Post your Frontline World Responses (3) here.
Don't forget to answer the following questions in your response to the program.
What is a social entrepreneur?
What is a philanthropist?
Outline:
1.Who is the social entrepreneur profiled?
2.What problem did the person profiled identify?
3.What is the name of the organization they started?
4.Describe their relationship to the community that they serve?
• Why they decided to address this issue?
5.What is the local component?
6.How does the community own the process?
Don't forget to answer the following questions in your response to the program.
What is a social entrepreneur?
What is a philanthropist?
Outline:
1.Who is the social entrepreneur profiled?
2.What problem did the person profiled identify?
3.What is the name of the organization they started?
4.Describe their relationship to the community that they serve?
• Why they decided to address this issue?
5.What is the local component?
6.How does the community own the process?
posted by Professor Wanda's Posse at 8:59 AM
18 Comments:
Rudy Gonzales
8-9am Mon.-Thurs.
Frontline World
Response 1: Uganda: A Little Goes a Long Way
Reporter Clark Boyd from Frontline brings to light the hard life that many Africans face in poor villages in Africa. Many of these people are hard-working and just need a little help monetarily to move their ideas/business to the next level. Luckily, Premal Shah has created Kiva, which is an online website that lends money, a micro-loan, to entrepreneurs in places like Uganda. Premal himself is an entrepreneur for organizing this service that allows generous caring people to be in direct contact with peoples from Africa.
One such person is Nathan F., a regular guy from San Francisco, who lent a few hundred dollars to Grace Ayaa, a peanut butter business owner. Nathan believing in Grace’s business lent her money she needed to help expand and improve her business. They have direct contact with each other via email, and she lets him know what she bought with the money and how her business is coming along. As she grows and gets more profit, she slowly pays back her loan. In turn, Nathan happy to get the money back can re-loan to someone else in need. Kiva is proud to have a perfect record of all their lenders returning the money they borrowed.
I was listening to the radio about a study at several universities throughout the country that discovered more people are happy when they are giving to others. Kiva allows lenders to feel good that they are doing something positive in this world by donating a small amount. Equally, the people of Africa are appreciative in gaining a better quality of life. In addition, these entrepreneurs of developing businesses may be able to higher more workers and this can give more employment opportunities for their communities. It just goes to show that a little really does go a long way.
I felt Shah really developed something special to take out the middle man and allow people to lend to deserving and dedicated people directly. From watching the report, lenders have said how they feel closer to the person that they are giving the money to. I believe that makes a big difference. Many people watch television and see those commercials that say, “If you give 38 cents a day you will be saving a poor child in some third world country when you call….,” but most people just keep watching their program. Kiva makes the situation first hand and you don’t feel removed from the giving process. I hope that I can give when I get more money. Or maybe we should put our money together and search online of someone we want to give back to. Does that sound like an interesting idea to anyone? Another tid-bit, people would find it interesting to know that peanut butter in mass production started right here in Alameda, have you heard of Skippy?
Rudy Gonzales
8-9am Mon.-Thurs.
Frontline World
Response 2: Tanzania: Hero Rats
BOOOOOOM!!!! Can you imagine walking through a field with your friends playing around and all of a sudden a landmine goes off and you are the only survivor? I cannot begin to fathom what it would be like to have to literally watch every step that I make. Reporter Alexis Bloom follows this story about a man named Bart Weetjans whose love for rodents has created many extraordinary uses out of these animals. Bart realized that there was a problem with landmines in places of war, especially Africa. He understood that there were dogs that were used to demine area, but dogs are too heavy and sometimes set them off. Bart trains African Giant-pouch rats to sniff out landmines. Once the rats scratch the area, deminers go and defuse the landmine very carefully.
Bart dreamt of a better and safe world. His work has been to improve the safety of many acres of area where many people live. One such important place was when he demined several 100 acres around a school in Africa; now the kids can go play in their area without worrying about an explosion going off.
Not only have these rats been saving lives from demining, but Bart is also training them to detect Tuberculosis (TB). The rats have an incredible sense of smell and with the right training they can help doctors diagnose TB. TB is one of the leading causes in Africa and many people die from it because it is diagnose so late. Unfortunately, lab technicians can only get through about 20 samples a day, whereas these rats can go through about 2000. Once again, saving many more lives and giving these people a better quality and longer lasting life.
