepreneurs: "There is no shame in saying I don’t know. We surround ourselves with people with different experiences and expertise who help us find the right answer."
]]>As Timothy Jenkin explains it, CES is a community-based network using a ’money’ created by its users, one that can never be in short supply --so long as one can offer something of value, you can always receive from the community goods and services of similar value.
This helps township citizens be part of the local economy without incurring huge debts due to predatory lending. Transactions are computerized so that users can maintain their personal accounts through computer kiosks or mobile phones.
]]>Because the economic situation hasn’t changed that much since the end of Apartheid 14 years ago, she quickly realized that she needed to use strong marketing skills to attract donors’ attention.
That’s why she came up with a catchy acronym for the social venture she launched just before her husband died: the P.E.A.C.E. Foundation --which stands for Planning, Education, Agriculture, Community & Environment.
]]>Bin Jobe was elected an Ashoka Fellow in 1998 for her work in Gambia, where she is helping school children bridge the gap between what they need to learn and what they are given at school.
Through A Better Chance (ABC) Learning Center, she provides affordable remedial education to fight against a chronically under-funded public education system and extremely high dropout rates.
In this short interview with Global X, she tells the story of two sisters who had lost all motivation to study as they entered high-school as they had given up entirely on their capabilities. Despite the low self-confidence they had then, one is now is a banking marketing officer and the other is a lawyer.
Fatou Jobe’s advice: "Focus on what you do best and how you can share this talent with other people!"
]]>She is now the founder and chair of the Nobel Women’s Initiative, where six of the seven women alive today who have received the Nobel Peace Prize together bring change for women around the world.
In this three-minute interview with Global X, she tells of her passion for global affairs. She remembers being worried about the Vietnam war when she was still a student, which led to her involvement around the US presence in El Salvador.
But she is quick to say that "you don’t need to be a full time activist to make the world a better place."
Her advice: "Find an organization working on an issue of interest to you. Volunteer. Give one hour a month. Maybe you will become so engaged that you will give two hours a month, then maybe an hour a week. Imagine if all the people who believed in a better world did that --what a world could and would be!"
Her wish: "Just don’t whine about issues! Get up and take action to make a better world!"
]]>"First you have to give yourself permission to be one!" And that may be the biggest barrier. Many people will tell you that this is too hard and that you will fail. "You have to very politely ignore them," recommends the founder of Ashoka.
Then pick a social problem that you really want to solve. It shouldn’t be that difficult, as there are so many that remains to be solved.
Think of it as an iterative building process: "It is not rocket science. It’s patient, careful problem solving." But you need persistence in looking at the problem so that you understand the field very well.
Finally, make sure that what you are doing is really important, even historic, for the field. "It has to be a big win for all decision makers in the field!"
And don’t forget, as Bill Drayton showed about Rodrigo Baggio, that you need deep integrity and ethical fiber to succeed. The founder of Ashoka, who is now spending a lot of time on the new generation of change makers, also describes in a previous interview the magical instant when a social entrepreneur discovers that the moment to change social structure has arrived.
]]>He also realized that the children and the community were perfectly capable of building schools themselves. Rodrigo Baggio launched the Committee for Democracy in Information Technology (CDI), a model now replicated in 15 countries around the world.
Bill Drayton remembers the second time they met. "His English was still very spotty," but he did manage to get free computers, to have them shipped for free to Brazil, where they went seamlessly through customs. Every stage of this process is quite implausible, except for the fact that Rodrigo Baggio is a true entrepreneur.
"He was able to convince all these parties not through words --the transaction took place at a much deeper level" explains Bill Drayton. It’s all about trust and ethical fiber.
]]>In this two-minute interview, Bill Drayton tells Global X why the largest group of social entrepreneurs who have been selected to become Ashoka Fellows (450 out of 2,400) concentrate on children and young people: "What really matters is whether children master applied empathy, and whether young people (12 to 20) master empathy teamwork leadership and become change makers" through extra-curriculum activities such as tutoring services, help hotlines or community radio stations.
"Those who don’t master applied empathy will be marginalized, and if there are children who didn’t have a chance to develop these skills, it’s our fault, not theirs!" adds Bill Drayton.
The founder of Ashoka, who is now spending a lot of time on the new generation, thinks that we need to have a revolution analogous to the civil rights movement or the women’s movement, so that all young people (and not just the fortunate ones who go to the best schools) grasp empathy and empathy teamwork leadership. "This is the most fundamental revolution that we have to get through!"
]]>In this two-minute interview (the first of a series of four videos), Bill Drayton describes the magical instant when a social entrepreneur discovers that the moment to change social structure has arrived.
Listen to him as he begins the interview with these words: "I was in India as an undergraduate..."
That’s when all the statistics over the difference in incomes became very real and personal for him. That’s also when he realized that "the most powerful force in the world is a big pattern change idea, but only if it’s in the hands of a very good entrepreneur."
