For the past few months I have been working with Ashoka, a social venture fund, to update their email newsletter. They’ve been using various icons to highlight and illustrate different topics. I was tasked with developing new icons they could use while still keeping within their brand and established style. Here are a few of the icons I created.

Attend the Maternal Health Change Summit in India and spend 9 months developing your maternal health idea with an Ashoka Fellow

The Maternal Health Task Force at EngenderHealth and Ashoka have teamed up to launch “Healthy Mothers, Strong World: The Next Generation of Ideas for Maternal Health.” The two organizations are in search of “inspiring young changemakers with solutions that will transform the maternal health field”.

“Maternal health is gaining prominence on the global development agenda but needs a new generation of professionals to sustain the momentum and end the cycle of maternal death and disability. The Changemakers online platform will identify 16 young leaders from around the world, Young Champions of Maternal Health, to develop their innovative ideas during 9-month mentorships with seasoned Ashoka Fellows working in the field of maternal health. During this time, the Young Champions will have access to maternal health experts through the Maternal Health Task Force and resources to further develop their ideas and projects.  “The MHTF is eager to foster new ideas coming from the next generation of maternal health leaders,” said Dr. Ann K. Blanc, Director of the MHTF at EngenderHealth. All Young Champions will receive a monthly stipend and 100% financial support for travel, accommodation, insurance, and visa costs. The innovations and projects that emerge from the Young Champions Program will be publicized widely.”

The 9-month mentorship will kick off at the Maternal Health Change Summit in India in August 2010.

“In addition to selecting 16 Young Champions, the Changemakers competition will award 3 organizations $5,000 in-kind prizes to attend the global Maternal Health Change Summit to be held in India late in August 2010. At the Change Summit, the Young Champions and the Changemakers Prize Winners will discuss their ideas and projects, receive training, and get feedback and advice from maternal health experts.”

Click here for more the MHTF announcement about these opportunities.

And, click here for more details on the competition, information about how to apply or how to nominate someone.

Teenocracy is just one day away from its presentation of the action plan in front of an Ashoka Youth Venture Panel. Over the past few weeks, our team has been hard at work, thinking of new and innovative ways to get youth involved in politics and government and we think we have it! We can’t wait to get started and we hope our prospective members are ready to hop on board.

Wish us luck tomorrow and we look forward to standing beside all of our fellow youth venturers in the weeks and months to come

For more information on Ashoka’s Youth Venture, visit http://www.genv.net/

Front entrance of Dialogue in the Dark Singapore

Our guide was a gentleman named Wesley. 42 years old, he was a company director until a year ago, when his sight suddenly deteriorated. Needless to say, his life turned around. His fiance broke off with him, and he had to leave his job. But he seems to have adjusted in the interim.

We only got to hear his story in the briefing room, just before the exit. And we got a brief glance at his face, illuminated by the dim blue light of a Nokia, before he disappeared through a door, to start work with the next group of 8 visitors.

This is Dialogue in the Dark Singapore. And along with 13 other low-vision and visually-impaired people such as singer Tan Wei Lian, guides like Wesley give visitors a taste of what the world is like for a visually-impaired person.

Dialogue in the Dark is a social enterprise conceived by Ashoka Fellow Andreas Heinecke, and its use of the franchise model (or “friend-chise” as they are known) has enabled it to scale, with 10 permanent exhibitions about the world, and a number of travelling ones.

Without giving anything away about the experience (because the mystery keeps it fun), I’ll just talk about the pre-tour activity, which helps heighten your other senses before going into the pitch darkness. Visitors in the waiting room are asked to blindfold themselves, and search for 8 safety pins in a bowl of uncooked rice.

It sounds simple, but without the benefit of sight, our fingers have a real hard time telling the difference. (Tip: come early for your scheduled sessions, if you want to experience this.)

The permanent exihibition in Ngee Ann Polytechnic is the only franchise in the world in an educational institution – appropriate given that their objectives not only include raising awareness of disability issues, but also promoting inclusion, a national education objective. It helps, therefore, that key staff in the Polytechnic, right from the Principal downwards, are behind this.

Which is why you’re not likely to find DITD SG as an entry in the next edition of Lonely Planet Singapore, although it’s definitely a lot more meaninful than any of the other attractions we have (hint hint, Singapore Tourism Board).

They have some good strategies to help them scale. For example, requiring groups to come in a team of 8, which means that if 1 person is interested, 8 people end up going! And they’re also targetting schools, which will enable them to access large groups, and which will provide them with a new batch of students every year. They’re also planning business workshops in Q2 2010.

