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Dear Skoll Newsletter Subscriber, We've posted the following stories to the Skoll Foundation Blog over the last two weeks: Barefoot College Wins “Half the Sky” Contest
Barefoot College, founded by 2005 Skoll social entrepreneur Bunker Roy, was a winner in the "Half the Sky" contest, an online initiative by New York Times writer Nick Kristof launched in conjunction with his recently released book of the same title. There were 700 entries submitted by readers, and Barefoot was one of three winners. Encouraging Kids to Engage on Social Change
2007 Skoll social entrepreneurs Craig and Marc Kielburger, who co-founded Free the Children, hosted We Day Toronto on Oct. 5, a huge gathering (16,000!) of youth for social change. Jeff Skoll was one of the folks on the podium, joining other well known politicians, activists and entertainers, including former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, Elie Wiesel, Robert Kennedy, Jr., and the Jonas Brothers. Craig and Marc have just co-authored a new book to help parents engage their kids on the important issues facing humanity: The World Needs Your Kid: How to Raise Children Who Care and Contribute. You can read more about the book - and buy it - here. Skoll Social Entrepreneurs in “Half the Sky”
Roshaneh Zafar of the Kashf Foundation is one of several Skoll social entrepreneurs featured in Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, the new book by New York Times columnist Nick Kristof and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn. Ann Cotton of Camfed, Sakena Yacoobi of Afghan Institute of Learning and Soraya Salti of INJAZ al-Arab are also covered in the book. Other Skoll social entrepreneurial organizations cited in the book whose work has significant impact on women in the developing world include Kiva and Barefoot College (Paul Farmer, a 2008 Skoll award winner and co-founder of Partners in Health, also is referenced). Skoll-AVINA Partnership on the Amazon Moves Forward
David Rothschild, a program officer here at the Skoll Foundation, blogs about his participation in a September working meeting of the Amazon Regional Articulation (ARA), which is supported by the recently launched Skoll-AVINA Amazon partnership. The ARA working session ploughed through tough issues, like how to ensure benefits from REDD projects make it to local communities (projects to reduce carbon emissions from forest deforestation and degradation), and identifying indicators that ARA organizations throughout the nine Amazon Basin countries can all agree on and would find useful. The meeting showed how far the ARA network has come, demonstrating strong ties, mutual respect, and commitment. Karen Tse of IBJ Honored with Gleitsman Award
Karen Tse, the founder of International Bridges to Justice and a 2006 Skoll social entrepreneur, received the 2009 Gleitsman International Activist Award at a ceremony at the Harvard Kennedy School. The Gleitsman Award honors leadership in social activism that both improves quality of life on the ground as well as inspires others to social change. Karen joins an august group: past honorees include, among others, Nelson Mandela and Muhammad Yunus. The most recent winner was Dr. Sakena Yacoobi, another 2006 Skoll social entrepreneur and founder of the Afghan Institute of Learning. Room to Read Ramps Up Online Presence
Room to Read, founded by 2006 Skoll social entrepreneur John Wood, has ramped up its online presence in a big way in the last month. It's re-launched its website and started both a blog and a twitter feed, @RoomtoRead. Thanks to a nice nod from Twitter's own twitter feed, Room to Read grew its followers from 36 to over 75,000 in less than two weeks. With their strong international chapter approach, Room to Read has built a great network of supporters around the globe, so these social media tools should be a big help in strengthening that community. Hospitals Cut Out the Meat to Help Patients … and Climate
Health Care Without Harm has launched its "Balanced Menus Challenge" to encourage hospitals to reduce meat consumption, improve health and, as a byproduct, help combat climate change. The health care industry constitutes roughly 16 percent of GDP in the U.S. The food industry accounts for about 10 percent of energy use in the U.S., with meat production particularly resource intensive. The "Balanced Menus Challenge," adopted to date by 14 hospitals around the country, calls on hospitals to reduce meat offerings by 20 percent over the next year. Riders for Health Wins Social Enterprise Award
Riders for Health has won the Third Sector Social Enterprise Award for its Transportation Asset Management (TAM) project. A Clinton Global Initiative commitment in 2007, which included a $3.5 million loan guarantee from the Skoll foundation, the innovative TAM project, launched in February of this year, integrates vehicle purchase, leasing and maintenance with health delivery. With 153 vehicles purchased and operational in country (of a planned 240), the TAM project is already letting the Department of State for Health reach 1.1 million of the 1.7 million citizens of Gambia. This is a great example of a social entrepreneurial organization, government and philanthropy working together to address a touch challenge: last mile health care delivery in Africa. Barefoot Engineers World Challenge Finalists
The Barefoot Women Solar Engineers of Africa are finalists in the BBC World News/Newsweek World Challenge 2009. "World Challenge 09 is a global competition aimed at finding projects or small businesses from around the world that have shown enterprise and innovation at a grass roots level." The Barefoot Women Solar Engineers of Africa were trained at Barefoot College in India, founded by Skoll social entrepreneur Bunker Roy. They learn how to fabricate, install and maintain solar lighting, helping reduce both depletion of local wood and use of kerosene. There's a good short film on Barefoot College, with Bunker talking about his hope for achieving global impact, on the site here.You can vote for the Solar Sisters here. |
Encouraging Kids to Engage on Social Change
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