Bart is truly an entrepreneur in taking a risk in these rats and their abilities. His research has paid off tremendously and is saving lives daily. His dreams are being fulfilled. I love watching how these entrepreneurs’ are improving societies and using their passions to create good.
Dung Le
9-10am
Social entrepreneurs are proactive individuals that take actions into their own hands to improve society. They provide ideas and participate in programs that improve, and change society in a positive way.
#1. Uganda: A Little Goes a Long Way
Clark Boyd is the reporter of a segment entitled “Uganda: A little goes a Long Way”. He began by describing the living status of the residents of Uganda, a war torn country. Many entrepreneurs reside in Uganda, but with a daily salary of less than a dollar, their dream of having a business is slim to none; that is until a couple named Matt and Jessica Flannery who changed everything.
Matt is a web designer and Jessica is a Stanford business student, they partnered up with a local resident of Uganda to create a company called Kiva. Kiva is a web-based company in which the resident of the United States has direct connection to the entrepreneurs that they wish to loan money to. Kiva was consisted with only seven staff members with Matt and Jessica being the CEO’s and Premal Shah being the president. The advantage of Kiva is that it uses a program known as Paypal, which only charge a low amount of fees, unlike banks and other loaning company.
With the help of Kiva, entrepreneurs such as Elizabeth Omalo who own a fruit selling business and Grace Ayaa who own a peanut butter making company now flourish in Uganda. Because of Kiva, Uganda is now a place of thriving entrepreneurs and businesses.
Dung Le
9-10am
#2. Cambodia: The Silk Grandmothers
The reporter for this segment is Emily Taguchi, she begins by describing the current situation in Cambodia. Like many poor conditioned country, Cambodia is war torn. Many residents of Cambodia don’t have a formal education because of the constant retreats from the war. With little to no education, life in Cambodia is hard and unproductive. The majorities of Cambodia grow rice and weave silk, and has daily wage of less than a dollar. To worsen the matter, silk weaving is degrading to a brink of disappearance. Kikuo Morimoto, a Japanese craftsman revived and saved the traditional silk weaving of Cambodia, increasing it’s economic and improving the life of many Cambodians.
Phnom Penh UNESCO a company that Mr. Morimoto was working for sent him to Cambodia to seek out and confirm the survival of silk weavers. Mr. Morimoto met the nephew of Chan Sot who brought him to Chan Sot. He then recruits Chan along with six other women who still possessed the weaving skill and created I. K. T. T. All the women recruited were grandmothers thus the name “Silke Grandmother” was given.
The silk weaves that was about to disappear are now saved and displayed in museums around the world, having a sales gross of 350,000$ a year. With the success of I.K.T.T, the economic of Cambodia improved. It provided jobs with a monthly wage of 80-200$, six times the average Cambodian income. With the improved economy, better, clothes, food and lifestyle can be bought.
for Faraj, English 1A 9-10 a.m. Reposted from Thursday, April 3.
The three Videos
A social entrepreneur is a person who takes their own time to help a community that is in need, by giving them what they lack most, and at the same time meeting the people whom he/she is helping.
A Philanthropy is a rich person whom gives the poor money but doesn’t really meet the people whom he/she is helping.
The Questions
1. What is a social entrepreneur?
2. What problem did the person profiled identify?
3. What is the name of the organization they started?
4. Describe their relationship to the community they serve. Why did they decide to address this issue?
5. What is the local component?
6. How does the community own the process?
First video
India: A New Life
Getting children off the streets
1. Father Thomas Koshy noticed that there were three thousand children in India, Vijayawada, whom don’t have a home and were living on the streets. While living on the streets children began to follow the wrong road and get into trouble. So the mayor of Vijaywada, told him he should open a shelter home for the children. And he did.
2. The name of the organization they started is Navajeevan Bala Bhavan also known as the New Life Children Home.
3. Father Koshy is a Catholic priest of the city and decided teamed up with his old friend Anu Dasaka whom is a Hindu and has a career in psychology, to start the program, and save the children’s future by building schools and homes for them.
4. There are approximately 27,000 children in India who live on the streets and the local component is to get every child to attending the Navajeevan Bala Bhavan.
5. The community is in need of the Navajeevan Bala Bhavan and help building them around the country.
South Africa: The Play Pump
1. Trevor Field identified that that South Africa barely had any access to clean water and most of the water is contaminated.
