Africa's Moment

Zawadi Students Celebrating Their Accomplishments

We all recognize the face of Dr. Wangari Matthai today. Some of us have even heard her story about coming to America on a JFK-lead air lift for young African talent.  But would you recognize her in the face of a young bright light from rural Africa, without the connections, without the Nobel Prize and without the world renown?  In other words, how do we replicate more leaders such as Dr. Matthai out of our African girls today?

Zawadi Africa Education Fund works to find just such young African women leaders, to cultivate their leadership and inspire them to work for Africa. Zawadi President & Founder, Susan Mboya--whose father was instrumental in organizing that initial airlift more than 50 years ago that brought Dr. Matthai to the US--just inspired us to greatness here at The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation with her vision and her team's results-driven work.

There are currently 118 girls who are part of the program, some attending college at institutions such as MIT, Harvard, Dartmouth and Smith.  Among them is an author, who published an anthology of poetry, as well as several social entrepreneurs, many of whose work has won funding through the Clinton Global Initiative. 

There is so much that resonates with me about this program, but I will borrow the wise words of The Africa-America Institute's (AAI) Executive Director, Mora McLean--the beauty and strength of this program is that it harnesses African talent by approaching today's challenges from an asset perspective instead of seeing a deficit. And I am also encouraged by the words of Susan Mboya herself, “(The goal for the girls is) understand what leadership looks like not just in the American context, but in Africa as well”. 

And for another full circle, AAI has been working for more than half a century to train African leaders at the graduate and professional level in the US and Africa. AAI Alumni include that famous face Dr. Matthai, among many, many other inspiring examples of positive African leadership.

The Coca-Cola Company's Signature RAIN Program. Image: The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation

One of my first memories of Coca-Cola (I'll shorthand as Coke) is how my uncle refused to drink Coke products because the company stayed in South Africa during apartheid.  To him, what spoke loudest was that their brand stayed in spite of sanctions, unlike rival Pepsico, which I did not even realize existed until South Africa won freedom. How things have changed.

Fast-forward to today and my understanding of Coke's values has evolved lightyears--I only wish my uncle were alive to see the work Coke is doing, not only in South Africa today, but throughout Africa.I'm learning about a plethora of work Coke group and its partners are doing throughout the continent. I'm especially inspired though by the values that underpin TCCF's work in Africa, from top-brass leadership and throughout the group--the head of Coca-Cola South Africa Business Unit is here. My uncle was right--actions really do speak louder than words. 

What I loved hearing this morning:

"To do business in Africa means more than just making profit—it’s partnerships on the ground, it’s bringing value to all communities where we do business, not just selling a product”-Lee Winfield, Coca-Cola Company

“Your business is inherently unsustainable if the communities where you do business are not prosperous and you are the only one doing well…you cannot leave your community behind as a responsible company”- William Asiko, The Coca-Cola Africa  Foundation (TCCAF) & Coca-Cola Company South Africa.

Driving Results and Impact. TCCAF is celebrating it's 10th anniversary this year, Coca-Cola Company its 125th year.  Since TCCF's founding in 2001, more than US$100 million has been invested by the foundation alone (so not including Coke Company business units or partners) in entrepreneurship, education, health and humanitarian assistance program, among others. At least 300,000 Africans have received clean water from Coca-Cola. Moving forward, TCCAF has committed to directly impacting lives in every country African country by 2015. The Company has committed to creating 5 million women entrepreneurs by 2020--5 in 20.

Watch this space for more details about how, beginning here in Ghana.   

Image: Gavin Watson.  The photographer notes, "Is it me or does it take some chutzpah to go ahead and do what this fellow was doing? I mean I was hiding across the street and felt like I was intruding..."

I'm listening to NPR's story, A Strange Tourist Attraction: India's Street Kids about poverty tourism in India and the street kids who live the reality of Hollywood sensationalized Slum Dog Millionare. What strikes me listening to this clip is the crisp, keen personality and intellectual curiosity of the street kids, an alertness that pops even through radio transmission--or is it that my prejudiced expectations were lower?  Listening, I am very much reminded of another impressive young voice, the spirited voice of Kennedy Odede, who hails from Kibera, won an Echoing Green Fellowship for his work with Shining Hope for Communities in Kibera and who wrote a very compelling New York Times Op-Ed about poverty tourism, Slumdog Tourism.

I'm torn. Reading Kennedy's piece, I agree that there is very little value gained by a community through such tours, especially when the opportunity cost of human dignity is weighed against any long-term impact of small immediate financial benefits (remember, such tourists often shuttle straight back to the Four Seasons for lunch and spend few dollars in the community)  But listening to this NPR segment, I recognize the importance such a tour can play in bringing a story about forgotten street kids in New Delhi to the fore and how that spotlight can help raise more funds for an organization such as Salaan Balaak Trust, which means Hello, Street Kid. Still, I can't help but cringe at the sight of a khaki-clad tourist behind a mega-lens camera, crowded by smiling, onlooking children who are nameless in said shot and indicative of a skewed power dynamic that's hard to ignore, no matter how noble or just intentions. 