]]>Rather than move to the UK, Clare Wavamunno decided to launch her home-grown project where children with and without disabilities would be able to learn together in the same environment.
She had to find the right ratio so that all children could benefit from this new model, she had to modify the syllabus of the country and even add more to it, and more importantly, she had to overcome parents’ reluctance.
When several students won gold and silver medals in swimming at the Special Olympics, she knew that he had succeeded. Her advice: "Don’t give up. Keep going, keep going... And invest in individuals."
]]>He remembers being contacted by Kyle Zimmer, the founder of First Book, an organization that has distributed millions of books worldwide. She needed a lawyer for a complex loan negotiation, and Lex Mundi was able to provide legal assistance.
As a gift, David Roll received a crayon drawing, showing an empty book shelf on the left ("Before") and a full book shelf on the right ("After"). "This five-year old child drawing perfectly captures what we are doing!" says David Roll in this short interview.
His advice: "Take risks! Get out on the edge! Put yourself out there! And don’t hesitate to ask your lawyers for strategic advice. They can help you scale your venture as they can be very knowledgeable and go far beyond legal advice."
]]>The 2004 Ashoka Fellow realized that to help those children, he needed to solve poverty, disease and hunger. "It’s better to prevent the problems in the first place," he tells Global X in this short interview.
Benjamin Ogunyo tells the story of a woman who was HIV positive, had four children on the streets, was living in a single-room, and had lost hope as she thought she would soon die of AIDS or be pushed out of the house because she couldn’t pay for the rent.
Benjamin Ogunyo helped her start a small bead business, helped her find a market, and now she can pay the rent and her children are back in school. She eats better and her HIV medication works better as a result.
It’s all about preventive work, concludes Benjamin Ogunyo.
]]>He later founded the World Toilet College with Singapore Polytechnic and won the Schwab Foundation Award For Social Entrepreneurship in 2006.
In this short interview with Global X, he recalls his youth in poor Singapore of the 60’s and makes the unavoidable scatological jokes.
He then explains why he launched the WTO. The day he turned 40, he realized that he was half-way done with his life and decided to do something important: "A person’s life is finite, it doesn’t go beyond 80. If you want a full life, you shouldn’t focus only on making money. You should find a greater meaning and use this time allocated to you in a useful way and help other people."
In case you are ready to follow in his footsteps, Jack Sim mentions that the WTO needs volunteers, so if you are an expert in your field, the organization may even customize a program just for you!
www.worldtoilet.org
And don’t forget that November 19 is World Toilet Day and that the World Toilet Summit & Expo 2008 will take place in Macao November 4-6.
After watching Jack Sim, watch Isaac Durojaiye’s X-Interview. The founder of Lagos-based DMT Toilets explains how he is improving sanitation and public health while creating new jobs.
]]>1. More traction, less projection!
Premal Shah spent two years at PayPal while he was trying to get Kiva’s idea off the ground. In retrospect, he thinks that doing "less PowerPoint, less MS Excel" is best. "Showing traction is a lot better than showing projections (even if the traction is a fraction of what the projections are)."
2. Go public, keep a blog!
Premal Shah thinks that you should start a blog the minute you launch your social venture to show how things are progressing month-over-month. His recommendation: "Make the process transparent online as soon as you can, but don’t only talk about your successes, talk also about your failures and your constraints. Make your whole adventure radically transparent!"
3. Share the ownership!
Premal Shah thinks you should build a large advisory board "to share the ability for other people to co-create something with you and track it all online." As he says: "Ink is cheap on the Internet!"
Watch Premal Shah’s X-Interview, then read Matt Flannery’s blog, the Kiva Chronicles, on Social Edge.
]]>As Global X found out, she is also writing a book on how social causes tip, finishing her PhD at Harvard and teaching at Berkeley!
In this short interview, she tells the story of Mayerly Sanchez, a young girl from a poor family in the outskirts of Bogota, in "a community besieged by endemic violence."
Due to gang violence, Mayerly Sanchez lost her best friend at age of 12 and launched a children’s movement for peace. She received so much media attention that her organization had a significant impact during the national elections.
As a result, Mayerly Sanchez was nominated twice at the age 14 for the Nobel Peace Prize. The reason of her success: "She never doubted that she could make a difference!"
]]>With the help of US-based children, he provides pens, paper and books to schools catering to rural communities: "It’s like a carpenter who has a tree but has no tools to make furniture."
Zimele means "to be able to stand on your own." Dumisani Nyoni chose that name because he realized that the main difference between children living in the developing world and those living in developed countries is access to opportunities.
"Children in Africa have the same mental opportunities as children in America. We want to make sure that our schools are factories of opportunities, factories of hope!"