2. Trevor called his organization the Play Pump.
3. Trevor became rich by making advertisements and decided to help the South African people get access to clean and fresh water by building play pumps near schools and villages. The play pump is designed as a Mary Go Round, so when Children played on it and spun it around it pumps water.
4. He wanted Southern Africans to have access to clean water, because that was the main thing they lacked.
5. The Play Pump only costs around seven thousand dollars and when activated it pumps four hundred gallons of water per hour.
Tanzania: Hero Rats
1. Bart Vitcans raised rats to help him and his crew find land mines that were left behind after a recent war in Belgium and save lives by sniffing the land mine. People accidently walk into land mines and lose their legs or even die.
2. They named the organization Hero Rats.
3. They decided to address this issue because there were many people dieing because of stepping on them.
4. The component is to dig out every land mine planted and unexploded.
5. The community helped Bart raise the rats and train them to sniff out deadly unexploded land mines.
Reposted for Kenton from April 3
Professor Wanda Sabir
Kenton Low, 1A - MTWR: 8 - 9AM
Soical Entreprenur - Tanizna: Hero Rats
Outline and Planning Sheet
14 April 2008
Outline:
1.What is a social entrepreneur ?
2.What problem did the person profile identify?
3.What is the name of the organization they started?
4.Describe their reasonship to the community that they serve?
• Why they decided to address this issue?
5.What is the local component?
6.How does the community own the process?
Tanzania: Hero Rats
1. They named the organization Hero Rats.
2. They decided to address the issue because there where many PEOPLE dyeing because THEY WERE stepping on the land mines.
3.The component of the rats is to dig out the improvese exposive devices (IED'S) out from the ground/ play yard of the school.
4.Bart Vitcans helped his members by scoutting out land mines that where left behind
from the civil war in Belgium and saved lives by sniffing out land mines.
5.Digging out land mines in the country of Tanzania so that people do not lose any more legs and arms.
6.The country in Tanzania helped Bart Vitcans raised the land mine sniffing rats and trained them well.
India - Hole In The Wall
1. Dr. Mitra was greatful for the children when they ruised over to the computer because they learned in minutes.
2.Computers where put up every in New Delhi in poor areas of the town in New Delhi.
3.Dr. Mitra took his have and have – nots to overcome the digital age where the digital age is divided in India.
4.In a village Dr. Mitra places a computer in a town where it was a place where fishing takes place in a rural area in state of Maharashtra.
Rudy Gonzales
8-9am Mon.-Thurs.
Frontline World
Response 3: Mexico: The Business of Saving Trees
Deep breathe in, deep breathe out. For now, it’s fairly easy to breathe and take in all the oxygen that we need. However, more and more green house gases, especially CO2, are going into the air, and damaging our atmosphere. Reporter Jason Margolis is following the story of a woman named Pati Ruiz Corso, who is creating a biosphere in Mexico for people who long for a community, jobs, and functionality. This area is called Sierra Gorda, which is about the size of Rhode Island, and has every type of landscape on earth. Corso turned to nature to find answers in her life. She was definitely a philanthropist in the sense that she wanted to help people, but she also wanted to make sure that this place would have the help they needed for many years to come. She also saw how their attitudes towards their environment needed to be changed.
Corso knew about the carbon off-setting market that it occurring right now. This market is buying trees to help reduce their carbon footprint. Many large companies who emit toxic gases into the air want to make sure they are also doing their part to reduce global warming, hence buying trees because they help fight against the bad gases. Corso wanted her project to be two-fold; help save the forests/planet and also create a new livelihood for people in Sierra Gorda area. She understood that you could not have one without the other.
Corso created the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve and got many people of this region together to protect existing nature and also plant many new trees to get ready for the carbon off-setting market. Here, she would create what she likes to call “a gourmet product” for the buyer. Corso meant that she could advertise that not only are the buyers going to help reduce their carbon footprint, in addition they are helping this community, creating jobs, allowing people in Mexico to stay where they are and prosper.