"Corporate Social Responsibility is not about how money is spent, but is about how money is made." Global Compact's Mattias Stausberg, R, with Dr. Mark Specht, CEO Burda Direct Interactive. Image: Mynetfair.com

"Sustainability is not a destination, it's a journey."

10 universal Global Compact principles companies sign up for within four key areas--labour, human rights, environment and anti-corruption.  Already expelled more than 2000 companies for non-compliance, so these principles are real and companies are held to their commitment.  Today, 6,200 companies signed up in 135 countries.

Excellent Qs: How do we get the bad apples to join?  It's not just about the companies that voluntarily commit to the principles, but also about the poor performers who steer clear from clean commitments they will not and do not uphold.

A: It's about people like you. Stakeholders have to demand better behaviour from corporations and this pressure incentivices poor performers to improve. It's not a perfect system/  Our goal is to remain open. We want the companies on board who have challenges, as long as they are on the path/journey to true sustainbility. 

Excellent Q too--What is the cost of being expelled?

A: When we expell a company, we announce it, but others make a big deal about it. Then questions are asked--are you (company) hiding something/what is the problem? If we accept that a company's value is tied up in intangibles, then there is power in negative noise generated from being expelled. Quoting Warren Buffet, "If you lose money for the firm, I will be forgiving.  If you lose a shred of company reputation, I will be ruthless."

In Case You Missed It--I Did--Oxfam's Provocative, Beautiful Holiday Campiagn.

Kyle Cahill is right--the answers have to be multi-disciplinary, they are not going to come from one industry/one focus. It's business as well as NGOs, it's governments as well as the UN. Getting to the MDGs will take collective action.

Anita is inspired by the valuable lessons that JFK taught us. But the lessons are still relevant--billions still living on $2billion/day. I have to chime in then, did we really learn from the likes of JFK? Back to Amita...her work is inspiring people to get behind the MDGs. How do we motivate stakeholders beyond member-states to support and demand the MDGs?

Again, my personal 2c here--how are we incorporating the voices of those who have the most at stake here, living on $2/less/day and getting them to advocate for the MDGs? It's one thing to have a group of relatively priveleged youth in a room to talk about MDGs, but how commited will they be in the long term to the MDGs? How/When will we replicate this conference in Kibera/Soweto/Mumbai? I am reminded again of the important and pertinent work lead by bright lights such as Vicki Sloan, whom I met in New Zealans and profiled as a hero worth knowing on this blog.

Find info about the MDGs and get connected to the cause and what you can do: http://www.unfoundation.org

Best Q asked: What happens after 2015? Are we already planning for next MDGs?

Anita--The focus is on what we can do today to meet the goals. The work is meeting what we set out to do, not looking beyond and setting new goals.  Some countries will not make the goals, we already knew this, but the challenge is to push now for 2015.

United Nations Foundation Senior Advisor & Inspiring Speaker Extraordinare, Ms. Gillian Sorensen

"You can be the agents of change.  This is not just passive, it is active.  It is a choice to use your actions to be such an agent."  These are the words of Ms. Sorensen, an inspiring light in any room and widow of the late, great Ted Sorensen, who penned President JFK's famous call to action, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country". 

Talking about how you can do good and make money--rememering the first times these themes permeated the halls of the UN and began making ripples in the business community.  Pertinent to point this out today as PepsiCo was here this morning, talking about their foundation's work and how business can and does enlarge its circle to make change happen beyond the bottom line. 

50 years ago on this day, JFK was elected to the President's office. Ms. Sorensen remembers the excitement and young fire of those times. But also, how relevant the President's words then are to us today, "We all inhabit the smae small planet, we all breath the same air, we all cherish our children's future and we are all mortal". 

The World Children's Choir, Performing at a Friendship Ambassadors Foundation Event.

Lunched with two absolute power house women--Minerva Diaz, New York Martin Luther King Int'l Artists for Peace and World Harmony Coordinator, and Yin-Chu Jou, Artistic Director of Friendship Ambassadors, the organization which has organized the Youth Assembly. What I love about Minerva's tenacity is the audacity to dream big, but follow up with tangible grassroots-level action.  In the space of a week, she mobilized more than 300 students in Binghamton, NY for service learning, celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King Day.  In the space of a week people!  How? By pulling in the resources of others and leveraging infrastructure that already exists in other NGOs. We spend a lot of time in the space talking about reduntant services, so refereshing to meet someone who understands how much more powerful our work can be when we choose to join forces with our "competitors", when we make coalitions and collaborations real, not just a chekbox on a list. 