Since becoming an Ashoka Fellow, Dumisani Nyoni has also been working with older people, "to mix the energy of youth with the wisdom of age."
]]>His response:
1- Use a for-profit approach to access capital
2- Draw from best practices from the business world to overcome the constraints of capacity
3- Use technology to overcome the constraints of cost
That’s how SKS Microfinance was able to scale so quickly.
Vikram Akula also shares a piece of advice with Global X: "Think big! Think in a way that has never been done!" It is undoubtedly because his goal was initially to eradicate poverty that he was able to achieve so much.
]]>Mr. Durojaiye launched his company after noticing that even though 20 million people lived in Lagos, there were very few public toilets, thus creating a health hazard. His mobile toilets are now built locally with local materials, a first in West Africa.
Besides improving sanitation and public health, Mr. Durojaiye uses the toilets to create jobs: most are given to street gang leaders who are now going off crimes and widows, who in this society are often resource-less. Their job is to manage the toilets located in bus terminals and markets --clean them and collect the money.
His biggest joy: one of the widows who manages four DMT toilets has been able to send her four children to school without having to ask help from her husband’s relatives. "One of the kids is the best pilots Nigeria has ever produced," says Mr. Durojaiye.
Which may explain why the motto printed on his business cards says: "Shit business is serious business."
]]>Josephine Nzerem noticed that most women don’t know much about the couple’s property and bank accounts, as most assets are in the husband’s name. "When only your brother-in-law knows who owns what and where the papers are, you don’t even know what you have been disinherited from," she tells Global X as she holds her daughter playing with her mobile phone.
Her organization teaches couples to write a will to protect widows and their children, and provides pro-bono access to lawyers as in the case of a woman whose husband recently died of AIDS. "She had paid for the hospital bills, not the family. She had five children. And her in-laws came to take the apartment where the couple had lived for 30 years. It was her only home!"
Josephine Nzerem, who became an Ashoka Fellow in 2002, strongly believe in passion as a tool to succeed. "There will be challenges, difficulties, and people trying to discourage you," she tells Global X. "But look into the heart, keep the passion alive and you can surmount any mountains. If you don’t have the passion, you have lost the walk. Keep the passion alive!"
]]>Tim Brown remembers that when he went to India with Jacqueline Novogratz (founder and CEO of Acumen Fund), he was impressed by the systemic thinking and level of innovation that Dr.Govindappa Venkataswamy (Dr. V) had brought to the Aravind Eye Care Hospital in Madurai.
It is now believed to be the best eye care and teaching facility in the world. The lesson?
"By trying to serve those who have the most needs, you can end up being truly innovative, to a point where those innovations have relevance not only in the developing world but in the developed world also."
]]>His goal: to provide home ownership to low- and medium-income earners, in large part by replacing conventional construction methods with bamboo. Bamboo is less costly and much more environmental-friendly than steel and cement.
Maxwell Marshall had a personal experience with homelessness, as he had to sleep on the reception’s couch of his office when he was starting out.
In this short interview, he shares his advice with Global X: "Do something because you believe in it. It may take you a long time to succeed, but if you believe in it, you will find perseverance, confidence and the right resources."
]]>Pat Pillai was recently elected an Ashoka Fellow for his work on youth social leadership at Life College, the replicable social business he launched to offer character education, real life projects and leadership education to families.
"They leave school with a wider world view, and not a slave mentality, but a champion mentality," says Pat Pillai about the children Life College is helping.
He was inspired by his grand-father, who worked as a waiter in Cape Town and served the greatest people (from Winston Churchill to British royalty) but could never seat at their table. He was hoping that his children and grand-children would have more opportunities.
This explains why Pat Pillai now says: "I have lived by the credo: To live free of the opinions of others, but always in service of others."
]]>He tells the story of Hagar and her son, Ishmael, "the story of millions of exploited, trafficked, disabled and abandoned women and children," a story told in the Bible, the Koran and the Torah.
Pierre Tami shares with Global X a piece of advice: "The world is over-managed and under-led. We need vibrant leaders who go out with great passion. My advice: if you have an idea, if you have a dream, be passionate about it. Don’t talk about it, just go and do it!"
]]>He remembers meeting a young girl (she was 17) who was on her way to a hospital to have her eyes extracted. That story had a powerful impact on him and reminded him how important self-esteem is.
In this very short interview (with below average sound), Andreas Heinecke shares with Global X a piece of advice: "Remain humble while you work for the others. It’s not about being a star. It’s about them!"
]]>She shares with Global X a piece of advice: "To be an agent of change, you should be fearless! Make a list of the ten smartest people you can think of, and ask for their advice and feedback, and keep engaging them."
Kyle Zimmer made such a list as she was about to launch First Book. Fifteen years later, two of them are still on First Book’s board of directors!