Look out for the official launch in mid-Feb 2010, as well as their café which will allow you to pay for your drink and get the right change – in the dark, of course. In the meantime, their opening special is just $10 for adults until the end of 2009. Do yourself a favour. =)

Monday, December 7, 2009

1. Conceptualized “Live Forum” and merchandising
2. Finished and sent Fellowship Proposal for the Draper Richards Foundation
3. Made layout changes to the blog
4. Edited the “Get Involved” page
5. Added a “FAQs” page
6. Heather Halstead from Reach the World sent me leads to legal (Lawyers Without Borders) and web-development help (Dangerous Media)
7. Kent from Ashoka called and asked for me to send the nomination form again, as they did not receive my previous e-mail
8. Spoke with Christina M. Storm at Lawyers Without Borders and filled in the NGO Intake Form to apply for pro-bono legal help
9. Set a phone appointment with Jeffrey Wiener, Director of Dangerous Media Productions

** Joss Whedon said it best. Equality amongst genders is a social need. The last couple of weeks I’ve been shifting my focus to gender issues and the ways in which we’ve been trying to deal with them. Here are a couple of links you should check out:

** Ashoka Changemakers has been hosting a twitter conversation with the hashtag #womenslives. There are some excellent questions brought up and I strongly encourage you to follow and contribute to the conversation.

** If you ever have a chance to watch the movie Iron Jawed Angels then do it. In fact, see if your local high school will play it, see if any teachers would be interested in including it in any of their curriculums. It’s an excellent movie on the struggle for the right to vote movement amongst women in the USA.

** In case you didn’t know, TED.com has posted 4 great talks for internationals women’s day. As always, I highly recommend you check them out.

Some time ago, I had a friend who told me that he didn’t support the movement for ending violence against women, rather he supported ending violence PERIOD. Unfortunately, violence is not equal across demographics, and women in particular are distinct victims. If you’re going to tackle a cause, you need to break down the issue, and surprise, surprise, women are a large component of that issue.

And so I ask myself what are we to do about this? The answer of course is…

Anything we want.

Making the decision to actually participate in generating valuable change is a difficult step. Largely I think because people are afraid of both failure and success. Failure, because you didn’t achieve what you’ve worked hard for, and success because when you succeed, it’s hard to stop. Success pushes you forward saying that if you did it once, you can do it again.

The first step is always the hardest.

What was your first step? Or, for the uninitiated, what will be your first step?

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever – Margaret Mead

Been meaning to post this for awhile, it’s the second in the Stories of Change series of eBooks I’m developing at Ashoka. This one is made up of interviews with youth leaders involved in Ashoka’s Youth Venture program. I hope you enjoy it!

Nice Post here from Sally Osberg of the Skoll Foundation

“Let me begin by acknowledging that despite its currency—in the media, academe, the social sector, and even policy circles—the term “social entrepreneur” remains contested. To some, it’s all hype and no substance (see Michael Edwards), a descriptor promulgated by Silicon Valley “philanthrocapitalists” who take issue with “traditional” philanthropy and civil society models in general; to others, especially Ashoka, Draper Richards, Echoing Green, the Schwab Foundation, and the Skoll Foundation, it characterizes a distinct set of players whose purpose is to create lasting societal value.

First and foremost, social entrepreneurship is entrepreneurship, which as both concept and practice has been around for hundreds of years. As early as the sixteenth century, the term was in play, used to describe someone who undertakes a business venture. By the eighteenth century, economist Richard Cantillon fleshed out the concept with the notion of risk—establishing as distinctive the entrepreneur’s assumption of  the risk required to bring a new idea or innovation to the marketplace.

Just as entrepreneurs play a distinct role in business, so social entrepreneurs play a distinct role in society. Like entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs are game changers—pioneers of innovations designed to solve social and environmental problems. Social entrepreneurs are out to change the status quo—what Rotman School of Management Dean Roger Martin and I have framed as societal equilibria that reinforce human suffering, marginalization, and oppression, those forces that hold people back from realizing decent lives and their human potential.

Social entrepreneurs see opportunities where others see intractable problems. Fueled by the power of their visions, they assume the risk of building ventures, generally in the form of organizations—profit, not-for-profit, and hybrid—to drive their innovations forward, to bring their visions for change to fruition.

In their ways of working and their zeal to effect equilibrium change, social entrepreneurs are different from social service providers and social activists (see Social Entrepreneurship: The Case for Definition). Social service providers and social entrepreneurs both engage in direct action; the first provides needed goods and services to a constituency—the classic serving of “fish” to the hungry—while the latter drives an innovation designed to solve the problem of hunger altogether. Social activists, in contrast to social service providers and social entrepreneurs, focus their efforts indirectly, on those whom they believe have the power to shift the status quo, generally policymakers; like social entrepreneurs, they are after transformational change.”

via Social Entrepreneurship: Time to Dispel Some Myths | Philanthropy Central.

November and December are both months on the American Calendar that represent a span of time known as the Holiday Season. Within these months occurs the celebration of Thanksgiving, Christmas and the Evening Celebration of the American New Year. America is somewhat of an outlet for all nations to plug into and when they do they will be revived with Technology, Invention and Social Change.

‘Tis the season to be jolly takes on a new global meaning as “TIS” becomes an acronym for Technology, Invention and Social Change, as well as, Time Innovated Social Media. “TIS” means “this is” the time for technology, the invention of innovation and the showcasing of social media. All you have to do is plug into the outlet that will provide a Thanksgiving meal and well lit decorations that spotlight gifts and new beginnings in technology.

 Failure to embrace what technology has brought us can only result in uncooked turkeys, unwrapped gifts, a new beginning that is nothing but old and a world that is not plugged into the vast possibilities that new technologies provide as an energy source for everlasting change.