I also LOVE Minerva's spirit. Did I mention this woman found a Victorian era home online, drove from nyc to Bighhamton and had the deal closed within a week?  Talk about a go-get'em fierceness!

University of Bridgeport Student Francisco Eguiguren Attending 7th Annual UN Youth Assembly.

Yin-Chu is currently wokring on a really exciting gathering, piggybacking on the momentum of the 2012 World Choir Olympics. Her vision, Rhythms of One World, will bring together the best of more than 400 world choirs in New York City to celebrate international collaboration and the spirit of the UN through the arts.  Yin-Chu is a classicly trained pianist herself and will be performing in the Phillipines next month.  I LOVE how she's married her love of music and arts with a passion for global issues and the impact multilateral institutes such as the UN can have.

More to come...blogging live from the UN Youth Assembly, speaking this afternoon about the NYU Reynolds Program for Social Entrepreneurship and Zenzele Circle. Watch this space...

Program Youth Director of the 7th Annual Youth Assembly, Esperanza Garcia, Addressing the Youth Assembly.

Happy New Year!

And what a way to usher in the Edge.  I am blogging live from the UN Headquarters in NYC at the 8th Annual Youth Assembly.  Full house, bright-eyed youth and some very big dreams.  This year's theme is Corporate Responsibility, Social Enterprise and the Success of the MDGs.  This afternoon, I will address the Assembly on social entrepreneurship, speaking specifically about the NYU Reynolds Program for Social Entrepreneurship--which is currently accepting applications for the 2011/2012 fellowship year--as well as my work with Zenzele Circle.

Honored to be here, look forward to sharing wisdom gleaned throughout the day.

This week renewed my faith in why I do what I do.  GVN Be The Change introduced me to a group of passionate, grounded and very real people who welcomed me into their lives and allowed us all to learn from each other.  I am so grateful for this opportunity and cannot wait to see each participant and their idea butterfly beyond the embrace of our community. Fly. Am so proud to introduce you to my new circle of friends and the work they are doing.

Image:Getting goofy with the team. Photo by our resident Artist-Photographer, Kathryn Caruso.

Kent, Palmersto, North New Zealand.

“Everyone can see a kid with a broken arm, but how do we see a kid with mental health issues?”  Kent's presentation of his vision moved the room to silence.  This man is powerful. He speaks about mental health services for youth from a deeply gutteral and primal place. He amplifies our best self, the part that helps pull us through dark days, perhaps because he's been there himself. And he's only 18. Kent envisions building a safe house for Kiwi youth battling depression.  More Kiwis die from suicide than from car accidents. This is a young man who understand the stigma attached to the issue and has the potential to shift a culturally and persoally tragic issue.  He’s also mad funny, with raucous jokes for days. And he’s a huge fan of his faith.  Cannot wait to see where your star shines, Kent.

Emily, Montreal, Canada.

The travelling bookworm from Quebec. A strong sense of self and the maturity to know how to best be the change according to her own life journey. So many people believe they need to emulate the Ghandi's of the world to Be The Change. Emily is one of few people I've met who understands her greatest contribution is in being Emily and contributing to social change through small, cumulative steps in her life's journey. So much respect for you Emily. Her goal after Be The Change is to study culture/anthropology/Spanish at Concordia University and to use that knowledge to help build cross-cultural organizations.  This is a blooming intrapreneur.

Kathryn, Detroit, US

“Once it’s produced, plastic never goes away”. Kathryn has taught me so much about greening the ocean in just a week, by bombarding me with a fierce combination of keen design, compassionate story-telling and rare passion and commitment. I now know there’s a garbage patch in the Pacific the size of Texas from plastic consumption. Do you know how big Texas is? Mammoth. We eat this plastic and plastic chemicals when we eat fish, because so much sea life now ingests plastic chemicals floating in their waters. Because of Kathryn, I’m challenging myself to move toward a more eco-friendly lifestyle—beginning with just saying NO to plastic. A single bottle of water takes half a liter of oil and 2L water to produce. Catherine also has the sickest, most eclectic music shuffling through her iPod. Think Ray LaMontagne, everything Motown, Guns & Roses and something bluegrass. Am in Love.

Staci, NYC, US

Poverty and unemployment in post conflict and fragile countries drive youth frustration and fuel conflict. Creating business opportunities for youth in these countries could help creating jobs and rebuilding war-town communities. Staci’s social venture is poised to fill this gap. Expect big things, including launch in early 2011. Love this woman, whose lucky number is 13 and who shares a b-day with one of my sisters. Go Virgo! And she knows what she’s talking about—she’s probably one of a handful non-journalist Americans/foreigners who were trolling around inside the Soviet as the Berlin Wall crumbled. Staci’s travel stories are the funny, smart, what the what were you thinking? kind of confirmations of the singularity of the human story.