The Sierra Gorda Biosphere reserve is doing well and many people in the region are staying because new jobs are available and more services are coming there. Social entrepreneur Corso looked to nature to find her answer in helping the environment and the people of this region. She saw the attitudes change from throwing their garbage in the river to educating and practicing a new way to dispose garbage. The attitudes of the people have changed and they are happy to help Corso with her projects of planting new trees. Corso is closely related to this community and gets right in there and helps them and educates them. I have enjoyed how she sings songs and makes the kids feel loved and special. She has started off small, but she has many more ideas that are waiting to for the time when they can grow. Just like a tree that starts off like seed, social entrepreneurs have to have an idea that is only in their heads but soon starts to grow.
A social entrepreneur is a person who uses creative business practice to start a social services organization; whereas, a philanthropist is a person who gives effort to increase the well-being of mankind, such as donations or charitable aid. Both are people who want to help others achieve better lives, but the social entrepreneur creates a business which will hopefully take root and continue to provide help and the philanthropist may just be a good natured person who gives back personally and occasionally. The social entrepreneur has more risk involved, because they are not sure if their business idea will be taken seriously; if it does not, there time and energy has to start over. The philanthropist is safe in thinking that their efforts will be taken graciously.
Definitions come from dictionary.com
Melissa Tinkelenberg
English 1A 9-10
Play Pump
Social Entrepreneurs are people who recognize a social issue and try to change it. Weather it be with their voice or their hands or their blood and sweat they are making an impact. Social Entrepreneurs will often see profit for their work yet but they are able to make huge differences in people’s lives. They differ from Philanthropists because Philanthropists usually stay further removed from the situation. They might donate money or even raise money but they don’t do much to try to actually change the world. They don’t get their hands dirty.
We all grow up hearing about the starving kids in Africa. The reason people in parts of Africa are starving isn’t just about a lack of money. It all stems from a lack of Water. How did this happen to Africa? This is a place that used to thrive. The native people had their villages where they very successfully grew their crops. When the Europeans came to Africa to colonize it they brought with them plants that weren’t native to Africa and demanded more water. In fact these plants soak up billions of gallons of water. This affects the mountain streams and wetlands. Add the fact that the population has increased to the equation and you can see how the water supply is lacking. In order to acquire water for the family, the women would have to walk to a pump everyday, which was at times miles away and often contaminated, pump the water which is a lot of work and then they would have to lug gallons of water back to their villages’. This exerted a lot of energy and wasted a lot of time and kids were getting sick from the bad water.
Trevor Field is a great example of a Social Entrepreneur. He was an advertising executive who had already done well in life and wanted to find a way to give back. He teamed up with an inventor and they invented the “play pump.” The play pump is a children’s playground merry-go-round. In the few villages these play pumps have been put in, the kids at recess would run and play and spin each other around and have the time of their lives. They never had any toys to play with before, they didn’t even have books in the schools; this was so exciting for the children. All the while this merry-go-round was pumping water from way deep under the earth into these towers which stored it. They supply 2000 gallons at a time. The play pump only takes a few hours to set up and a complete system is only $7000 dollars. Trevor took the idea one step further and enabled the water towers to be able to pay for their own upkeep by turning the sides of the water towers into make shift billboards and sold add space. He reserved add spots for the national loveLife campaign which helps teach children about HIV and AIDS. Educating the kids in Africa about AIDS is extremely important because AIDS is the next biggest problem in Africa and we want to educate these children young.
The US Government was so impressed with this program that our leaders came together and donated $16.4 million. Jay-Z, who is considered a Philanthropist because he donated money, also fell in love with the idea and he pledged to raise $400,000 in his “Water for Life” tour in Africa. Trevor wants to raise $45 million more. That would cover 4000 more pumps in Africa by 2010 and supply water for 10 million people. Water is one of the basic, essentials of survival, and Trevor is doing all he can to help the people in Africa to survive.
Dung Le
9-10
Philanthropists are similar to social entrepreneurs, but instead of hands on help, they contribute their help in ways of donations and charities.
#3. Mexico: The Business of Saving Tree
1. What is a social entrepreneur?
2. What problem did the person profiled identify?
Pati Ruiz Corzo an ex-music teacher left her job from the city and moved to an area known as the Sierra Gorda biosphere, just north of Mexico. While there she realizes that it was littered with trash and the forest was barren, stripped of all its natural vegetation. She then decided to dedicate her life’s work to clean up the trash, rejuvenate the forest and create new jobs for the people who live there.
3. What is the name of the organization they started?
The organization in which Pali started is called Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve.
