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.
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It is amazing to see how failures cn sometimes become our greatest successes- Garlick was looking to help grow communities in third world countries, but his efforts were not having a lasting effect. I imagine that many people in his situation would either give up, or else continue doing the same old thing, hoping that it will benefit these communities, if only for a time. Turning his love for social entrepreneurship into a for profit business was a great move, because it allowed him to use his failures as a toll for training others, and ultimately his new company will probably bring more relief to third-world countries than his last one. This is a great story of persistence, and willingness to change your structure up completely, to bring about the most effective results.
I love this idea! It is a great way to build up impoverished countries and communities: from the inside out. Instead of sending the things they need, you send people to help brainstorm ways to get what they need. It promotes not only innovation, but also the ability and desire to support yourself and your community. Thanks for posting this! It may actually be a perfect company to use in my elevator pitch.
This is so awesome! I would love to be a part of this. It’s very encouraging to learn about this program. It gets really frustrating when people feel the need to “save the people,” instead of helping them figure out how to work on their problems.