Caroline, Atambua, Indonesia

Sweet Caroline—she’s an embodiment of the song and a beautiful, quiet stregnth. Fourth generation Chinese born in Indonesia and now living in Australia. Caroline wants to transform education in rural Timor, where she says 60% of students  failed national high school aptitude tests for the last five years. The problem is quite acute because rural schools are remote, do not attract top teaching talent and have a language barrier that keeps international volunteers out. She wants to incorporate more creative thinking and learning in the curriculum. Maybe a place to start is with dance? She taught me some mean traditional Indonesian moves.

Cait, Boston, US

Thought I knew Boston: insert stereotype of crazed Sox fans.   Thank goodness I met Cait, who’s put that image to rest. Although she's did make evening news for dancing on an ambulance after a celebratory (?) Red Sox game. Cait is a burst of confident kindness, the type of woman sporting good manners as if it were perfume. And she is poetic. “Imagine if all the UN Ambassadors had grown up together”. Her vision is to bring kids together so they can share their stories and build cross-cultural relationships early “to re-write the single story”. This woman is powerful. The UN will be thanking her in a generation for well-behaved, mindful and kind global ambassadors.

Lindsay N., Kansas, US

Lindsay understand the university is a resource hub and wants to find ways to offer social-change oriented provocative entertainment to students through university student activities offices. She’s from the middle of the country. Kansas. She has sailed around the world and next is flying lessons from grandpa.

Shalla, Australia

Grey Power! Love that term, describing empowerment services her organization offers the fragile and aging population. Shalla has an infectious laugh, a fun naughty streak, “I’ve been trying to get out of fire for a long time” and blue eyes that draw you in. I love how much she respects Aboriginal culture and her quiet understanding of the dovetailing historic stories in Auzzie history.

Lindsay H., Ottawa, Canada

Our RockStar. Literally. Lindsay is a geological star.  In a previous life, She helped write community stakeholder consultation rights during mineral exploration expeditions into the law in Guinea-Bissau. Witnessing her blossoming this week and coming into her own both profesionallu and personally--yes, I saw all this in a week--inpired my humanity and faith in the work I do.  Her vision of change is going to transform the mineral exploration community and utilize their unique assets for the benefit of communities in remote (and often forgotten, when was the last time you heard of Guinea-Bissau?) developing countries worldwide.  And she understands local communities are a resource themselves.  Lindsay really plays up my stereotype of Canada as North America's more mindful twin sibling. Go Canada.

The next Be The Change is scheduled for June 2011 in Tuscany, Italy.  Check out the website for details about how to apply and what you can expect.  You may also be interested in volunteering with GVN--great programs worldwide.  

Not sure how the Kiwi’s have managed, but they’ve kept their knockout yoghurt and Colin Salisbury New Zealand’s best-kept secrets. The yoghurt here is perfect. Colin is different. This is a man who told me he read his first book, cover to cover, at 18. I thought I was being duped in a Down Under rerun of The Ali G. But he was serious. Colin is also the same man who began experimenting with the concept of social enterprise more than 20 years ago, when putting those two words together probably indicated a mild form of deranged delusion. He founded Global Volunteers Network to place volunteers worldwide in opportunities that could help them make a difference. The company was a for-profit entity when making money was tantamount to sin in the social sector. He ran his company entirely online in those pre-wikipedia/facebook days, before it was normal to quit a high-performing job to start something that sounded to everyone else straight out of a sci-fi movie. Colin says his farewell party from a plushy government job overseeing a national office had the feeling of a sendoff for a mad man—everyone came to look at just how crazy he really was. And he was. He started a global company on faith. He began working in his basement on a concept that would eventually place more than 13,500 volunteers over the last 8 years in 22 countries, touching at least 50,000 children and their families.

Colin Salisbury, Founder of Global Volunteer Network.

Colin lives out loud. He thinks different. He has an infectious, I’m still a boy having fun laugh and he knows how to give others that infectious greed for life +social change he carries. Colin also knows his limits and has done an impressive job investing in his team and building an open, entrepreneurial company culture. Sure, he’s the boss and there are issues with GVN, just as with any other organization, but I find listening to his lessons learned useful because he’s willing to admit he doesn’t know it all and because he’s honest enough to say what he does know he learned the best way—by failing first. He shared what he calls “lessons from the front” with us at Be The Change:

1.  No Pain. No Gain.
2. Get Used to NO. And start celebrating those NOs because it’s a numbers game—every 9 NOs bring you closer to 1 YES.
3. Keep Your Eye On The Prize. If you try win every battle, you’ll lose the war. Ask yourself, will this matter in 5 years?
4. Just Do It! Don’t live in the buzz.
5. Zig-Zag. Just as a yacht tacks to go upwind, your track to success is most likely a zig-zag.
6. FIO: Figure It Out. People value authenticity over perfection
7. It’s Not About You. Begin your work with your stakeholders’ voice asking WIFM , what’s in it for me?
8. There’s No I In Team. See this TED Talk by X, here. The first follower is the tipping point that makes a lone nut into a leader. Nurture such first followers as equals.
9. Stay in the Flame. Do what you’re good at. I’m reminded of one of my favorite short story American writers, Flannery O’Connor. Asked why she became a writer and continued to write till her death, she responded simply, “Because I’m good at it.”.
10.  Speak From the Why? not What? Understand why you do what you do and speak from that place. Let that not only inform your narrative, but also, how you win others for your cause. I love this Live8 video Colin showed us to illustrate this point. Annie Lennox sings her Why? from so deep in her gut you have to be moved by her story, even if you take issue with Live8.
11.  You Need a Vision Bigger Than Yourself. Steve Job’s vision is to make a dent in the universe. If your vision is to impact your city, your vision better be big enough to impact a province/state.

Caitie Goddard, GVN Foundation’s social media whizz presented a workshop on how to leverage social media tools for a cause at Be The Change, New Zealand. I still find stats on the digital divide fascinating.  Microsoft found 1 in 200 Ugandans regularly use e-mail (The Economist).  According to academics Fuchs and Horak, although Africa's 900 million citizens make up 14.1% of world population, only 2.6% of all internet users live in Africa.  If power to the people is about virtual participation, how do more Africans gain the tools and access to share micro updates about their eating/spending/liking habits?  Jokes aside, there is a serious ongoing conversation about how to marry the ubiquitous accessibility of mobile phones in Africa with the power derived from participation courtesy of a smarter computer.

Image: Beetles Fans Experiencing a Mild Reaction, Williamsburg NY Glasses and All.

But I digress. Caitie and Colin Salisbury shared tools you may find useful to your viral markerting efforts:

• You already know about FB/Twitter/Mashable/Delicious/Digg/Blogging/Tonic…but you may not know about Stumbleupon, a website that curates random sites you have yet to visit, based on your search history. A feature of your website on Stumbleupon could help attract traffic, which is always good for boosting a marketing/donation campaign.
• Fundraising Gems: Kickstarter and Crowdriser. Both are online fundraising platforms, allowing you to crowd-fundraise for your pet project through friends/family and people who stumble upon your cause and just have to donate. Kickstarter focuses on creative projects. An example is Blue Like Jazz—target was $125,000, they raised $345,992 from 4495 backers. That’s not bad at all. Crowdriser likes to mix The Onion-age humour with fundraising. A quotable from Crowdriser, “If you don’t give back no one will like you.” My favourite, “Win an invisible stapler autographed by a stranger.”
• It's Not About You.  Most people log online to be entertained or to grab knowledge, not to buy something or to donate to your cause.  So find ways to give them what they want: Entertainment (think how many hours do you clock in The Social Network?) and/or Knowledge (gotta love TED defacto the best university of our generation, and cool spinoffs like FRED). And then intercept.
• Build A Database & Speak To It. Keep a database all your stakeholders, especially people who have been through your program/purchased your product. This is extremely valuable information, but only if you keep a relationship going by keeping your "community" engaged with your work.  Use E-mail. Include reasonable, low-buy in action points. Let them know how things are going, but be honest + transparent. Share a story, not a look how much we shine gloating gala. Don't swamp, you'll hit that auto-delete button very fast.
• Remember, for most sites, only 1 in 100 unique visits turns into a conversion--sale/donation.

Nothing beats face-time.  You have to log off to save the world. Switch Off.

Images: GVN Foundation Executive Director and Co-Founder Courtney with Elizaand Lauren, also of GVN Foundation.

Courtney Montague, Co-Founder of GVN Foundation, (with Colin Salisbury) 2009 NYU Reynolds Fellow for Social Entrepreneurship and Chief Compassionate Optimist-in charge presented a workshop at GVN's Be The Change, New Zealand: Vehicles of Social Change.  Some important tools she shared:

• Stack your Board of Directors with three Ws—Wisdom. People who know stuff. Wealth. People with cash (and will give it). Work. People who get stuff done.

• “The structure you pick should fit your idea. Your idea should not be made to fit your structure.” Word from Keren Raz, esq., among a handful of legal experts at the cutting edge of social enterprise + law.

• Define and stick to a clear mission and vision. Mission—I love this article from the Harvard Business Review blog about an eight-word mission statement:

What+ Verb+ Outcome. 

Also, Kiva’s co-Founder Jessica Jackley tells a compelling story about how Kiva turned down $10 million because the investor’s vision of how the money would be deployed did not fit Kiva’s mission.  Check out her TED Talk here, although the $10m story is from another talk.

• Define Mission Measurement. How are you going to know you are succeeding? Are you working to put yourselves out of business?  A great example of this concept is The Atlantic Philanthropies, which is endowed with $4B and working to give all $4B away by 2020.   