4. Describe their relationship to the community they serve.
After the leave of her job in the city, she moved to Sierra Gorda to live a simpler life. Making Sierra Gorda her new home, she to teamed up with a local environmentalist Lara Parez Arce to improve it.
5.What is the local component?
6. How does the community own the process?
With the help of Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve organization, Sierra Gorda is now a better place to live. It gave the villagers job and with their help, Sierra Gorda is now much cleaner and more populated with vegetations and people.
Melissa Tinkelenberg
English 1A 9-10
Hero Rats
Africa has a bloody history. Most of the continent is trying to recover from numerous civil wars. Unfortunately, there are still a large number of unexploded land mines everywhere. Many people throughout Africa have been killed or maimed by stepping on one of these land mines. Even the kids playing near their schools are not necessarily safe. What can be done? Bart Weetjens has found an answer that so far has proven very effective.
For Bart growing up rodents were his boyhood passion so he always knew how smart rats really were. He founded an organization called “Hero Rats.” This organization trains rats to sniff out explosives. Previously dogs were always used for this task but Bart really felt large rats would be better. His reasoning; rats are lighter so they are less likely to set off land mines they find, they are cheaper to maintain and less susceptible to acquiring tropical diseases. Finding grants that would help fund this project was a different issue. He was laughed at everywhere he turned. Eventually he was able to get the funding and Hero Rats has been a huge success.
Bart has set up a training facility in Mozambique where he trains over 300 Gambian Pouched Rats in his lab. He trains them to smell explosives and rewards them when they are correct. Once the rats seem to recognize the smell he brings them out for trial runs on leashes. After the trial run they are ready for the real deal.
These rats are saving people’s lives. They have cleaned out an area around a school so that the children can now play safely. They have cleaned out many villages as well and Bart hopes to be able to expand his operation to the rest of Africa one day soon. Next on Bart’s agenda? He is now teaching the rats to sniff out Tuberculosis. Is there anything these rats can’t do?
Christina Thoss
English 1A
Frontline World video responses
Definitions:
-Social entrepreneur- a social entrepreneur is an individual who uses creative business practices such as forms of art to start, organize, and manage a social services organization to make a change in a certain social issue.
-Philanthropist- a philanthropist is an individual who donates their time and/or money to a social, charitable cause to help make a change.
Response#1: “Uganda: A Little Goes A Long Way”
Outline:
1. Who is the social entrepreneur profiled?
The social entrepreneur profiled is the micro-lending organization KIVA, which means “agreement” or “unity” in Swahili. KIVA’s co-founders are Matt and Jessica Flannery.
2. What problem did the person profiled identify?
Many small business owners in Uganda can’t afford to fund their business, which prevents them to reaching their business objectives causing them their success, but now lenders through KIVA are funding many of these small businesses getting owners back on their feet.
3. What is the name of the organization they started?
The name of the organization that they started is called KIVA, which means “agreement” or “unity” in Swahili. KIVA is a micro-lending organization that gives people the opportunity to become lenders to small business owners in Uganda in need of extra funds to continue running their business for the majority of the people living in Uganda make only about a dollar a day.
4. Describe their relationship to the community that they serve
Jessica and Matt Flannery appear to have a close relationship to the Uganda community. In the video it shows them visiting Uganda and some of the business owners. Jessica Flannery mentions the time she visited Africa for the first time and saw how little money went a long ways, which inspired her husband Matt to start up a website of peer-to-peer lending, which was how KIVA got started.
-Why did they decide to address this issue?
Because they noticed how much the small Uganda businesses needed funds and how a small amount of money could go such a long ways.
5. What is the local component?
The local component is the loans the small businesses are in need of; without them they most likely wouldn’t be in business anymore.
Christina Thoss
English 1A 9-10AM
Frontline World video responses
Response#2: “Tanzania: Hero Rats”
Outline
1. Who is the social entrepreneur profiled?
Bart Weetjens, who is the founder of Hero Rats.
2. What problem did the person profiled identify?
The common danger of unexploded land mines killing and injuring many in the lands of Tanzania. Bart Weetjens and other experts train rats for hours a day to sniff out the deadly explosives, which have already taken so many lives.
3. What is the name of the organization they started?
The organization that Bart Weetjens started is called Hero Rats where they train hundreds of rats to smell out hidden land mines throughout Tanzania.
