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Global X
Watch leading social entrepreneurs as they tell moving stories that had a significant impact on their personal and professional lives. They also give aspiring social entrepreneurs advice they can use immediately to scale their ventures. These interviews are quite short --approximately four minutes.
2008-10-14
Paula Goldman - Imagining Ourselves
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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!"
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."
2008-09-23
Vikram Akula - SKS Microfinance
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After working for an NGO, he went back to the University of Chicago to get his PhD and found out that the best way to scale was to:
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- Leverage technology to overcome the constraints of cost
And that's how SKS Microfinance was able to scale so quickly and now serves 1.5 million clients in India.
While in Zurich, Vikram Akula also shared 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.
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!"
2008-08-11
Tim Brown - IDEO
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Global X interviews Tim Brown, the CEO of IDEO, a global design firm that helps organizations and companies innovate around their products and services.
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."
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."
2008-07-15
Pat Pillai - Life College
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While in Dakar, Global X had a chance to chat with Pat Pillai, South Africa's suave, urbane e.tv news anchor (as they say in Fairlady).
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."
2008-07-01
Pierre Tami - Hagar International
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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!"
2008-06-24
Bart Weetjens - Apopo
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2008-06-17
Andreas Heinecke - Dialogue in the Dark
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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!"
2008-06-10
Kyle Zimmer - First Book
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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!
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.
2008-05-20
Christopher J. Elias - PATH
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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.
2008-05-13
Fazle H. Abed - BRAC
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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."
2008-05-06
José Ignacio Avalos Hernandez - Gente Nueva
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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!
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."
2008-04-22
Laila Iskandar - CID Consulting
Global X interviews Laila Iskandar, the chairperson of CID Consulting, a for-profit/non-profit hybrid organization based in Cairo, where she has worked with garbage collectors for the past 15 years.
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."
2008-04-15
Geoff Davis - Unitus
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Global X interviews Geoff Davis, president and CEO of Unitus, a "microfinance accelerator" with a hybrid model combining best practices from investment banking, consulting and venture capitalism.
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."