Entries For: 2007
- December (6)
- November (5)
- October (5)
- September (4)
- August (4)
- July (5)
- June (4)
- May (4)
- April (3)
- March (13)
- February (4)
- January (4)
2007-12-31
Mohammed Abba - Nigeria
Filed Under:
GSBI 2007
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.
2007-12-24
Caroline Nyami-Kisia - South Africa
Filed Under:
GSBI 2007
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!"
2007-12-18
Joachim Ezeji - Nigeria
Filed Under:
GSBI 2007
"Africa wants to change, but the problem is leadership," says the geologist-turned-social-entrepreneur to Global X. The other issue: "Resources. Money is king!"
His hope for 20017: "There will be more interest from the first world to help the third world."
2007-12-11
Angelique Smit - Cambodia
Filed Under:
GSBI 2007
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!"
2007-12-04
Mossad Mohamed Ali - Darfur
Filed Under:
Mossad Mohamed Ali, a lawyer and human rights defender based in South Darfur, works for an organization that provides legal aid and medical and psycho-social assistance to victims of torture and sexual violence and those at risk of the death penalty and amputations.
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.
Bernice Celeyta - Colombia
Filed Under:
Bernice Celeyta is president of La Asociación para la Investigación y Acción Social - NOMADESC (Association for Social Research and Action), where she works primarily with women, trade unionists, campesinos, the Afro-Colombian and indigenous peoples.
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!
2007-11-27
Mitri Raheb - Palestine
Filed Under:
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!"
Apollinaire Malumalu - Congo
Filed Under:
2007-11-20
Zainah Anwar - Malaysia
Filed Under:
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."
2007-11-13
Jessica Montell - Israel
Filed Under:
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.
2007-11-06
Gerard Jean-Juste - Haiti
Filed Under:
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.
2007-10-30
Saad Ibrahim - Egypt
Filed Under:
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.
2007-10-23
Louise Arbour - United Nations
Filed Under:
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
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!”
2007-10-16
Jimmy Carter - The Carter Center
Filed Under:
Nobel Peace Prize
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.”
2007-10-09
David Lehr - India
Filed Under:
Acumen Fund Fellow - Class of 2007
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.
This is David Lehr's second interview with Global X. You may want to watch the first one here.
2007-10-02
Eric Berkowitz - China
Filed Under:
Acumen Fund Fellow - Class of 2007
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!
2007-09-25
Nadaa Taiyab - India
Filed Under:
Acumen Fund Fellow - Class of 2007
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.
Watch Nadaa Taiyab in this short (four minutes) interview!
2007-09-18
Adrien Couton - India
Filed Under:
Acumen Fund Fellow - Class of 2007
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!
Dans cet entretien de trois minutes, Adrien Couton raconte à Global X ce qu’il a fait en Inde avec International Development Enterprises (India). Il a tout d’abord aidé Amitabha Sadangi a préparer un business plan pour soulever de l’argent pour une nouvelle entreprise, puis a travaillé à l’exportation vers le Pakistan et l’Afrique de l’Est de leur technologie d’irrigation par gouttes, et enfin amélioré les opérations en créant un système de SMS/Text pour passer les commandes.
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 !
2007-09-11
Ayeleen Ajanee - Pakistan
Filed Under:
Acumen Fund Fellow - Class of 2007
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. You may want to watch the first one here.
2007-09-04
Matt & Jessica Flannery - Kiva.org
Filed Under:
They launched Kiva, the online micro-lending venture. They tell you why. And how!
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!
(Don't forget to read Matt's blog on Social Edge. Here are a few pictures of Matt, here and there...)