Africa
2008-10-07
Dumisani Nyoni - Zimele Institute
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."
2008-09-09
Isaac Durojaiye - DMT Toilets
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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."
2008-08-26
Josephine Nzerem - Human Angle
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Josephine Nzerem launched Human Angle to help Nigerian women defend their rights against the side-effects of a patrilineal society.
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!"
2008-07-29
Maxwell Marshall - Green Housing
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."
2008-06-24
Bart Weetjens - Apopo
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2008-06-03
Taffy Adler - Johannesburg Housing Company
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Taffy Adler works in Johannesburg, a city often described as one of the most dangerous places to work in the world, but he has been able to get the trust from the community by giving its people the right opportunities to help them grow.
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."
2008-05-27
Giséle Yitamben - ASAFE
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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.
2008-04-29
Martin Fisher - Kickstart
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Global X interviews Martin Fisher, CEO of Kickstart, a nonprofit social enterprise that addresses a major market failure by manufacturing irrigation pumps such as the Super MoneyMaker to help small farmers in the developing world.
"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."
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."
2007-12-04
Mossad Mohamed Ali - Darfur
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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.
2007-11-27
Apollinaire Malumalu - Congo
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2007-10-16
Jimmy Carter - The Carter Center
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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.”
2007-08-28
Keely Stevenson - Kenya & Tanzania
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Acumen Fund Fellow - Class of 2007
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?
Listen to Keely's voice.
(This is Keely Stevenson's second interview with Global X. You may want to watch the first one here.)
2007-08-21
Jocelyn Wyatt - Kenya
Filed Under:
Acumen Fund Fellow - Class of 2007
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.
2007-08-07
Sam Goldman - d.light design
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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 a-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.
2007-07-31
Nick Talarico - Forge
2007-07-24
Kjerstin Erickson - FORGE
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2007-05-29
Sasha Chanoff - Mapendo
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 (see a very moving profile here).
2007-05-15
Keely Stevenson - Acumen Fund Fellow
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