]]>He shares two pieces of advice with Global X: "First, stay focused! Don’t get distracted. Second, it’s hard to argue with success, so plan to launch a successful organization, and other things will come to you."
]]>Her advice: "What really characterizes a social entrepreneur is passion and love. It’s a very passionate field! So you have to be prepared to balance you personal life and your job."
]]>Her advice: "What really characterizes a social entrepreneur is passion and love. It’s a very passionate field! So you have to be prepared to balance you personal life and your job."
]]>He tells Global X why it’s not enough to bring new technologies to a community --it’s also necessary to strengthen the health services and systems delivery and to foster individual and community healthy behavior.
After medical school, Chris Elias worked in a Cambodia hospital where he noticed that most diseases that needed to be treated were actually totally preventable. That realization made him switch his practice from clinical medicine to primary public healthcare, and to public outreach to prevent diseases.
This had a huge influence on his medical career, and ever since, he has been working in public health and using his medical skills to prevent as opposed to treat.
His advice to fellow social entrepreneurs:
- Always question! "Be skeptical when you feel certain of something. Change requires that we constantly question the assumptions that we take for granted."
- "Look beyond the predictive fields of answers. Talk to many people in many disciplines."
- Bring balance to your life if you want to sustain the energy to be a social entrepreneur! Maybe not on a daily basis, but it should average out over longer periods of time.
]]>BRAC has expanded outside Bangladesh: Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uganda and Sudan, which is reflected in his advice to fellow social entrepreneurs: "You need to be ambitious! Build an organization to its full capacity and grow it. Don’t be satisfied too early, and you will have a bigger impact in your work."
]]>He also tells Global X what happened when he left Mexico at age 22 to meet the Pope in Italy. His mentor being Mother Theresa of Calcutta, he thought that this was the next logical step. But how do you get a one-on-one meeting with the Pope when you have no connections?
]]>He also tells Global X what happened when he left Mexico at age 22 to meet the Pope in Italy. His mentor being Mother Theresa of Calcutta, he thought that this was the next logical step. But how do you get a one-on-one meeting with the Pope when you have no connections?
]]>"They have only one asset --a small plot of land. And one basic skills: farming. So let’s think big, and let’s tackle the biggest problems!" says Martin Fisher in this short interview.
Listen to his take on poverty: "The number one need of a poor person anywhere in the world is to have a way to make more money. It’s not about education, heath care, or clean water, because if you find the way to make more money, you can afford to buy all these things."
]]>Listen to her as she tells the moving story of a young woman who used to be a recycling girl, as they sat down in a Cairo restaurant while waiting for a visa to go to France and speak at UNESCO. The young woman told Laila Iskandar: "I know this place. When I was four, I used to collect garbage with my dad." Laila Iskandar adds: "I almost cried."
Her advice to fellow social entrepreneurs: "Challenge the definition of entrepreneurship and look at the well being of people around us. Social entrepreneurship is a transition phase. Examine the whole concept of business and profit: if it’s not social, then it’s bad business."
]]>A business entrepreneur turned social entrepreneur (he launched a web company, worked in biotechnology and was part of a translation agency), Geoff Davis discovered "the power of microfinance to harness market principles and apply them to social issues."
The Unitus portfolio of microfinance institutions now serves three million families, 140% more than last year. Geoff Davis explains his success: "It starts with a vision for a better future, and a strong culture based on values and principles."
And it takes talent: "It’s a people business! The Unitus team left corporate positions at National Geographic, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft and McKinsey, and they now apply their business skills to solve social problems."
His advice: "Think big! Think grand! Be audacious! Be bold, and powerful forces will come to support you. You will be able to attract top notch talent."
Yes, it’s all about the talent: "Do anything you can to get the best people you can. There is nothing more expensive than a quick, medium hire. And there is nothing better or more powerful than an amazingly talented hire even if you have to take time and leave the position open to get it."
]]>Edgardo Salomón’s secret to success? Hiring both NGO social workers and commercial bankers to work together in his management team.
"The most important challenge is access to managerial talent. The reason we launched new operations in Brazil is not only because there is high demand there, but also because there is access to very good talent." He adds: "Capital is always available for good projects. The main problem is talent."
Another priority: "There is no success without scale, and that’s why networking is so important and that’s where Unitus can help us."
A final piece of advice: don’t rely on consultants! Edgardo Salomón initially hired a team of expensive international advisors. "Then we decided to do just the contrary to what they advised us to do!" Instead, Edgardo Salomón simply asked a lady working on a street corner what kind of financial services would help her, and that’s how he found out what FINSOL had to do.
]]>Edgardo Salomón’s secret to success? Hiring both NGO social workers and commercial bankers to work together in his management team.
"The most important challenge is access to managerial talent. The reason we launched new operations in Brazil is not only because there is high demand there, but also because there is access to very good talent." He adds: "Capital is always available for good projects. The main problem is talent."