The hot topic of technology these days is social media. While popular sites like Facebook, Twitter and Flickr are on the surface of this blazing range we cannot ignore the sources of their heat being  programming languages such as Ruby and PHP.

 Social Media is hot and while individuals may decide not to jump in this pan; businesses that don’t may get burned up and society can suffer as well. We exist in a new day where businesses that desire to rise like the sun must learn to surf the new internet waves that rise and flow from the sea of new media placed under the boards of traditional business. Businesses used to have to have a Website to survive in the current age of information but now they need more than that. Businesses need a strategic social media strategy and without it they will drown in the waves of technology to come.

 Social Media spans much further than business brand awareness and increased profits all the way to social change. Through the power of social media everyday people can use technology to invent change. Social media has the content and expression that creates community and collaboration and invokes collective intelligence. So what is its connection to social change? That’s just it, social media connects people that may have never been connected without it and these connections and collaborations can be used to change people’s worlds. Protests are organized to fight for human rights and information is communicated on all types of subjects sculpting social change daily. Imagine the collaboration of projects ranging from digging water wells in Africa to brining medical equipment and supplies to the impoverished areas of India.

My suggestions for businesses that want to dive into and thrive because of technology is to come up with a social media strategy to compliment their business efforts and secure their future survival. It would not be unheard of to have a social media scuba diver on staff to explore the new ocean of technology capable of bringing in a great catch of success. The new media internet technology of social media is a pathway wet with promise for businesses, organizations, people and their causes. Social Media is enabling everyday people to become heroes by inventing social change with the power of technology. 

by Deneene A. Collins

Ashoka: Innovators for the Public are hosting Tech 4 Society, a conference exploring technology, invention and social change, in Hyderabad, India, in February 2009. Find out more about the conference here. This blog post is an entry in their competition to find the
official blogger to travel to and cover the event.

Ve estos videos de emprendedores sociales de Ashoka presentando sus proyectos y los temas relacionados con ellos en un encuentro de Ashoka en São Paulo:

Gregorio van Kirk / Microconsignación: http://www.emprendedor.tv/video764.html

Rebeca Villalobos / ASEMBIS: http://www.emprendedor.tv/video758.html

Pablo Ordóñez / El Arca Mendoza: http://www.emprendedor.tv/video765.html

Gustavo Gennuso / ETV: http://www.emprendedor.tv/video757.html

Diego Carvajal / Interrupción: http://www.emprendedor.tv/video763.html

Ederson Lucerna /Agencia Mandalla: http://www.emprendedor.tv/video768.html

Tiago Dalvi / Solidarium: http://www.emprendedor.tv/video769.html

Recently Adidas announced plans to make a 1 euro sneaker!  They have teamed up with Muhamed Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Ashoka fellow, founder of Grameen bank, and all around awesome human being, to design and produce a 1 euro shoe for the BOP market (bottom of the pyramid), starting in Bangladesh.

According to a news release:

Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus suggested the “social business” project to the company, which normally focuses on trendy, expensive sportswear for people who want to project a sporty image.

Yunus advised Adidas that people in the poor world need products that are both affordable and manufactured locally, creating jobs.  The first Adidas non-profit shoes will be made in and for Bangladesh.

Adidas Group spokesperson Jan Runau said at the company’s head office in Herzogenaurach that the “one-euro” price-tag was more a concept and did not mean the shoes really would be that inexpensive.  More specifically, the product is to be sold at no more than the cost of materials and manufacture. A memorandum of intent has been signed.

This is pretty impressive.  Not only is this a savvy business move to tap into the billions of potential consumers in the “bottom of the pyramid” market, but it is a truly compassionate move by the company.  I’m surprised – this seems like a move Nike would make – but this is an amazing way to extend the brand while providing access to a basic human need to billions; shoes may not sound like much but they can prevent many easily avoidable health problems as well as inspire more children to participate in sport.

And kudos to Adidas for teaming up with Mohamed Yunus, one of the true giants working to end poverty around the world.  I couldn’t think of a better, more genuine, and respected figure to have developed this partnership with.

Let’s just hope that as they continue this partnership, Adidas sticks to the contents of their MOI (which I’m sure Yunus has combed overly closely), to keep the jobs in Bangladesh and the price point of these shoes extremely low.

I’m looking forward to tracking this project; I would be very curious to know if they plan on engaging the southern Africa market pre or post the World Cup with these shoes.

To read the full article, click here: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=29&art_id=iol1258316925203G655

Fonte: Informa Cubatão

jovens atentos às apresentações

sexta-feira, 13 de novembro de 2009

A Escola Técnica Estadual de Cubatão (ETEC) foi palco, na manhã desta sexta-feira, 13, do terceiro painel de apresentação de projetos do Programa Geração Muda Mundo por um Futuro Ideal, uma parceria da Ashoka Empreendedores Sociais e o Instituto Camargo Corrêa na cidade. Cubatão é a primeira cidade da Baixada Santista a participar do Programa.

