Archive for Social Entrepreneur – Page 19

Do Your Part: The Tok Project

Posted by Zachary McClelland

· Thursday, October 17th, 2013

· 6 Comments

So, I know this person . . .

Last year I had the wonderful opportunity of being involved in Grove City College’s Children’s Theatre production of Seussical. The show was a blast, and I met some fantastic people; one of whom was Hannah List. Anyways, to get to the point, one day after the end of the school year–around graduation and May intersession–I saw Hannah sewing something as she was sitting on a bench with a friend, just outside of Beans on Broad. I asked her what she was working on and so she showed me: it was a neat, vintage, hand-made bowtie, and with that she shared a story . . .

Micah List

She told me she was making it for her brother’s business. Micah, her brother, had spent the fall semester of his junior year in Bangkok, Thailand. Near the end of his time there, Micah went out with some friends for a fun night of Karaoke at a local bar. When they arrived they found that the bar was not offering Karaoke as an entertainment option. Instead they were approached by twelve young Thai women with deadening looks of despair in their eyes. These were trafficked women, and they were selling sex. Micah was horrified, but in this moment of pain he was overcome with hope and resolution.

The word “Tok” in Acholi means “Hat.” Micah’s huge idea was to take his connections and resources to make everything from hats to bowties, and sell them to raise money to help these women. The goal is to help these women get to safe houses, to remove them from the brothels. Micah hopes to also provide these women with jobs making his products. Not only would he pay them fairly, but it would provide the women a way out. A way to make money without selling themselves.

#DYP

Micah’s motto for the business is “Do your part.” He wants people to understand the problem and to contribute to a solution. For each product he sells, 25% is given to help these women. All you have to do is buy a hat, tie, or shirt. For such a new business, their website is surprisingly intuitive and slick. You really should check it out. They also have some of their products for sale on a rack at Beans on Broad. Come by sometime, you may even see Micah hanging out there–he spends a lot of time at Beans these days. Pull him aside, ask him about The Tok Project, and learn how you too can do your part.

6 Comments

Categories : Apparel/Accessories, Millennial Entrepreneurs, Social Entrepreneur, Social Justice

ThinkImpact: The Spread of Social Entrepreneurship

Posted by Alexia Skoriak

· Thursday, October 17th, 2013

· 3 Comments

The Foundation

At 18, Saul Garlick was already a motivated social entrepreneur. After visiting South Africa and being shocked by the poverty he saw and experienced there, Saul knew he wanted to do something to help. While still in high school he founded a nonprofit called Students Movement for Real Change (SMRC). Quickly, they raised 10,000 to build a school in Mpumalanga, South Africa. During his college years, Saul went back to visit this village and was dismayed to find that it had fallen into disrepair. This was the moment he realized that there was a disconnect between traditional aid efforts and the impact that everyone wanted to see. Saul continued funding projects through his organization, SMRC. As he again and again saw the typical methods of poverty alleviation fail, he became more and more interested in social entrepreneurship. This interest lead him to found ThinkImpact, a for-profit company whose purpose it is to encourage collaboration, entrepreneurship and community development.

ThinkImpact

Today ThinkImpact offers opportunities for students and others interested in social entrepreneurship to learn about development firsthand. Through ThinkImpact Institute, participants live in villages of developing countries and work and brainstorm with members of those communities to come up with innovative solutions. Currently, ThinkImpact works in Kenya and South Africa. The organization also offers curriculum and even a summit that is mostly available to graduate schools and their students. Their programs offer insight into working with development in Africa, social entrepreneurship and innovation and collaboration. Through these programs, ThinkImpact hopes to change the way people think about aid and encourage a perspective of helpingthose in poverty break the cycle of dependence and learn to provide for themselves and their communities.

Interviewing the Founder of Think Impact: Incubating Social Ventures in African Villages from Unreasonable Media on Vimeo.

Sources:

http://www.thinkimpact.com/about-us/

http://socialcapitalmarkets.net/2011/08/30/socap11-social-entrepreneur-spotlight-saul-garlick-think-impact-company-sub-saharan-africa/

3 Comments

Categories : Millennial Enrepreneuers, Social Entrepreneur

Soap Cycling: Twofold in Problem Solving and Education

Posted by kimpelcn1

· Tuesday, October 15th, 2013

· No Comments

Have you ever thought about what happens to that bar of soap you open at a hotel for your night’s stay? Shorter visits may only require you using less than a quarter of the bar, and before David Bishop thought about this conundrum the soap would be tossed out with the trash when housekeeping came around. The estimated one million bars of soap from hotels thrown away each day in the United States then become chemical waste in landfills. Bishop recognized this problem and connected it with another – child mortality rates.