• Have a plan. Just as businesses go through development life-cycles, so do NGOs. Professor Paul Light of NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service penned an informative paper on this topic, Nonprofit Cycle. Of 450 top-performing NGOs surveyed, 25 were eventually hand picked by for more in-depth analysis.  Of the group of 25, 7 did not have a current strategic plan. There’s always the balance between planning and implementation, but strategic evaluation and planning can be especially useful if your organization is at a key development stage—new, undergoing expansionary growth or sliding down the cyclical trajectory. 

Image: GVN Foundation Co-Founder Courtney Montague with Students supported, in part, by GVN Foundation in Peru.

Courtney started GVN Foundation from the basement of her parent’s house in Colorado.  Global Volunteers Network identified a desire among its volunteers to contribute donations and on-going support to GVN’s global partner organizations, where the volunteers were deployed. But as a for-profit entity incorporated in New Zealand, GVN did not have the infrastructure to facilitate these donations.  So, Courtney trekked from Wellington, New Zealand to Colorado, where she set up an NGO that could not only receive charitable donations from volunteers to support GVN partner organizations, but also, could directly raise dollars itself.

For the first year of GVN Foundation’s life, Courtney basically armed herself with a copy of “Nonprofit for Dummies” and an iron will to get the job done. GVN’s office tag line is FIO—Figure It Out.  And so she did.  She managed to file and secure 501(c) 3 status with the IRS in one month—unheard of—and went on to build an admirable startup organization.  To date, GVN has raised $1.3M+ directly benefiting 23 partner organizations in 11 countries. They also do cool stuff.  Think leading fundraiser mountain summits up Mt. Kilimanjaro, Everest Base Camp and Machu Pichu. Money raised on each of these treks went to building a primary school in Uganda that is still in operation, an orphanage in Kathmandu.

Image: Chinese Lanterns in Hoi An, Vietnam.  Picture from TravelPod.com

Next year,GVN Foundation plans to lead a 540km Cycling Challenge in Vietnam from Saigon (Ho Chi Minh) to Hoi An, a UNESCO World Heritage city. Funds raised will benefit health and education programs for GVN partner-orphanages. More information about that trip here. And should you sign up, you never know…I may show up just to cheerlead you on.

Aotearoa.  Land of the Long White Cloud.  Am live-blogging from Down Under, New Zealand.  Inordinately charmed by this country, where nothing indigenous will harm you (mammals first came with humans, beginning roughly in the 13th century), wild horses roam and where Global Volunteer Network Foundation is hosting its seventh Be The Change course.  The course is a week-long program designed to give social change agents introductory tools, language, knowledge and skills to launch their visions of change.

Tonight was electrifying.

Vicky Soanes spoke. Not only was this the first time I've sat through a lecture about the UN without 1)mouth falling ajar and/or 2)wanting to hurl something in reaction; but this was also the first time I've heard someone from the global north speak about poverty and the poor with such dignity, sincerity and subtle, unspoken empathy. I am so moved. Vicki gets it the way you'd get it if homelessness was not just a remote problem, but something that affected a cousin you grew up with, the way you'd understand hunger if your neighbor's children favored playing with your kids just to score a free lunch of dry bread and murky tea. Her lecture's title? Rocking the Boat.

GVN Be The Change, New Zealand. Vicki Soans wears beautiful smile and black tee.

It began with ATD 4th World, founded by Joseph Sarinsky. The 4th World represents the belief that the humiliation and shut-out citizenship poverty inflicts on the poor is universal whether you are poor and living in North Philadelphia or are Roma in France and disenfranchised or part of the rural poor in Egypt. 

ATD forces its volunteers to see poverty in their home country first.  Poverty is not happening to those people over there, where we can float in on our parachutes and help to change them/the world.  Poverty is what we force ourselves to normalize when we jump over homeless beggars on the way to Starbucks, it’s the untouchable exclusion and invisibility ordinary people inhabit in every society and culture because they are poor. 

Vicki tells a story from some years ago in Cairo.  She is young, white and curious. Children clamor for her attention everywhere. Begging, smiling, wanting to be seen. A little boy and his older friend peer into her taxi.  Maybe they wave.  She smiles. The older friend shoves the little one aside.  It’s a quick move, maybe reflex, but in that moment Vicki catches the humiliation of poverty in the little boy’s face.  He’s naked in that moment, and something raw about his stripped dignity is conveyed without words. 

Imagine going through life unseen and shoved aside.  Who would you become?