Com dez minutos de apresentação, os grupos Aliados do Futuro, Mão na Massa, Esporte Total, Esquadrão Trance, Dança de Rua com Arte e Educação, Ação Criança Arte Vida Viva, Bom de Bola e Ritmo Quente apresentaram propostas. O esporte e a dança foram colocados como de suma importância por mais de um grupo, além de melhorias para as comunidades e as pessoas, como, por exemplo, reconstrução de praças, conscientização sobre gravidez e doenças sexualmente transmissíveis (DST). A meta é oferecer até R$ 1.200,00 a cada projeto apoiado, de modo a que esses grupos de jovens possam dar partida à realização de seus sonhos.

Ao término da exposição, os avaliadores Deise Raduan (gestora de educação ambiental pela Secretaria do Estado de Meio Ambiente), Karina Freitas (diretora da Secretaria de Assistente Social – Semas), Robson Martins (responsável pela Fábrica da Comunidade), Sylvia Vieira (assessora de comunicação da Carbocloro), Rodrigo Montaldin (coordenador do Programa de Jovens), Carla Bonatti (representante da empresa Cavo de Curitiba), Leonardo Giardini (coordenador administrativo e financeiro da empresa Camargo Corrêa) e Welington Ribeiro Borges (chefe da divisão de biblioteca e arquivo histórico) colocaram questionamentos sobre os temas propostos pelos jovens.

Ao todo, dez organizações parceiras contribuem para que o evento ocorra: CAMP-Centro de Aprendizagem Metódica e Prática, Associação Unidos, Departamento da Criança e do Adolescente, Projeto Juventude, Programa Jovem, GLC-Grupo de Lazer e Cidadania, Rádio Comunitária Vila Esperança, Clube dos Desbravadores, Fórum da Juventude e Programa de Jovens da Biosfera. O trabalho no município é coordenado pela Fábrica da Comunidade, unidade da Secretaria Municipal de Assistência Social. As empresas Cavo e Camargo Corrêa são as parceiras.

“Todo mundo pode mudar o mundo”, afirmou a coordenadora de parceria de implementação da “Geração MudaMundo”, Mafoane Odara Poli Santos. Ela explicou que a ideia é apoiar os jovens, ajudando-os a desenvolverem habilidades empreendedoras, a transformar os sonhos em ação, além de terem a oportunidade de conhecer pessoas, a trabalhar em equipe e fazer contatos”.

Trinta e dois projetos já foram apresentados em outros painéis. Com a intenção de promover mais, um em janeiro de 2010. Assim, este número pode chegar a 60 projetos, afirma a coordenadora, que espera contar com 300 alunos participantes em Cubatão.

I could connect everywhere of the globe in a second, but not my village. Everyday I could use skypee and messenger to see my friends lived outside of Bangladesh, but not able to see my family members, school friends and neighbours living in my village. I could visit Asia, Europe, America, Africa, Arctic, the moon and my villages also within few minutes using google earth, but my friends never get these opportunities. I could enjoy my time, but could not share these with my childhood friends. Everyday, I talk about agriculture, rural economy, indigenous knowledge etc  in different meetings and seminars and discuss about development. But I could not discuss these issues with my family and friends who are lived at rural areas engaged in agriculture! 

Realising this context, anybody find only difficulties rather opportunities on online activism. But I feel hopeful while I see, a lot of people, in Bangladesh also expresses their own opinion in different social network sites like Somewhereinblog, prothom alo blog, mukto-mona, wordpress, blogger etc! Facebook, a great tools of social network is popular in Bangladesh. I also get return back of some friends due to facebook. With all the limitations, I find, people particularly the youth are becoming more optimistic about welfare of common people who have not access in online world.

Only two years ago, I created this blog and just updated it with only news which fulfilled my needs to prepare my write-up on different issues. Later I found some opportunities to use this blog as social mobilisation tools and I started to post some articles in some selected areas related to my work. But I couldn’t able to reach the people, but I found from my dashboard (control panel) that more and more people visiting my blog everyday.

As a social worker, I have always try to connect people as much as possible. But the blog gave me the opportunities to connect the global people, but I found a great limitation to connect my own people through this blog. I found a great possibility of online activism through participating at different forum through online; but not able to use these possibilities for my own people who are living in the remote villages. So, I searched way to create an opportunity for my own people whose for I work. Discussing with friends, I planned to develop a telecentre at remote areas; mobile technologies enhanced the possibilities to create an opportunity.

But problem is there also; I found again that people, particularly youths are more interested to chat with others as per their own interest rather uses the internet technology for serving the interest of lives and livelihood; so I tried to organise the youths in colleges and universities and started to conduct study circles through creating a bangla blog. A few youths showing interest to join in discussion and together we planned to use these social networking sites as alternative media. For these reason, now we are organising the youths at rural areas through founding clubs, associations and asked them to join with us through using internet from cyber cafe and mobile phone. Journey is started and I dream, my friends and families from my villages connects me at early of the morning, at noon, at afternoon, evening and also after mid-night through a telecentre where rural youths will be become as a social entrepreneur  to provide the services to my villagers.