4. Describe their relationship to the community that they serve
Bart and the others that are part of the organization are greatly helping the community of Tanzania by improving the safety of it’s lands where people can now feel secure and safe and preventing many lives from being lost.
- Why they decided to address this issue?
They decided to address the issue of land mines because it was a great danger to the community, which left people to live in fear and cost many innocent people their lives.
5. What is the local component?
The local component is the trained rats whose duty is to sniff out the hidden land mines.
6. How does the community own the process?
The community provides Bart’s organization with the rats, so they can train them to sniff out these dangerous explosives causing so many deaths.
Christina Thoss
English 1A 9-10AM
Frontline World video responses
Response #3: “Paraguay-Sounds of Hope”
Outline
1. Who is the social entrepreneur profiled?
The social entrepreneur profiled is a famous musician by the name of Luis Szaran. With a life-long love for music Szaran became the conductor of Paraguay’s national symphony, and soon decided to give back to the community through the use of music.
2. What problem did the person profiled identify?
Luis Szaran took notice to all the orphan, neglected, abandoned and/or underprivileged children living in unfortunate conditions and felt the urge to give back; give them something more to live for; give them a passion for music.
3. What is the name of the organization they started?
The name of the organization that Luis Szaran started is called “Sonidos de la Tierra” meaning “Sounds of the Earth”. He began this organization five years ago to help improve or rejuvenate the lives of these children living in such misfortune by teaching them the beauty and power of music. They learned to read music and play instruments they’ve never even seen or heard of before, which was very meaningful to them.
4. Describe their relationship to the community that they serve?
Luis Szaran appears to have a very close and respectable relationship with the communities in Paraguay. He has several music school establishments throughout Paraguay and soon in five more countries, which will benefit from his generous and creative music organization.
- Why they decided to address this issue?
Szaran decided to address this issue after seeing how many unfortunate and underprivileged children inhabited Paraguay.
5. What is the local component?
The local components are the music schools that have developed throughout the communities in Paraguay giving children a chance at something positive and benefiting in their lives.
6. How does the community own the process?
The community is apparently very supportive of Luis Szaran’s music schools and extremely impressed with what the children have learned from him and how music has changed their lives for the better.
A social entrepreneur is the art of simultaneously pursuing both a financial and a social return on investment
A philanthropist is someone who makes charitable donations intended to increase human well-being.
India: Hole in the Wall
1. The social entrepreneur is profile as Dr. Sugata Mitra, a computer scientist who works at some of the most advance high technology firms in India.
2. Dr. Sugata Mitra’s 21st century office is right next to a slum where Indians live for less than 1 dollar a day and half of them are illiterate. He was curious as what would happen if he provided the poor kids with free, unlimited access to computer and internet?
3. The organization that started this project is NIIT, a leading computer software and training company in New Delhi.
4. Dr. Sugata Mitra’s relationship to the Indians kids is relatively close; in fact they are neighbors given the fact that he works in a 21st century office right next to a slum full of poor kids. The relationship was positive as more kids are educating themselves with the wealth of information they found online. Rory O'Connor first encountered Dr. Mitra’s experiment while making a film on global poverty. Seeing the success of Dr. Mitra’s experiment, Rory decides to show the world.
5. Kids made the most efficient use out of their local setup computers by absorbing information on the internet and becoming more computer literate.
6. The community does not own the process; the computer project was setup and sponsor by NITT firm.
A Girl’s Life
1. The social entrepreneur is profile as James Wood, who started a literacy program known as Room to Read.
2. After taking a break from Microsoft, James decides to travel to Nepal in 1998 and took notice of its immense poverty level right away. In Nepal, at least 70% of women are illiterate and the libraries are virtually empty.
3. The name of the organization is Room to Read, a nonprofit program that has helped expand over 1300 libraries, setup workshops, and gave girls an equal opportunity in a society where is has traditionally favored boys.
4. The relationship between James and the people of Nepal is quite distant since he only came there to visit. However, after he vowed to quit Microsoft in order to maintain the increasing quality of education in Nepal has gave a positive impact to many unprivileged children.
5. This issue was addressed because the Skoll Foundation decided to send reporters to the Middle East and Nepal to explore how ordinary people can make a great lasting impact to those living in poverty.