Another priority: "There is no success without scale, and that’s why networking is so important and that’s where Unitus can help us."
A final piece of advice: don’t rely on consultants! Edgardo Salomón initially hired a team of expensive international advisors. "Then we decided to do just the contrary to what they advised us to do!" Instead, Edgardo Salomón simply asked a lady working on a street corner what kind of financial services would help her, and that’s how he found out what FINSOL had to do.
]]>Launched in 2002, FIS now has 4,000 clients and is the second largest MFI in Argentina. In addition to loans, it provides solar panels to families living in zones where there is no commercial electricity. "Yes, there are people in 2007 who have never had access to electricity," explains Julian Costabile.
Listen to his advice to fellow social entrepreneurs: "Find a couple of mentors or advisors compatible with your mission who have 20 or 30 years more of experience and who can help you go through the entrepreneurial phase in a better way."
]]>Launched in 2002, FIS now has 4,000 clients and is the second largest MFI in Argentina. In addition to loans, it provides solar panels to families living in zones where there is no commercial electricity. "Yes, there are people in 2007 who have never had access to electricity," explains Julian Costabile.
Listen to his advice to fellow social entrepreneurs: "Find a couple of mentors or advisors compatible with your mission who have 20 or 30 years more of experience and who can help you go through the entrepreneurial phase in a better way."
]]>Global X recommends that you watch Mechai Viravaidya as he gives a piece of advice to young social entrepreneurs (at 2’32 in this three-minute interview): "Young man, young woman, go out and change the world! The world is yours. Help people to become philanthropists. Make 10 million junior Jeff Skolls. We will have so much more money to give than Jeff Skoll!"
]]>Martin Burt describes a key concept that explains his success: model replication, "the same principles that apply to microfinance: if you treat poor people with dignity, they will get out of poverty. We are trying to apply that to education."
As Martin Burt explains at 3’37" in this five-minute interview: "With dignity, with appropriate finances and the appropriate curriculum, you can turn a poor, 15-year old rural adolescent girl into a rural entrepreneur by the time she is 18, a person who can get a good job in the private sector or make her own job."
Martin Burt’s goals at Fundación Paraguaya: to move "from poverty alleviation to poverty elimination."
To conclude the interview, Global X asks Martin Burt to share a piece of advice: "Concentrate very methodically on sustainability. All the doors open when you have operational, thematic and financial sustainability." Otherwise, it’s not social entrepreneurship, but charity.
]]>Martin Burt describes a key concept that explains his success: model replication, "the same principles that apply to microfinance: if you treat poor people with dignity, they will get out of poverty. We are trying to apply that to education."
As Martin Burt explains at 3’37" in this five-minute interview: "With dignity, with appropriate finances and the appropriate curriculum, you can turn a poor, 15-year old rural adolescent girl into a rural entrepreneur by the time she is 18, a person who can get a good job in the private sector or make her own job."
Martin Burt’s goals at Fundación Paraguaya: to move "from poverty alleviation to poverty elimination."
To conclude the interview, Global X asks Martin Burt to share a piece of advice: "Concentrate very methodically on sustainability. All the doors open when you have operational, thematic and financial sustainability." Otherwise, it’s not social entrepreneurship, but charity.
]]>He remembers noticing that poor women usually don’t have a place at the table because they don’t bring food, "but microfinance creates a perceptible shift in the power balance" when women start bringing revenues.
Microfinance helped P. N. Vasudevan open his eyes. As he tells Global X, he now realizes that he never noticed women cooking on the sidewalk by his house and young children defecating on the street without any supervision, then going back to eating without being cleaned up.
"I never saw it in the past, even though it happened every day, but I just never noticed."
]]>You may want to pay attention to Urmee at 2’27" into this interview, when she recommends to "get out into the field and learn about the market reality." Before launching Swadhaar, Urmee and her CEO spent a year in several slums in Mumbai to find out what Swadhaar’s potential customers really needed.
To their own surprise, they found out that women were willing to pay higher interest rates but didn’t want to work in groups and be held responsible for other’s financial situations. Her advice: "Go out and understand the market!"
Urmee then tells Global X a very moving story, one that involves a 12-year old boy who was selling tissue paper boxes at a Mumbai intersection. Urmee was fascinated by his sense of pride when he told her: "I am not begging, I am doing my job!"
She concludes: "This is typical of the spirit of the people that we are trying to help. He has become my mascot!"
]]>He also describes his success metrics: "Our team members, who work day and night for the organization."
]]>MYA goes beyond microlending. Harsha Moily’s philosophy is that microfinance should always include a wide range of financial services and other offerings for the poor. His advice: "Focus on the needs of the customer!"
Which is why MYA offers goat, cow and buffalo insurance: the death of an animal can have catastrophic consequences, as a source of income disappears and farmers can’t pay back their loan. MYA needs to provide risk mitigation.