Then there’s Vicki’s story of Aleen Tita. Aleen is Filipina. She was among a group of representatives ATD brought to New York to meet then UN Secretary General Kofi Anan. Aleen’s visa was initially denied in the Philippines despite her letter of invitation from the Secretary General—after all, what could someone living in a cemetery have to say that could take us one step closer to world peace?  But therein lies a simple, radical idea—the UN engaging people living in poverty as participants, not recipients? On meeting Anan, Aleen grabbed his hand and promptly began bashing it against the desk as she spoke, “We are here to help you against this fight against poverty”.  She broke protocol (no touching) but Vicki remembers how the weight of her arm remained with Anan long after that meeting. She also told us Aleen concluded that “it wasn’t a waste of time” after all.  It matters to be heard, it matters to participate.  As Vicki points out—“a way to fight poverty is (the) participation (of the poor)”. 

Vicki seriously challenged my knee-jerk ideas of the UN.  Real work does get done. “Things change at the UN.  If you don’t believe in change, you shouldn’t be here”.  More than that though, she spoke with such humility and conviction about something I so rarely hear leaders acknowledge—no one is a better expert about poverty than the poor themselves.  If we accept this, why aren’t we listening?
 

On Sunday evening, I gave a FRED Talk(=TED+Friends), about social change and imagination. The argument is simple. We have the power to transform the world to the imagined, to a new world that exists only in our mind space.  Some of humanity's most celebrated characters lived in something of a dream-state, a place only they had been to, a promised land they wished we could visit, a secret garden of magic and mild strokes of madness--where assumptions about the possible are turned on their heads and where things that seem given are not necessarily so.

Image: Constance Stuart Larrabee. Pimville, Soweto. 1948. 

I spoke about my beloved Soweto. Because there was such rich imagination in the minds of the 12-, 13-,16-year olds who, on June 16, 1976, believed they could topple the military state of apartheid with their poetic placards, David of Goliath stones and untested ideas of an alternative South African reality. Can you imagine?  

I also spoke about our imagined selves and how living from this place of imagination, of possibility, frees us to live out-loud, to lead lives that may even seem, in retrospect, freaks of anachronism.  Take Joseph Bologne Chavalier de Saint George--favored candidate to direct the prestigious Paris Royal Opera, renowned competitive fencer and distinguished soldier. (And subject of previous post, here). All this at a time when slavery persisted in France, when blacks didn't rise even to middle class society.  Yes, he was uniquely privileged by heritage, but let's not forget it took something significant for him to imagine and become more than what was expected of a "mulatto" in 1752 France.

Take Steve Biko, who penned "I Write What I Like", beginning 1969. Yes, it's very much a political poem of defiance, but you miss how daring and mad his imagination of black manhood was if all you read in Frank Talk's notes is the political.  Biko's was a re-imagination of the self and of our selves.  He shared our metaphysical reality but lived inspired by imagination, dictating to and conforming the world to his vision.  Biko was one of the first people I read as a kid who challenged my perceived reality. 

Image: Soweto Style. Mark Lanning. I love what this room communicates about how the owner imagines life--as inspiring, as beautiful, as an abundance, even while living in a typical, three-room Soweto home.

And then there are the creative provocateurs. I just heard Khaya Dlange's TEDxSoweto Talk, Power To The People. He talks about how to create your own narrative and get others to buy into you and your mind space. Absolutely Love. Funny because Khaya is an Ad guy by day and I was asked, on Sunday--how do we stop Ad heads (and bad players, eg. dictators) from transforming our world to their imagination? I don't know. And I'm not sure we can. But we can use our will and imagination to add another layer of complexity over the footprint advertisers (and others) leave. Isn't that at core how we've arrived--by inheriting warped physical transformations of the earth--at today's green revolution?  

Back to advertisers though. I met the Justus Bruns and Ineke Renzema, part of the team behind Times Square to Arts Square, at FRED. They envision an advertising-free Times Square, a public art space to inspire pure imagination.  Probably a crazy idea one of these kids dreamed about in a very wild and very active imagination. Probably impossible.  How will they ever convince the likes of Khaya to forgo advertising dollars and enjoy the art? Probably impossible. But, that's the beauty of imagination. It allows us the impossible because, as Einstein insisted, "Imagination Is More Important Than Knowledge". Imagination frees us to believe that something different is possible. Because we have seen it, or we live it inside of ourselves. Creating and re-defining this world to our imagination is the best of being alive because in our imagination, we are free.

Yes, this is unabashed promotion of great work by greater people. You're Invited!

Amandla Development: ReJoice! Friendraiser in support of Amandla's ongoing partnerships with education innovators in South Africa. Amandla envisions a South Africa where individuals of all backgrounds have equal opportunity and live to their fullest dignified potential.

Date: Thursday, October 14, 2010, 6:30PM-10:00PM Location: Bubble Lounge, 228 W Broadway (at White St). RSVP: http://bit.ly/b97lGU

 South African Chamber of Commerce in America: Missing Middle Summit, where the theme of the SME finance gap will be covered by the leading investors, intermediaries, and entrepreneurs and the opportunity to network with top Africa business focused professionals & thought leaders.

