Global X interviews Giséle Yitamben, who launched the Association for Support to Women Entrepreneurs in Cameroon 21 years ago to help women through microfinance, vocational training programs and solar electrification.

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."

Giséle Yitamben explique à Global X pourquoi elle a fondé il y a 21 ans l'Association pour le Soutien et l'Appui de la Femme Entrepreneur au Cameroun. Elle a depuis lancé des programmes de microfinance, de développemnt professionel, et en zone rurale, des programmes d'énergie solaire.

Christopher J. Elias is the President of PATH, the Program for Appropriate Technology and Health, an organization based in Seattle and active in 65 countries.

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.

Fazle H. Abed's life was transformed when a cyclone hit Bangladesh in 1970 and thousands of people died. He was working for Chevron and decided to take a few days off to help survivors. What he saw made him realize that he needed to change his life, and he launched BRAC to address poverty alleviation through microfinance, health care and education.

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."

José Ignacio Avalos Hernandez, a Mexican social entrepreneur, works in malnutrition, in microfinance and in health. He shares with Global X his advice: "Fight for the cause at all times! No efforts are wasted. Meditate, pray, work for the cause, and you will succeed!"

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?

Listen to his story.

¡En Español!