Why is Harsha Moily doing what he is doing, asked Global X? His response: "I can’t be a spectator to what’s happening India. I need to be a player."
Watch this three-minute interview then read the Unitus case study on SocialEdge.org.
]]>Vincent Perlas, a medical doctor by training, was quite dissatisfied with medical practice and entered the field of microfinance to "use the power of finance to move lives of people, to be of service to them. And I knew that traditional banking would not have helped those who really needed help."
The visits in the field keeps him moving, especially the stories of lives that have been changed. He remembers a woman with physical disability (she can’t easily express herself) who received a first loan of 4,000 pesos/US$80 to open a convenience store. She has done so well that she has extended her operations in the pig meat industry, transportation business and ready to wear garments. She now owns a huge house with all the appliances, send her children to school. She even asked her husband to quit his job to work for her!
Vincent Perlas hasthree ingredients to success:
1. Spirit
As a social entrepreneur, you have to be persistent, even (or especially) when things don’t work well: "When you are in hell, you go on. We had the will to move forward."
2. Methodology
Vincent Perlas learned from another institution based in Bangladesh, but adapted the business model to the local context. Lifebank grew quickly "thanks to the right methodology, the proper approach, and simplified, cost-effective standardized model."
3. Gas to grow
Unitus opened many doors for Lifebank by helping them get international rating, which in turn helped them get funding very quickly.
Vincent Perlas has a piece of advice for fellow social entrepreneurs: "Face the challenges! There is light at the end of the tunnel."
]]>Global X even met his daughter Monica Yunus, a soprano with the Metropolitan Opera in New York who sang in French just for him (and a few thousand other people): a piece from Gounod’s Romé et Juliette. Her French was very good, thought Global X at that time.
At last, a few weeks ago, Global X had a chance to sit down with the Professor to have a little chat. Just the two of them (and a movie crew).
Global X, for once, was mesmerized and actually became speechless. Listen to Professor Yunus as he tells the story of the first US$27 loan in a village of Bangladesh, the loan that launched the microfinance movement. Watch him as he recalls how surprised he was that it took so little money to free village women from modern-day slavery, humiliation and torture.
]]>In this short (four minutes) interview, CS Ghosh tells Global X why he launched a social venture to help the poor in India and gives advice to fellow social entrepreneurs.
Three words: “Focus, focus, focus!”
]]>She has a background in physical therapy and industrial engineering, in addition to a PhD in public health. This allows her to conceive practical solutions that improve productivity and product quality, potentially increasing earning potential while preventing serious damage to the artisans’ health.
Karen tells Global X how she was able to build an ergonomic bench that helped artisans achieve in two days what used to take them three. More importantly, she noticed that for these women, "pain was not the limiting factor anymore. They just stopped working because they had other things to do, not because they were in such a pain."
]]>LED lights replace kerosene lamps, which are so expensive to use that they need to be subsidized by the Indian Government. They are also dangerous and do not produce much light compared to the energy they use.
Thrive’s lamps are safe, consume very low power, provide clean and powerful lighting, and do not emit any smoke.
So says Satish Somepalli to Global X!
]]>CFM creates a global market for handmade products made by artisan communities, thus creating employment opportunities for those who are dependent on handicrafts for their livelihood.
Rahul Barkataky describes a project they launched in Gujarat, an area that was devastated by earthquake in 2001. CFM was able to provide US$10,000 to a group of 375 women --a very significant impact.
Much more remains to be done, but Rahul Barkataky is optimistic: "Poverty may not be completely eradicated ten years from now, but there will be more positive stories with real impact. It will be a better place than now."
]]>She looked for a solution and launched Build Change to build earthquake-resistant houses in developing countries and change construction practices permanently so that homeowners in seismically active developing countries can sleep at night.
]]>He tells Global X why his simple technology, which better preserves local crops, is breaking the vicious cycle of poverty.
The results: farmers sell their crops when demand is high, and more girls can go to school.
]]>Modern technologies in rural settings? Yes, despite the lack of electricity and many other complex challenges, AfriAfya is having a positive impact on HIV-AIDS prevention: "The members of our community are changing their behavior. There is hope!"
]]>Watch this three-minute interview in which Angelique Smit tells Global X why she is an optimist: "Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare. I want to stay awake!"
]]>In this short interview (two minutes), he tells Global X the story of a 16-year old girl who was traveling by bus in the Sudan when she was taken by armed militia to a remote place, beaten up and raped.
The accused were acquitted, because the law, based on the sharia, requires four independent, neutral witnesses for this type of crime. "She is now married to a relative," concludes Mossad Mohamed Ali.
Global X found out later that the relative was actually a much older uncle.
]]>Berenice and her team work with affected communities to raise social awareness and promote empowerment. They use civic and legal tools to non-violently defend themselves and assert their human rights.