I also dream, my villagers are taking part in discussion on agriculture, rural employment, rural economy at the blog  and together we are acting as pressure group to formulate public policy to protect live and livelihood of rural people. Together we will build another world! A Knowledge Based Society through online activism. Do you mean! Just join with us!

Ashoka: Innovators for the Public are hosting Tech 4 Society, a conference exploring technology, invention and social change, in Hyderabad, India, in February 2009. Find out more about the conference here. This blog post is an entry in their competition to find the official blogger to travel to and cover the event.

Diana Wells at Brown, courtesy of the Brown Daily Herald

Last week I had the pleasure of moderating a conversation with Diana Wells, the president of Ashoka. We discussed how Ashoka has diffused the concept of social entrepreneurship through its network of fellows. Nearly 30 years since Ashoka started the dialogue, social entrepreneurship and innovation has reached a national consciousness. Last summer, the Obama administration appointed Sonal Shah, former head of global development at Google.org, to lead the charge as the head of the White House Office of Social Innovation. With strong growth in the field, Wells gives us a peak into the future of social entrepreneurship.

True to Ashoka’s mission, Wells instructs that funding leaders must be a top priority. She exclaims, “the author of the idea will be its best champion.” Social entrepreneurs must have undying passion to battle trying social issues. Luckily, there has been a surge in leadership funding, with organizations supporting leaders at different stages in the lifecycle of entrepreneurship. However, on a national level, this funding is still miniscule. Wells incites that the Office of Social Innovation’s largest role will not be funding leaders, but contributing to a national set of priorities, primarily leadership. But as a new entry into this growing dialogue, does the office threaten to dilute the conversation?

There is a tension between local solutions to social issues and scalable ideas. To deepen, rather than dilute the dialogue, Wells sees the future of social entrepreneurship as aligned with Ashoka’s strategy: support ideas that are system changing by their ability to be replicated in other locations. In other words, cookie-cutter approaches to change scaling will not work. Instead, change-makers should adopt and modify workable solutions to local issues. Don’t the best ideas often come from another place? Car and Bike sharing germinated in Europe before entering U.S. markets and the British Invasion co-opted the best of American blues and rock & roll. Open-sourced web development expands this trend to a global arena.

The various stakeholders are dynamically defining the field. As leaders like Wells and Shah of social change embed themselves in our institutions and media waves, we can hope to see a future of positive social change.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Received our first donation from Sebastien Nuttinck (Belgium). Thank you very much for your support Sebastien!

1. Completed and submitted the Ashoka Fellowship nomination form
2. Received our first donation from Sebastien in Belgium
3. Edited the Donate button to include more information
4. Heard back from Aaron from the Taproot Foundation, who suggested that I get in contact with the Non Profit Coordinating Committee of New York (www.npccny.org), Executive Service Corp US (www.escus.org) and the TCC Group (www.tccgrp.com) to inquire about posting for volunteer board members
5. Heard back from Anna from Idealist, who suggested forming a group on the site for the foundation in order to look for volunteer board members
6. Heard back from Daniella at SIPA Alumni Services regarding posting for board members.  Wrote her an e-mail with the situation as we had discussed over the phone.
7. Visited the TCC Group, which is a consulting company apparently that specializes in the non-profit sector.  Left a message with the receptionist about listing for board members
8. E-mailed FIT Student Volunteer Services (212-217-4130 / svcs@fitnyc.edu) with requirements for the website.
9. Heard back from the Charter for Compassion about partnering.  Read the information sent to me and reconfirmed the desire to partner.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

I always feel hopeful and excited when I discover new avenues to achieve my goals and I am always on the look out for new ways to achieve.

1. Downloaded templates from SCORE (http://www.score.org/)
2. Listed internship opportunities on the Get Involved page, Facebook group, LinkedIn, 13 MBAs
3. Sent Lorenzo (friend in Oslo) internship notice to post on UCL
4. Thomas (a friend in Copenhagen) suggested that I read up on Donald Brown and his book Human Universals, which contains a list of human commonalities from an anthropological prospective
5. Wrote to Professor Srikumar Rao (Professor of the Creative and Personal Mastery class at Columbia) about a meeting
6. Finished reading document on non-profit incorporation: http://www.tess.org/misc/010708NP_Biz_Plan.pdf
7. Sent out 4th batch of the “Self-Identifier” survey
8. E-mailed Ashoka about the eligibility of applying for the Ashoka Fellows program

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My Thoughts Enclosed…Rb

Approximately half the population of the world is female, and yet it is devastatingly obvious that in so many areas of the world, -whether developed or undeveloped- that they do not share the same economic or social standard that men do.

Ashoka (which if you don’t know about you should check it out now) is hosting 2 new competitions to improve the status of women through the pursuit of profit. I highly encourage you to check it out and participate, even if you don’t have an innovative venture to put forward, your perspective might very well be valuable.

Cheers!

Sosyal sorunların çözümünde innovasyon kullanmak olarak özetleyebileceğimiz sosyal girişimcilik konsepti son yıllarda oldukça önem kazandı. Sosyal girişimcilik yeni bir kavram değil. Tek bir kişinin tutkularının peşinden gitmesi ile, çok büyük sosyal sorunları çözebileceğini tarih boyunca gördük. Ancak bu alanda çalışan, sosyal girişimcileri gerek maddi gerekse stratejik anlamda destekleyen organizasyonların artmasının sosyal girişimciliğin artmasına direk etkisi var.