6. The communities of Nepal own the libraries, education and books generously donated and started by James Wood.
Hero Rats
1. The social entrepreneur profile is Bart Weetjen, as a boy he had great passion for rats and decided to use them to help save the lives of people.
2. It is known that most landmines are found in Africa and about every second, someone falls victim to those subtle landmines. Traditionally, dogs had been used to defuse landmines but rats have proven to be more effective and less likely to detonate the landmines. The rats are also capable of detecting tuberculosis, a leading cause of death in Africa.
3. The name of the organization is Hero Rats, where the name speaks for itself; the rats are without question heroes.
4. People were skeptical at first as to if these rats were actually capable of detecting landmines. However after seeing these little critters in action, people have learned to value these precious lifesavers. This issue is being addressed because Bart has found an innovative method using rats to save human lives.
5. Rats are placed through rigorous training, after passing their rat academy; they are set on missions to detect landmines in schools, villages and etc.
6. The community does not own this process, the Hero Rats organization does all the rat training and sponsoring.
Angelica Watson
April 15, 2008
M-Th 8-9am
Front line World
Uganda: A Little Goes a Long Way
The social entrepreneurs are Jessica and Matt who started a company called KIVA, which give loans to people in Africa to start their business. People in America use the KIVA website to give people in Africa loans to start a small business. The loan may be $100 to $1000 depending on what they need. The loan does not have interest that banks have which increase all the time. Jessica and Matt noticed that people had skills to have a business but where unable because they were denied by the bank or did not have enough money. They made a way for those people to receive money they would have to pay back but with out interest and without a strict guideline to how much they pay a month or a time frame. Jessica and Matt go to Uganda often to check on people and their business. People who live in Uganda work for KIVA in picking who gets a loan and how much they get. They also do check ups on people to make sure their business is doing well over a certain period of time. Now there are more homes being built.
Nepal: A Girl’s Life
There was an American Entrepreneur who went to Nepal on a vacation and found that the schools where very poor and their books where no good. He came back a year later with four Donkey’s with sack filled with books. He started “Room to Read” which provided books to the schools in Nepal. It also started building schools. He got people to sponsor kids and give them scholarships especially the girls and build a school for $1500. Room to Read started publishing books for the children to read. The community helps by being the people who build the school and they also are the people who select the children who get the scholarships. Because Nepal don’t educate their women as much as their men the scholarships are geared toward the girls. Now there will be more women in Nepal with an education.
Cambodia: The Silk Grandmothers
A man named Morimotto wanted to bring back the Silk weaving that was once a craft that was held by the people in Cambodia. They had lost that craft down the line and only the older women knew how to do it. The women where working for a man that was not paying them enough for their work. Then Morimotto came along and paid them more and made it more comfortable to work by letting them bring their children to work. Then the older women were able to teach the younger women how to do silk weaving and now the tradition will not die. Their work is being sold or are in museums.
Great responses from those students who completed the assignment. Quite a few of you liked the Hero Rats segment. Rudy, I enjoyed the tone in your writing; Faraj and Christina--great answers to the question (you too Kenton). Dung I liked yours also. Angel, yours was short and sweet :-)
Ali Hassan
Professor Sabir
8/9
Social entrepreneur: a person who uses creative business practice to start a social services organization.
Philanthropist: a person who practices philanthropy; and has concern for human welfare and advancement, usually manifested by donations of money, property, or work to needy persons, by endowment of institutions of learning and hospitals, and by generosity to other socially useful purposes.
1. Who is the social entrepreneur profiled?
2. What problem did the person profiled identify?
3. What is the name of the organization they started?
4. Describe their relationship to the community that they serve?
• Why they decided to address this issue?
5. What is the local component?
6. How does the community own the process?
Tanzania: Hero Rats
1) The social entrepreneur profile is Bart Weetjen who is the founder of Hero Rats, as a boy he had great passion for rats and decided to train them to sniff out landmines in Tanzania.
2) Traditionally, dogs had been used to defuse landmines but rats have proven to be more effective and less likely to detonate the landmines. The rats are also capable of detecting tuberculosis, a leading cause of death in Africa.
3) It is called Hero Rats where Bart and his crew, has been running a unique lab in Tanzania for the past seven years, where they train rats to sniff out deadly unexploded land mines.
4) Bart and his crew members that are part of the organization are really serving the community of Tanzania by improving the safety of its lands where people can now feel secure and safe and allowing the children to resume their education and play without fear of stepping on a mine, also preventing many lives from being lost.