The Missing Middle represents the segment of capital which is larger than microfinance, yet smaller than institutional financing, and is largely absent in emerging markets, especially in Africa. Financing targeted at small to medium enterprises (SMEs) is the next wave of capital development following microfinance, with the potential to create significant social impact as well as competitive market rate returns.

Date: Saturday, October 23, 2010; 12:00PM–5:00PM Location: The Desmond Tutu Center, 180 10th Avenue, New York, NY RSVP: http://africaplatform.eventbrite.com/

Hope to see you there.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper Announcing the G-20 Ashoka SME Challenge.

Economic Downturn as Opportunity: Investing in Small & Medium Businesses Now

People are often surprised that as an African woman, I was not taught to be a second class citizen.  It's just never been an issue.  Expectations of who I'd be or what I could do seldom had much to do with my gender.  Blame it on being one of three girls raised by the strong force of nature I call my mother, modeled on her mother, or look to my all-girls education as the reason why I never flinched at the thought of fighting battles like a girl--all the girls I knew packed a mean punch and seemed to have no hiccups facing life as women.

So why do I find myself confronted with gender-equality issues from my post-modernist post-feminist, post-issues perch of twenty first century New York City? Why do I sometimes find myself sitting in meetings as a principal where my presence is barely acknowledged from the other side of the table? Why do I sometimes find myself deferring to others more often than my male colleague?  Is it out of frustration? expectation? self-doubt?

American War Propaganda Poster--When Strength Meant Fighting Like A Man. 

I seriously doubt all women categorically share my experience of perceiving leadership as colored by gender.  But I do find it interesting that this theme resonates deeply with so many of my peers, who also grew up in a post-feminist world and who are also by every definition, such admirable and fierce leaders.  Working in the social sector--which is so peopled by women--this conversation seems to have very little language and I have yet to even find a name for the difference I perceive as a social entrepreneur-leader who happens to also be a woman.  It's almost as if by virtue of working in a mission-driven environment, gender/race/income/(fill in your favorite) issues are assumed away, when in reality, these issues live inside us and find a way into every organization we engage with.  This can be amplified in a space where these issues are unnamed.  

Challenge. The next time you are at a high-brow fundraiser for your favorite cause, look around the room and note how many minority leaders (not beneficiaries!) you can pick out.  Where are all the under-educated/black/Asian/women/low-income superstars of our space? Yes, to be fair, our space exists in large part in response to this dearth. But I have to challenge us to step back from being the doctor for a moment, and consider are we also the patient? 

I'll leave you with this. A woman leader I admire told me she does not and cannot walk into a room apologizing for who she is. Her leadership is informed by everything she is as much as what she isn't and she leads from the strength of that place. Being a social entrepreneur requires such leadership in action. How much stronger would our sector be if we openly acknowledged that even in a progressive space such as social entrepreneurship, women still have to fight to play?  Maybe it's time to start making noise about this.  Go ahead.  Fight like a girl!

At the beginning of this month I attended a seminar about Entrepreneurial Thought in Action. Seemed honest enough from the title, even if I worried about the potential of mild boredom. I was completely blown out the water. 

Our conversation was led by Professor Elizabeth Thornton of Babson College. We started with everything you might expect to hear about entrepreneurship but ended somewhere very different--the psychological tools one needs to build internally to become an effective entrepreneur. There's a lot of great stuff an MBA/equivalent program can equip you with (or not, see Top Discussion: Social Change, Does it take an MBA?)but how do you train your brain to become more objective about situations and not project your insecurities on others' actions, how do you learn to seek out or create opportunity when the plan you meticulously laid out fails or leads you somewhere different from your intended destination? In short, can you cultivate the intangibles that make someone entrepreneurial?

Elizabeth Thornton, Professor of Entrepreneurship & Chief Diversity Officer Babson. Photo:Dina Rudick.

Elizabeth made a lot of great points that I hope you can thump through when she publishes her book, but I found her seminar resonated with me because the best of entrepreneurship is really life-skills learned on speed. I've learned/am learning this the hard way.  This summer has been a trial of nerves for me. Being an entrepreneur tests the faith I have in myself and my chops everyday.  Am I attempting something too ambitious? What makes me think I can pull this off? Does everyone I approach see me as the emperor with no clothes rattling off about the minutia of another business detail or are they impressed with how quickly I've educated myself about random details that are my business' flavor of the week?  

The battle is constant and everyday.  In moments of victory I find loop holes and clever ways of edging my agenda forward. On harder days I'm overwhelmed and have to be reminded--why am I doing this again?  I love having the comfort of others around me who know what I am going through, who mentor me through my very real internal and external battles.  I love that entrepreneurial action deepens my self-knowledge and forces me to sharpen the tools that allow me to have faith that I can pull this off. There's a lot that probably cannot be taught about being entrepreneurial in action, but there is such as thing as cultivating entrepreneurial thought and it may be the first step to entrepreneurship in action.