Bu kurumlara bir kaç örnek vermemiz gerekirse;

Bill Drayton’ın 1981 yılında kurduğu Ashoka, “Everyone a changemaker” sloganı ile dünyanın değişik yerlerinde bulunan 2000 sosyal girişimciye maddi ve stratejik yardımda bulundu şimdiye kadar.

Skoll Foundation, bu organizasyonlara diğer bir örnek. Ebay’in kurucu ortaklarından Jeff Skoll, ebay’den ayrıldıktan sonra, sosyal girişimcilere destek verebilmek amacı ile bu organizasyonu kurdu.

Echoing Green‘de 1987′den beri toplam 450 sosyal girişimciye, 27 milyon $ değerinde destek vererek, tutkusu sosyal değer yaratmak olan insanların hayallerini gerçekleştirmelerini sağladı.

Bunun dışında her geçen gün yeni bir üniversite de sosyal girişimciliği eğitim programlarına dahil etmekte. Stanford Graduate School of Business, Harvard Business School, Berkeley, Oxford University, London School of Economics bunlardan bir kaçı.

Ayrıca Türkiye’de de Boğaziçi Üniversitesinde bu yıl SOGLA( Sosyal Girişimci Genç Liderler Akademisi) çalışmalarına başladı. SOGLA sosyal girişimciliği gençler arasında yaymayı ve bu alanda Türkiye’nin öncü genç liderlerini yetiştirmeyi amaçlayan bir sosyal girişim projesi.

Tüm bu çabalar gerçekten umut verici. Ancak yeterli olup olmadığı tartışılır. 2009′un 3. çeyreğinde ABD’de normal start-uplara yapılan yatırımlar $1.6 milyar’ı buldu. Bu da Ashoka’nın 28 yılda yaptığı yatırımların 10 katı değerinde.

Dünyayı daha yaşanılır hale getirmek tek sosyal girişimciler ile başarılabilecek bir şey değil. Bu amaca ulaşabilmek için toplumun tüm kesimlerinden destek şart. Ve bu desteğin global anlamda gelmesi bu değişimi daha da hızlandıracak bir etkiye sahip. Şirketler, hükümetler, belediyeler, tüketiciler, vatandaşlar, STKlar, üniversiteler hep birlikte sosyal sorunların çözümü için bir araya gelmenin yöntemlerini bulmalıyız.

There is a demon abroad roaming human consciousness.

The first known victim of this demon was the Adam of Eden. He became a victim when he identified with his personal self and sought to acquire fruits for personal indulgence.

Cut to Indian context, in bhagavad gita Sri Krishna advised Arjuna to actualise karma without seeking fruits of his actions.

In western mythology, their version of Sri Krishna bhagavan, God, is supposed to have similarly advised Adam not to seek to enjoy fruits. While Arjuna of bhArata proceeded to actualise karma without seeking fruits of actions, Adam proceeded to grab the fruit seeking to indulge his personal self, with the result that Adam and all his descendants have been descending ever since, literally as well as metaphorically.

Many indians, taking cue from Sri Krishna’s advise, identified themselves as integral part of the brahmAnDh and actualised karma without seeking to indulge in fruits thereof and realised brahma.

Sri Buddha, deprived of spiritual exposure in his childhood by an insistent father, in adulthood began seeking the root of existence and found it by sublimating his personal self. So did Mahavira and millions of others.

The air of India is permeated with dharma consciousness, the effect of dharmic thoughts of millions of brahma-jnAnis who travelled on this land. This pervading dharmic consciousness prompts people with diverse levels of knoweldge and awareness to seek and attain brahma-jnAna. The momentum built up by such dharma-oriented acts and identification with the brahmAnDh , rather than individual self, inspires people to realise brahma in diverse ways- through intuitive wisdom, through bhakti, through karma, through art, sculpture, dance, music, yoga, even in sex.

Indians traditionally subsumed their personal identity with the rta of the brahmAnDh and ascended spiritually. Their motto, so to speak, was – lokah samastah sukhino bhavantu and concept of vasudaiva kutumbakam.
According to their inclination, some realised brahma through spiritual enquiry and imparted their knowledge to society. Some others attained brahma-jnAna by upholding dharma and administering society conscientiously without indulging themselves. Those talented in handling objects produced food and other materials for the society and realised brahma in their acts of creation. Those inclined towards emulating personalities identified those who served society selflessly and emulated them, helping the brahmanas, kshatriyas and vyshyas in benefiting society, actualised karma and realised brahma in selfless service to society.

The awareness about each being being an integral part of the brahmAnDh pervaded the mindscape of indians and rta was sustained by the people through karmic actualisation.

However, over the years, change started to occur with increasing influence of people from outside, such as the yavanas and others of mleccha lands.

Society is sustained by dharma and the khsatriyas are the upholders of dharma by talent and inclination. So, when the kshatriyas start to slip in upholding dharma, the effects have wide ramifications and society begins to suffer.