In this interview with Global X (in Spanish), she talks about forensic anthropology, exhumations related to criminal acts and concludes: "It’s better to die for something than live for nothing!"
¡Es mejor morir por algo que vivir por nada!
]]>What he finds confusing is the situation in the Middle East. "Some say that Jews and Palestinians are very smart people. After decades of war, I can say that we are stupid!"
In this interview, Mitri Raheb tells Global X what happened to the Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem in 2002: "What I built over five years was destroyed in 11 hours by the Israeli Army."
Mitri Raheb went through the 1967 war, the 1973 war and the first Gulf War, when Scud missiles were sent by Iraq over Israel and he didn’t have a mask to protect his two-months-old daughter. Then the 2002 siege of the Church of the Nativity. "That’s 40 years of ongoing conflict. Will my grand-child have to live through another war???"
Mitri Raheb is not optimistic for his daughter. He thinks that 10 years from now, "Palestine will look like a piece of Swiss cheese. Israel gets the cheese and Palestinians get the holes... An apartheid system with two different legal systems."
But there is hope. "Hope is what we do!"
]]>In this short interview (four minutes), she tells Global X the story of a woman who spent over seven years out of an eight-year marriage to try to get a divorce from her violent husband, even though he had already remarried and had children with his new wife.
Zainah Anwar, an optimist, hopes that her current work will become irrelevant in the next 10 years. She knows that the laws that Malaysia has inherited from the British need to be adapted to the new realties that women are now facing. She is convinced that "justice will prevail, because the realities of our lives are totally different from when these laws were first conceptualized."
]]>In this three-minute interview, Jessica Montell highlights the problem of movement, the rights to go from one place to another.
She tells the story of an 11-year old girl who had appendicitis in the middle of the night. Her father tried for two days to take her to the hospital, which was very close, but he wasn’t able to receive the permission. She died.
That’s when Jessica Montell realized that what should be a 15 minute ride can sometimes take hours or may not even happen.
As for the future... Her two boys will be 18 in 2020, and they will be drafted in the military.
]]>As a result of his activism, he has been imprisoned for months at a time without access to due process of the law.
In this three-minute interview with Global X, Gérard Jean-Juste explains how he made the decision to start "une cantine" (a soup kitchen) in Haiti. A young boy, part of a family of ten children ("the father was dead, the mother was very ill") went to him to complain that he was hungry. "It was like a cry in my heart. I had to perform a miracle."
He did.
]]>Dr. Ibrahim and his associates have faced three trials and three imprisonments by Egyptian Security Courts and were sentenced twice to seven years imprisonment. Egypt’s High Court of Cassation later acquitted the defendants of all charges.
On September 11, he was in a Cairo jail. Listen to him as he describes what happened that day, as he remembered that his wife and daughter were in New York accepting an award on his behalf only a few blocks from the World Trade Center.
And listen to him as he talks about his vision for the Middle East and takes the European unification process as a model.
]]>A former lawyer and judge in her home country of Canada, then chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, she believes “in the law and the legal process.”
She told Global X about this woman who had lost her husband and two sons in the war, and who was still able to see beyond revenge: “She knew there was another way to settle grievances.”
She is optimistic for the long term, but quite realistic over the immediate future: “We don’t do a very good job at conflict resolution.” She adds, “We need to address the huge disparities in distribution of wealth, both between and within states.”
Global X asked Louise Arbour a surprise question: any advice to Social Edge members? “Don’t walk away because you think you can’t make a difference. Pick a cause! Be a citizen! Vote! Tell your governments what you want them to do and what you will not tolerate that they do on your behalf!”
]]>President Carter tells us what he saw in a small village in Ghana, and why he made the decision to eradicate the Guinea worm from our planet. Results so far: 99.7% accomplished!
He hopes that the US will become again the champion of peace (not of pre-emptive wars), the champion of human rights and preeminent in its dedication to justice. And he thinks that each of us can exemplify peace, justice, truth and humanity: “The most powerful people in a democracy are individuals.”
]]>He found out how much patience and determination it takes to get impact at the bottom of the economic pyramid (a lot!) and tells Global X why he is not convinced about market research.
]]>There, he studied how to launch a chain of affordable and convenient primary care health clinics (the first one will be launched in 2008). He also reviewed Scojo’s supply chain management strategy and looked into the shipping of glasses around the world.
His proudest moment: his 18 month-son is now more comfortable in Chinese than in English and Spanish!
]]>Nadaa Taiyab tells Global X how she was able to redesign a service conceived for the elite into a product successful with the urban poor.
Listen to her advice on how to sell a service to the urban poor: do a lot of marketing research (but not too much!) before launching, so that the design, pricing and overall offering are perfectly in sync with what customers who are at the bottom of the economic pyramid.
