GSBI 2008

GSBI Class of 2008:

Deepinder Mohan
Environment Planning Group Limited (EPGL), India
Provides micro-organism free, drinking water supply for residential and commercial users (homes, hospitals, restaurants, schools) in rural and urban India through reverse osmosis purification at rates 50% less than existing market rates.

Carlos Perea
Miox Corporation, Senegal
www.miox.com
Offers convenient water disinfectant for direct household applications to serve the urban Sengalese poor and reduce water-borne disease. The disinfection technology scales from portable hand-held units to systems capable of treating >100 million gallons of water per day.

Amit Jain
Naandi Foundation, India
www.naandi.org
Incorporates reverse osmosis and ultra violet technologies to create safe drinking water for India’s poor, resulting in improved health and productivity.

Tendai Mawunga
Pumpaid, Zimbabwe and Malawi
www.pumpaid.org
Utilizes low-cost rope and washer hand pumps to supply clean residential water in Zimbabwe and Malawi with surplus directed to agricultural activities, improving the quality of life for the communities served.

Dr. B. S. Choudri
Clean Water Through Riverbank Filtration (RBF), India
www.cce.uri.edu/news/releases/?id=4056
Uses riverbank filtration wells―a low cost geological process that’s easily replicated for transforming polluted water into clean natural drinking water for India’s poor.

Mathias Craig
blueEnergy, Nicaragua
www.blueenergygroup.org
Teaches rural Nicaraguans how to design hybrid wind and solar based energy systems which bring affordable, sustainable renewable energy to marginalized communities, and provides the knowledge and skills needed for rural Nicaraguans to build, operate, and maintain their systems.

Prachet Kumar Shrestha
Environment Camps for Conservation Awareness (ECCA), Nepal
http://www.ecca.org.np
Provides high quality, low cost solar photo-voltaic lighting system to replace the traditional kerosene wicked lamp for Nepal’s rural poor, reducing carbon emissions and indoor air pollution.

Tevis Howard
Komaza, Kenya
www.komaza.org
By leveraging market aggregation (crop consolidation) and developing value-adding processes and products, Komaza enables Kenyan eucalyptus tree farmers to realize significant livelihood improvements through education in best-practice silviculture (to reduce tree mortality and enhance tree growth) and output marketing. Families receive 10 to 25X more cash income per tree than they could obtain selling to existing middle men.

Rajesh Kumar Das
Nav Bharat Jagriti Kendra (NBJK), India
www.nbjk.org
The Clean Jharkhand Project offers a door-to-door garbage collection system for 80,000 urban households in major municipalities, providing disadvantaged youth with a dignified and sustainable means of livelihood. The program contains a municipality grievance redressal system which ensures community cleanliness and participation.

David Stein
Vanuatu Renewable Energy and Power Association, Vanuatu
www.vanrepa.org
Green Power! provides renewable and environmentally friendly energy products for the rural poor in Vanuatu and other Pacific Island countries. As an alternative to conventional energy sources such as kerosene, candle and disposable batteries, these products supply households with improved energy services at a lower cost and generate income from charging services at community owned charging stations.

David Okello
Coast Coconut Farms, Kenya
www.coastcoconutfarms.com
Turns the sale of coconut oil, produced from an abundant natural resource, the coconut, into a profitable and sustainable business for millions of East Africa’s poor. By implementing a micro- franchise model and more advanced factories, Coast gives rural families access to capital, equipment, training and international sales for their products and creates viable, sustainable livelihoods.

Christopher Benz
CraftNetwork LLC, Indonesia
www.craftnetwork.com
Through high-speed satellite communications, CraftNetwork provides export facilitation and enterprise development services, linking artisans from over 300 fair trade projects throughout the developing world to consumer markets. By breaking down barriers to global markets, thousands of artisans worldwide will benefit from job creation, increased sales, strengthened ethical trade practices and standard of living improvements.

Neelam Chhiber
Industree Crafts Pvt. Ltd., India
www.industreecrafts.com
Industree Crafts provides millions of artisans and farmers in India the opportunity to work in clusters― honing skill sets, increasing productivity, and earning better and continuous incomes. Workers reinvest their savings to participate in production unit ownership.

Ali Asghar
Roshan Vikas Foundation, India
Roshan Vikas enables India’s urban poor ―predominantly Muslim women, to set up community owned and managed financial institutions that transcend the “credit minimalist” approach of most micro finance organizations. By helping women to save money, leverage their savings, and raise capital to establish sustainable livelihoods for their families, the communities are enhanced through women empowerment, decreased family violence, an increase in the education of girls, and a reduction in inter religious and inter caste conflicts.

Alfonso Gamboa
Saravia Blue Crab Cooperative, Philippines
Provides Phillippines’ blue crab fishermen with opportunity to adopt a sustainable fishing method that preserves breeding stock and uses environment friendly biodegradable materials to increase their incomes. Creates additional sources of income for those involved in the crab market value chain― bamboo farmers, pot weavers , and those handling crab meat canning and pasteurization.

Zipporah Ongwenyl
Binti Africa Foundation, Kenya
www.bintiafrica.org
Provides poor women and girls in Kenya’s rural areas and informal settlements with low cost, affordable, and locally produced sanitary pads. They also offer advice on sanitation and build washrooms in girl’s schools for environmentally safer sanitary pad disposal.

Thomas Stehl
Meds & Foods for Kids (MFK), Haiti
www.mfkhaiti.org
MFK saves the lives of Haiti’s malnourished children and HIV positive adults by providing donor organizations, NGOs, medical missions, and healthcare providers with access to high-quality, competitively priced Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) ― an energy-dense, enriched peanut paste that is linked to recovery rates exceeding 90%, and at a cost <$60 per person. Produced by Haitians, using the country’s raw materials whenever possible, MFK’s nutritional paste maximizes impact while contributing to the social and economic development of one of the world’s poorest countries.

Anais Tuepker
Preciva Incorporated / Civa Health, Global
www.preciva.com
The Preciva portable cervical screening and diagnosis method offers an immediate, visual, cost effective, highly accurate way to monitor cervical health. Such screening is presently available to paying beneficiaries in Northwestern, United States and to those with subsidized services in South Africa. Unlike conventional screening methods, Preciva enables healthcare providers to monitor early stage tissue changes, provide faster test results to patients, and discuss treatment options in a timely manner.

Rao Yerravalli
Rishi Valley Institute for Educational Resources (RIVER), India
www.river-rv.org
RIVER has developed a multi-grade, multi-level (MGML) methodology in primary education for under privileged children in rural India. Its flexible, open source initiatives permit teachers to collaborate in designing educational programs that meet their particular needs, with emphasis on activity based learning. The model currently benefits children and teachers in over 65,000 primary schools.