One of the early indian kings to have fallen victim to the demon of self-indulgence and self-aggrandizement is Ashoka. His surrender to insatiable appetite for power and glory drove him to kill his siblings, grab power and attack neighbouring kingdoms, killing millions of people. After he had brought under his control most parts of india and neighbouring areas he claimed to have adopted the teachings of Sri Buddha. However, instead of following the footsteps of Sri Buddha, who relinquished his kingdom in search of spiritual quest, Ashoka continued to hold on to his throne until death by old age parted him from it. During his reign he erected self-glorifying edicts in stone all across the land, subordinated the spiritual aspect of Buddha’s teachings and instead fostered pacifist sociological aspects among the people which was beneficial for administration. The tendency to kill did not leave him till the end and he killed one of his younger wifes during his last years.

These self-aggrandizing acts by a raja was detrimental to society. It paved way for waning of dharma in society and increase in interactions with adharmic elements from outside.

Those areas bordering bhArata, such as Afghanistan, Baluchistan on which Ashoka’s diluted version of buddhism was proselytized, later fell easy victims to the rapacity of islamic invaders and helped form a base point for the launch of regular attacks on India throughout over thousand years.

In the western sphere, the descend started by Adam’s succumbing to the demon exerted influence over people through the ages and gathered speed with the rise of imperialistic Rome. The successive aggrandizing drives by roman emperors lead up to a critical stage where the drive to self-aggrandizement took on a transformation. This was ironically catalysed by the spiritual teachings of a person called Jesus.

Jesus spread spirituality among the poor folks who were at the receiving end of roman aggrandization. His ideas continued to flourish even after his death at the hands of romans.

Roman emperor Constantine, seeing the spread of spiritual thoughts among the masses, and the increasing respect for a person killed by the romans, recognized the shift in society taking it towards simple living and spiritual thoughts of Jesus and towards self-sufficiency, thus slipping away from roman control. Taking cue from Ashoka, and going one step ahead, Constantine with help of likewise shrewd brains, cunningly appropriated jesus’ teachings, twisted the spiritual, simple-living values of it, in its stead established a hierarchical church as a middle man between the Jesus’s teachings and the people. Then, colluding with the church continued his imperialistic ambitions. This set the trend for many subsequent years when the church and the king supported each other, mutually bestowing divine powers to rule over people on religious and material matters respectively, as a cover for their self-gratification drives.

This justification of self-aggrandizing behaviour citing divine sanction was taken further by one arab native of Mecca. William Muir, who specialised in the history of that time, describes the life of this person thus- “in the Meccan period of (his) life there certainly can be traced no personal ends or unworthy motives,“. However, in Medina “temporal power, aggrandisement, and self-gratification mingled rapidly with the grand object of the Prophet’s life, and they were sought and attained by just the same instrumentality“. Sigismund Koelle finds “the key to the first period of his life in Khadija, his first wife,” after whose death he became prey to his “evil passions”.

The power structure established by this person exported arab imperialism over distant lands through bloody campaigns running for centuries. It exerted its influence over millions of people over millennia, subduing their innate intelligence and wisdom, turning some of them into helpless victims- mainly the women, while some others actively indulged in the self-gratifying avenues provided by this system.

The demon had found more opportunities to establish its power over humanity.

The demon thus gathering strength, generated multiple heads, that of protestant, catholic, orthodox christianity and sunni and shia islam. The demons’ reach also extended all over the world through colonization of all continents.

Colonization, the deliberate destruction of indigenous civilizations and massacre of native population was later ironically called civilization!

The victims of the demon’s influence are uniformly characterized by their ignorance of their own incongruencies and inherent contradictary stands. Under the demons’ s influence, they are blinded to righteousness and reason and engage in self-perpetuating self-gratification drive.

After hijacking religion and politico-administrative space, the demon enlarged its reach by grabbing commercial mindscape through dogmas of capitalism and communism. It later reared new heads in socio-political sphere, the more prominent ones being Nazism and Fascism, to continue to expand its influence while maintaining its characteristic drive towards self-aggrandizement. The conflict intrinsic to the inherently aggressive heads caused them to fight each other, some of them severing some others in the process.

What this demon feeds on becomes a part of it. When it fed on indian culture and traditions, those being spiritually oriented pursuits, the demon could not digest much. However, whatever little it digested became a part of it, although, very different from its other heads due to the spiritual nature of indian culture from which it had taken form. This difference makes the new head called Hinduism stand out from the others. This new head is not self-aggrandizing to the extent the others are, it does not seek to enlarge its influence, it is not inherently aggressive. It retains much of its spiritual core that characterised indian culture from which it emerged. As to be expected, anyone who displays different characteristics from what is accepted as common, is looked upon with suspicion and sometimes attacked. Amidst the other rapacious heads of the demon, the new head is naturally singled out for attack. Being easy prey, due to inherent non-aggressive tendencies, it becomes the pastime for other heads to attack it.

This is the story so far. Whether the new head of the demon will be able to withstand the various attacks from different directions, whether it will be able to prevail over the other aggressive heads or whether the new head, in its intent to survive, loses its spiritual roots and emulates the other heads, are open to question.