Diarrhea kills 800,000 children under the age of five every year. This is only one example of a disease that could be partially prevented if these people washed their hands with soap. To combat this horrific statistic, Bishop, a Hong Kong law professor, began the organization Soap Cycling in 2011.

Soap Cycling works with the hospitality industry to collect, sanitize and recycle slightly used soaps and other sanitation amenities. They then coordinate with NGOs to distribute the soap to children and families in disadvantaged communities, mostly in Asia. A few of their more notable partners are Hilton Worldwide and the Lee Hysan Foundation.

Perhaps the most impressive and admirable aspect of Soap Cycling is the fact that none of its employees are paid. Positions are filled by students from Bishop’s university and he supervises their work. Other professionals in Hong Kong such as law, public relations and web design firms donate their time and efforts as well to form a well-run and effective nonprofit.

The idea that the bars of soap are not simply a handout is another takeaway from this organization. Soap Cycling partners with schools and other establishments in the countries they reach to educate children on proper sanitation techniques. This ensures that they are getting to the root of the problem and that the efforts put into collecting and distributing the soap are not wasted. Soap Cycling is focused on changing lives, not on selling an image or a school project.

As a young company with many partners and constant pool of student workers, Soap Cycling is sure to continue growing and reaching new areas of the world. They are driven by a passion to see children live long, healthy, and quality lives, and to give students an education in leadership, business, and empathy. Hopefully every entrepreneur can look to this example and find inspiration.

Soap Cycling Launch Video

No Comments

Categories : Recycling, Social Entrepreneur, Upcycling

The Story of Scott Harrison and charity: water

Posted by Alexia Skoriak

· Friday, October 4th, 2013

· 3 Comments

The Foundation

The story of Scott Harrison, founder of the organization charity: water, does not begin like the stories of the average social entrepreneur. Scott spent the first 10 years of his adult life as a night club promoter in New York City. His life consisted of striving after more money, more status and better parties.

At age 28, Scott had the realization that the life he was living was not only unfulfilling, but destructive to himself and the people by whom he was surrounded. Scott describes his revelation as follows: “I was the worst person I knew…I was emotionally bankrupt, I was spiritually bankrupt. Everything I had as a value I walked away from…. There [wasn’t] a single redemptive thing about my life.”

Scott, after a process of returning to Christ, decided to begin applying for positions at various charities. He started questioning what he could do to give back and live the exact opposite of the life he had lived before. He asked himself:

“What if I tried to serve God?… What if I actually served others?…What if I give back 1 of the 10 years and serve?”

After being rejected from every nonprofit to which he had applied, Scott was finally given the opportunity to work with Mercy Ships, an organization that provides surgeries on the coast of Africa from a boat-turned-hospital. Scott spent two years with them as a photographer, documenting every surgery and subsequent transformation that took place.

During a gap year, Scott returned to New York and held a photo show displaying the images he had captured over that first year. The show raised $100,000, 100% of which went to Mercy Ships.

Not only was he extremely impacted by the work that God was doing through Mercy Ships, but he also sought a solution to the root problems of the Mercy Ship patients, many of whom suffered from severe tumors and infections. Scott discovered that 80% of the illnesses that these people suffered from were caused by lack of clean water.

Although Scott was ashamed of his past life choices, he utilized his connections by hosting his 31^st birthday party charging $20 admission to 700 of his friends. He earned $15,000 in one night. He used this initial capital to build 3 wells in Northern Uganda and repair 3 others. Charity: water had begun.

The Model

As Scott Harrison set out on the journey to start his own nonprofit, he wanted to reform the way charities are set up. Firstly, he wanted to change the answer to the question “How much of my money will actually go to the actual cause?” For charity: water, the answer to that question, from the beginning, is and has always been 100%.

