Social Entrepreneurs: from Asia to Davos
26 Social Entrepreneurs from around the globe will be full participants and represent the “voice from the ground” at the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos-Klosters.
From Asia and Australia:
Harish Hande – SELCO Solar Light – India
SELCO Solar Light's approach to providing energy services throughout much of rural India demonstrates that the poor can afford and maintain sustainable technologies. SELCO customizes energy systems to the needs of the poor, leading to better lighting and cleaner cooking, while helping rural energy entrepreneurs set up businesses. Targeting low-income and poor rural families, SELCO works with banks and microfinance institutions to create financing mechanisms that suit the budget of clients.
Richard Jefferson – Cambia – Australia
Cambiastarted over two decades ago as a biotechnology enterprise to invent and distribute open source enabling tools to empower new innovators and break monopolies in agricultural research. Cambia became a force for transparency and inclusion in patents and innovation information and policy. Its Patent Lens has become the most popular non-profit global patent search facility to shed light on huge latent knowledge resources in the patent system. Cambia has also launched the BiOSInitiative (often called Biological Open Source) as a high-profile experiment to create a "commons of capability" around scientific tools.
Brij Kothari – PlanetRead – India
Using the simple tool of same language sub-titling on popular television programs, Brij Kothari is addressing the needs of an estimated 300 million so called „literates‟ in India who, though having attended at least primary school, have weak reading and comprehension skills. Same Language Subtitling or „SLS‟ is the simple action of inserting subtitles on video programs in the „same‟ language as the audio. By inserting SLS on popular Bollywood song programs, Brij ensures that reading becomes a by-product of entertainment already consumed by the audience.
Timothy Ma – Senior Citizen Home Safety Association (SCHSA) – Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China
SCHSA provides elderly subscribers with 24-hour assisted emergency services as well as consulting services to families with elderly members requiring special arrangements. Social services include telephone contact and hospital/home visitations by professional social workers and trained volunteers. SCHSA also has two retail shops selling safety products for senior citizens, plus a monthly newsletter with information on daily living.
Sebastien Marot – Friends-International – Cambodia
Friends-International works to protect marginalized children and street youth, giving them opportunities to become productive citizens of their countries. It offers a range of social services for young people and their families, including education, vocational training and job placement. To increase the impact of its model and improve the protection of children globally, Friends-International developed organization networks (CYTI Alliance) and community protection networks (ChildSafe Network).
PadmanabhaRao – RIVER – India
RIVER'skey innovation is School-in-a-Box, an activity-based learning programmewhich consists of "ladders of learning" for each grade in all subjects wherein government curricula are adapted for local context, and organized into smaller meaningful modules so learning is aligned with each student‟s ability. To date, over 500,000 teachers have been trained to use this methodology, with 12.8 million children benefiting directly from RIVER programmes.
Sakena Yacoobi – Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL) – Afghanistan
Afghan Institute of Learning provides health and education services to Afghan women and children so that amid decades of war and civil strife they can rebuild their identities, lives, and ultimately their country. In addition to operating rural health clinics, the institute provides primary and secondary education, university classes as well as teacher training and human rights workshops for women and children. To date, its programmes have benefited more than 7.9 million people.
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