The demon, acting through afflicted individuals or communities or nations, appropriates and assimilates everything it lays its hands on on its unbridled drive to enlarge itself. When it encounters good nurturing concepts in its victims, that are at contradiction with its inherent nature, it takes that from its vanquished victims and later transforms that concept and uses it as a shield, as a cover for its rapacious heads. Thus peace, love, science, rationality, logic, equality; everything loses their essence and becomes a tool in the demon’s hands. They are then apportioned between the diferent heads to give them a sense of respectability. The demon then uses these covers to fool its victims with sense of respectability. Its further acts of selfishness are later justified using these covers. These tools add to the demon’s repertoire which includes the claims to divine sanction that was used to justify its gratification drives earlier.

Despite the aura of respectability and sense of justice that the demon strives to create, it still remains a demon, driven by its insatiable drive to self-aggrandizement, towards self-gratification at the cost of everything.

What is of essence is that a human being realises itself when it goes beyond the clutches of the demon. It is then that it realises itself to be brahma.

The demon is a creation of man, created when he identifies himself as a limited individual self, and with that identification, seeks to enlarge himself. This contradictory state that that human being finds himself in, creates strain and instability within him, which he seeks to circumvent by identifying himself with a group of like people having a socio-political goal and/or claiming connection to divine power, thus seeking to enlarge his reach.

Vanquishing of the demon is necessary for the sustaining of rta, for the prosperity of living beings, for sustenance of nature, for life of bhumi devi, for dharma.

In the puranas, whenever the weight of demons increased on earth, daeivika quality was generated to destroy the demon and to sustain rta.

It maybe time for Sri Rama to take birth again, in the minds of people. For ramayana to play in their minds, for destruction of the multiheaded demon Ravana who has appropriated their sense of identity, to re-join their sense of identity with righteousness.

Their sense of identity got separated from righteousness when, enamoured with the illusionary nature of perception, they sought to capture the illusion, with the aim of indulging in it. In that state of befuddlement they rejected their protecting sense of loyalty towards righteousness and further succumbing to illusionary perception, lost themselves to aggrandizement and gratification. Once they fell to aggrandizement and gratification, even the effect of age old bhAratiya parampara could not rescue them.

Right now many are like the Sita of ashoka vana, surrounded by materialistic wealth, yet separated from their sense of righteousness, pining for it; while the multiple headed demon cajoles and tempts them with more materialistic wealth for abandoning the seeking of sense of righteousness altogether. Many people have succumbed and lost their identity to this materialistic self-aggrandizing demon.

For those who haven’t done so yet, ramayana provides glimpses to -
- arrange for their sense of righteousness to meet with bhakti and sthirata, allegiance and perseverence of action
- get their sense of righteousness to vanquish impetousness that otherwise would displace sthirata
- get their bhakti to realise its strength and to seek and meet their sense of identity, to assure themselves that righteousness with perseverence will rescue them from the demon’s control.
- build a bridge over vacilitating thoughts that protects the abode of the demon, through actions under the direction of sthirata
- have their sense of righteousness fight the aggrandizing multi-headed demon
- first kill the demon’s brother- the tendency towards indulgence
- next, let loyalty to righteousness kill the demon’s progeny- loud voice, eagerness to show off
- then let righteousness kill the demon himself, targetting its source of life- the insatiable greed for power and control.

Thus ramayana plays out in the minds of people.

Welcome to b school. What sets you apart from your peers is the fact that you are here, on this webpage, reading these words. You’re here because you want do something good with your career. You want to create meaning, not just revenue. You want to change lives, not just corporate structures. You want to do business and do good simultaneously.

This blog is a way to keep you informed about all the opportunities at CMU (and beyond) for you to get involved with creating sustainable social change, no matter what “flavor” you prefer, whether it’s education, or health, or poverty, or justice, or something else entirely.

You’ve heard the buzzwords: social innovation, social enterprise, sustainability, greening, microfinance… and if you’re a first-year MBA student at Tepper, there’s a 25% chance you were at a meeting earlier this semester in which there was some heated debate over what, exactly, this whole thing is about.

Even within the field of social innovation, experts argue heatedly over particular meanings and categorizations. But for a start, it’s probably reasonable to say that “social innovation” simply means “new ways of thinking and doing things in ways that benefit the world.” Then there’s “social entrepreneurship,” which might be defined as “a business model that addresses and helps to solve a social problem.” (Agree? Disagree? Leave a comment and tell us what you think!)

One way to begin understanding this complex, growing field is to dive right into the world of social innovation and work on projects. We’ll talk about those in the coming posts. If you want to get some idea of the scope of projects, I recommend a visit to Ashoka’s website. This quick-t0-read e-book will give you a sense of the breadth of projects that people across the world are undertaking. Want to know more? Get yourself a copy of this book and read it over Thanksgiving or Winter Break.

(There are other organizations that do similar work–the Skoll Foundation, for example. Have other examples in mind? Leave a comment for the rest of us!)

In the mean time, if you have a definition for social innovation or social entrepreneurship that you want to share, leave a comment. Start a conversation.