The second aspect of charity he wanted to incorporate was the ability for contributors to see exactly where their money is going. To do this, charity: water tracks the GPS location of each well that is excavated, making the specific wells available to view through Google Earth. Charity: water also tracks which donations are funding which project.

Other innovative campaigns such as a mobile exhibit that displayed dirty water in tanks as well as gave information about water quality around the world, have been utilized by this organization. Said exhibit would be set up in different parks in New York City, to educate as well as fund-raise by selling $20 water bottles to support the organization.

One of charity: water’s main sources of donations is through a campaign called “birthdays”, which began with Scott’s idea to send out an email asking for $32 (the age he was turning) from each individual as a donation to charity water. He raised $59,000, only a year after he had started charity: water. Supporters of charity water can now do the same through the charity: water website.

The Impact

Since its establishment charity: water has funded 9,015 water projects, providing 3,300,000 people with clean water, in 20 countries. Its renown and impact are growing every day, especially with a focus on design and marketing as well as authenticity and transparency as a nonprofit. To learn more visit their website or watch the interview with Scott Harrison below:

charitywater.org

http://youtu.be/yPLcMSpYisg

3 Comments

Categories : Clean water, Millennial Entrepreneurs, Social Entrepreneur

A Business Born of Burden: Gianna Fair Trade

Posted by natnatwebb

· Friday, September 20th, 2013

· 6 Comments

Gianna Driver, 28, is the daughter of a Filipino mail-order bride. She grew up with her mother in a women’s home in East Texas after they fled from Gianna’s abusive father. While in the women’s home Gianna worked hard at her studies because she knew it made her mother happy. Gianna worked hard and eventually ended up at Wharton School on a full scholarship

“I looked around and saw all of this pain and unhappiness and I knew my mom didn’t want me to have this life…When I brought home good report cards, she was so happy, so I really applied myself in school.”

–Gianna Driver

Gianna entered the workforce and worked for a company in San Francisco, but it just wasn’t right for her. She “…felt most alive…” when working with impoverished women overseas. She then toyed around with business ideas that would allow her to follow her passion of empowering these women, yet still support herself. In 2005 her original business was born, but she had problems with the quality of the items and the skill sets of the women, but she found a solution.

“In Laos, the women weave beautiful tapestries, so we came up with the idea for scarves… When we start in new communities, I’ll provide a loan. If they want to buy a sewing machine, I front the money and over time, they pay back the value of machine through the sale of their products.”

Now Gianna works with over 60 impoverished women from many countries such as Thailand, India, Laos, and the Philippines. These women receive between 25 and 58% of the retail price of the products they produce. Gianna’s revenue isn’t breaking any records, and has yet to reach 1 million, but she has helped over 200 women and pays 2 to 3 times local minimum wage.

6 Comments

Categories : Millennial Entrepreneurs, Social Entrepreneur

The Power of a Cake Pop

Posted by olsonaa1

· Friday, September 20th, 2013

· 4 Comments

“I envision social entrepreneurs as individuals who create solutions to critical social issues in society,” is a quote from a very young entrepreneur. Mishika Narula started her business, Power of Pops, in 2011. She started selling cake pops to help children with disabilities. Her cousin, who had disabilities, was her inspiration for starting her business. All the money that she raises goes towards The Northern Suburban Special Recreation Association (NSSRA), but she wants to someday soon start her own non-profit that benefits children with disabilities. So far her accomplishments include raising $20,000 for an event called ‘Strikes for NSSRA’, also raising enough money, between the months of January and April, to send three children to a summer camp.

Mishika has received numerous acknowlegments for her work. Mishika has met the president of Bolivia and also Oprah Winfrey. The NSSRA awarded Mishika with the “Friend of the Year” award. Mishika has been featured in Forbes and on Make It Better. I admire Mishika because she started a business, that has done so well, in high school. She has already had a huge impact on society and she is proud to be a social entrepreneur. She says,” I hope to further my ability to imagine innovative solutions to the problems in our society and use my experience in Power of Pops to help others.”

Mishika has a very innovative and entrepreneurial spirit, and you can tell from reading about her that she will be an amazing innovater. Mishika and her business have already inspired me. Her business may not be the most recognized social enterprise, but she has still made a big impact. You don’t have to be the next Blake Mycoskie (although it would be nice) to make an impact.

4 Comments

Categories : Millennial Enrepreneuers, Social Entrepreneur