]]>Adrien Couton proudly tells the story of Ms Patel, who doubled her income thanks to IDE’s irrigation device. She was able to send her son to computer science school. And her family is now reunited as her husband doesn’t need to work in Bombay six months a year! This is one of 4 million small farmers IDE is serving. The potential? 260 million in India only!
]]>Adrien Couton raconte l’histoire de Madame Patel, qui a réussi à doubler ses revenus grâce au système d’irrigation d’IDE-India, et a donc ainsi pu envoyer son fils dans une école d’informatique. Sa famille est maintenant reconstituée car son mari n’a plus besoin de s’exiler en ville six mois par an ! IDE-India aide quatre millions de petits fermiers comme Madame Patel. Le potentiel ? Au moins 260 millions, rien qu’en Inde !
]]>In this two minute interview, she tells Global X how important it is to communicate the plethora of knowledge she has acquired and to share it with other communities.
This is Ayeleen Ajanee’s second interview with Global X.
]]>Global X interviews Matt and Jessica Flannery, co-founders of Kiva, before Oprah can get the chance.
Watch Matt as he explains how he made the decision to quit his Silicon Valley job and work full time for Kiva. And listen to Jessica as she describes her pre-marital problems, which actually led to Kiva’s birth!
]]>Her lessons: for a social venture targeting the bottom of the pyramid, the distribution channel is of the utmost importance. And pricing has to be right, too!
She tells Global X how difficult those decisions were for her: is $6 per net the right price, or $3? Why not $1.50? Should we subsidize the production of mosquito nets, or should we aim at being sustainable and giving the market a voice?
]]>In this three-minute interview, Jocelyn Wyatt, who was based in Nairobi, describes how she improved the corporate culture in the malaria treatment company where she worked.
]]>A returned Peace Corps volunteer in Benin who grew up in Mauritania, Pakistan, Peru, India and Rwanda, he studied biology and environmental studies in Canada and received his MBA from Stanford.
He just launched d.light design, the social venture that received best honors at the recent Global Social Venture Competition held at Berkeley.
Watch Sam as he explains his ambitious goals and describes his ha-ha moment: “My neighbor’s son in Benin was badly burned by a kerosene lamp. I want to provide a source of light that is safe and cheap.”
And read let there d.light, his new blog on Social Edge.
]]>Global X recently ran into Caroline Casey, the founding CEO of The Aisling Foundation in Ireland (“aisling” is Gaelic for dream and vision).
Caroline is an Ashoka Fellow and a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum. She was recently named an Eisenhower Fellow –which explains why she was in the U.S. for two months to meet other social entrepreneurs and expand her network (including an exclusive meeting with Global X!)
Global X was mesmerized as Caroline told her personal story and how she was dealing with her own disability. Even though she is legally blind and can only see up to one meter, she managed to achieve, at age 34, the three dreams she had when she was a teenager: she was an elephant handler, she now works for herself, and she drove a race car at 185 km/h. As she puts it, "you don’t need eyes to have a vision!"
Global X loved what she said about disability: "It’s not about you!" Or about life: "We are all frightened, we all have obstacles, but we all have wonderful moments when we are heroes. We all have potential... It’s all about facing the demons and taking the risks."
Her parting words as she was flying back to Europe: "It’s far better to be a dangerous dreamer than a day dreamer."
]]>You should also watch him as he describes how he sees the world in 2017. It’s all about human dignity.
]]>She also shares what happened when she realized that she was sitting at a conference next to a gentleman called Muhammad Yunus.
]]>He also talks about his aunt Suzan, who taught him to climb the fence when necessary: "The world is a playground, and one shouldn’t follow the rules at all times."
]]>This tragedy shows how important it is to have a strong grantee network and it highlights the importance of succession planning.
A big fan of Social Edge, Elizabeth Isele is also a rabid optimist and thinks that the world in 2017 will be a much better place, in large part thanks to improved communication tools.
]]>And that’s how Sasha Chanoff told Global X how he was able to deal with a moral issue during a recent mission in a refugees camp in the Congo: Was he supposed to save a woman and her nine children, even though they were not on the list of refugees he could evacuate? Or could he take the risk of jeopardizing the whole mission by taking them along, thus endangering the wellbeing of hundreds of refugees?
Watch him also as he tells Global X why his organization is named after Rose Mapendo, the refugee who recently won the ’Volvo for Life’ Hero Award.
]]>"How long does it take to cross a river? Four days!"
Listen to what she wishes for 2017. Obvious? Maybe, but she was the only one to mention it to Global X.
]]>He also told Global X what he was hoping for 2017: "Give, give, give!"
]]>Voilà le résultat : tout sur le poulailler communeautaire au Burkina Faso qui a disparu !
]]>He also told Global X a great story about the community henhouse that he built in Burkina Faso, which then disappeared...
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