5) Rats are placed through careful training, after the rats have completed the training successfully; they are sent out to detect landmines in schools, villages and etc.
6) The community does not own the process Bart and his crew do all the training and sponsoring. Even though the people of Tanzania can say that Bart is using their rats, but I think that is not a smart complaint because he is doing it to save the lives of people living in Tanzania.
India: Hole in the Wall
1) The social entrepreneur is profile as Dr. Sugata Mitra, a computer scientist who works at some of the most advance high technology firms in India.
2) Dr. Sugata Mitra’s 21st century office is right next to a slum where Indians live for less than 1 dollar a day and half of them are illiterate. He was curious as what would happen if he provided the poor kids with free, with a computer that had unlimited access to the web.
3) The organization that started this project is NIIT, a leading computer software and training company in New Delhi.
4) Dr. Sugata Mitra’s relationship to the Indians kids is relatively close; in fact they are neighbors given the fact that he works in a 21st century office right next to a slum full of poor kids. The relationship was positive as more kids are educating themselves with the wealth of information they found online. Rory O'Connor first encountered Dr. Mitra’s experiment while making a film on global poverty. Seeing the success of Dr. Mitra’s experiment, Rory decides to show the world.
5) Kids made the most efficient use out of their local setup computers by absorbing information on the internet and becoming more computer literate.
6) The community does not own the process; the computer project was setup and sponsor by NITT firm.
South Africa: The Play Pump
1) The entrepreneur profiled Trevor Field, a retired advertising executive, had done well in life and wanted to give back to his community.
2) Trevor Field noticed that in rural villages across South Africa, some 5 million people don't have access to clean drinking water. Water was very scarce.
3) Field teamed up with an inventor and came up with the name Play Pump.
4) Trevor felt real bad for the women because it was their job to wake up in the morning to search for water, he sees that women are burning up collecting water when they could be at home looking after their kids, teaching their kids, being loving mothers.
5) To make it easy for people in South Africa to have easy access to pure clean water, and don’t have to travel searching for the nearest borehole to collect water.
6) The community owns the process thanks to Trevor Fields who has helped the community by giving them easy access to clean water.
Yolanda Gil
English 1A 9-10
Frontline world
Outline:"Mexico:The Business of Saving Trees"
Define social entrepreneur: An entrepreneur is a person who focus on resolving social problems by providing ideas, time, and effort into a positive change.
Define philanthropy: philanthropy is a person who makes monetary contributions towards organization/organizations for a social purpose.
1. Who is the social entrepreneur profiled?
Pati Ruiz Corzo is the social entrepreneur profiled in the documentary. She was a teacher in Mexico City. She moved to The Sierra Gorda 25 years ago.
2. What problem did the person profiled identify?
The problem Pati profiled was the amount of garbage everywhere and the lack of natural vegetation in the area. The environment wasn’t the main concern of the people that lived there: They were more concern about running water and having electricity. Corzo had the idea of restoring the forest as well as to create more jobs for the people living in the biosphere.
3. What is the name of the organization?
The name of the organization is Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve, which is a protected area. The Sierra Gorda Biosphere is different from a National Park. The difference is that people live in the Reserve, where as for a National Park, in most cases; only forest rangers are allowed to live in certain areas of the park.
4. Describe their relationship to the community they serve?
Corzo lives in the Sierra Gorda; therefore, she knows what the community needs to do in order to improve the forest. Also, she knows that by providing more jobs the people from the community don’t have the necessity to migrate north in search of employment.
5. Why did they decide to address this issue?
Corzo noticed how the forest was getting littered. She had the idea of restoring the forest and to create jobs for the people that lived in the area. Through Corzo's effort of protecting existing trees and planting new trees, a change is in progress to improve the forest.
6. What is the local component?
The local component is the participation of people into planting new trees. Also, the government involvement into the program is a main key to help with Corzo's idea. People are getting paid; consequently, people can reinvest their money to open a small business, such as a craftshop. In this way, the economy of the area improves. Children are being thought how the trees help fight global warming.
7. How does the community own the process?
The community owns the process by helping with the social change. New ideas have been developed to help save the environment. For example the solar cooker project benefits the environment and is low cost. Overall, everybody benefits from this program.
Post a Comment
<< Home