Meet Jordan Kassalow

© Epic, 2010

 Prized for Founding Vision Spring

"A little investment in a pair of glasses goes a long way." 

As a young optometry student, Jordan Kassalow traveled to rural Mexico with an organization that provided eye care to under-served populations.  While there, he was stunned to find that many of the patients' eye problems could instantly be fixed with simple reading glasses--the kind that you can easily buy for $10 at most grocery stores in the United States.  Jordan realized that there must be millions of people with the same predicament around the world, and he wanted to help.  Seventeen years later, Jordan created an organization to do just that.  

In 2001, Jordan created Scojo Foundation (later renamed VisionSpring).  The organization aimed to make affordable eye exams and eyeglasses available, particularly to the poor.  Using a business in a bag model, VisionSpring armed rural women with affordable business start-up kits and vision screening training.  These new vision entrepreneurs then spread out to conduct vision tests, sell reading glasses, and refer customers who need prescription lenses to a VisionSpring optometrist or partner eye institution. 

From its inception, VisionSpring has been a revolutionary organization.  The results are instantaneous and impact is significant.  A recent study by the University of Michigan, showed that on average VisionSpring's customers experience 35% increased productivity.  That's like adding two and a half extra work days to the user's week!  For the rural poor, this is a life-changing investment. 

To date, VisionSpring has expanded to work with ten partners on four continents.  They have trained more that 9,000 vision entrepreneurs and sold over 613,000 pairs of glasses. 

Sources

VisionSpring Website

Acumen Fund Portfolio Page

Check Out This Video

VisionSpring 2009 Global Video

Meet Wangari Maathai

© Epic, 2010

Prized for Starting the Green Belt Movement
"The planting of trees is the planting of ideas. By starting with the simple act of planting a tree, we give hope to ourselves and to future generations."

In 1971 Wangari Maathai became the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree.  Her education in biology and anatomy had instilled in her a passion for environmental preservation and sustainability.  After completing her schooling, Wangari taught veterinary anatomy at the University of Nairobi.  But Wangari was also active in many community organizations including the National Council of Women in Kenya (NCWK).  In 1976 Wangari first introduced and developed her idea to plant trees using womens groups.  

On World Environment Day in 1977, NCWK members marched to a park in downtown Nairobi.  There they planted seven trees to honor community leaders.  This was the first of many "green belts" in Africa.  Wangari saw planting trees as a way to fight deforestation, soil erosion, and drought in Kenya.  But there was more.  She also viewed planting trees as the first step in creating empowered womens groups who could come together to fight for equity, good governance, and peace. 

As time passed, Wangari's small idea evolved into a large organization called the Green Belt Movement.  In the 1980s, the Green Belt Movement started to train people from all over Africa in their approach to conserving the environment and empowering women. Green Belt Movements started to spring up all over the continent, then all over the world.

Thanks to Wangari's Green Belt Movement, over 40 million trees have been planted at homes, schools, and churches around the world.  Forests have been restored.  Soil erosion has been reduced.  Thousands of women and families have taken a stand for their environmental and human rights.  The Green Belt Movement hopes to plant one billion trees in the next decade.

Sources

The Green Belt Movement Website

Nobel Prize Biography

Check Out This Video
PBS's Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai Trailer

Meet Martin Burt

© Epic, 2010

Prized for Creating the Self-Sufficient School

"We would like to consider rethinking all the programs that have to do with poverty alleviation and really start thinking about programs that deal with poverty elimination."

Warm.  If I had to use one word to describe Martin Burt, that would be it.  The first time you meet, he treats you like an old friend.  He can kick back, smile, laugh.  Perhaps its this warm presence that has helped him to accomplish so much.

After studying in the United States, Martin Burt returned to his home country of Paraguay.  Excited to put his education to practice, he soon founded Fundación Paraguaya to offer microfinance and entrepreneurship education to Paraguay's poor.

But it is his self-sufficient school that has won him global attention.  In 2002, Fundación Paraguaya acquired La Escuela Agricola San Francisco, a small agricultural school in Cerrito, Paraguay.  The idea was to try to make the school self-sufficient by selling the school's products and services to pay for the costs of running the school.  It was a daring experiment, but Martin hoped that the school could provide Paraguay's poor with a relevant education at an affordable price.  The amazing thing is that it worked!  Since 2007, the school has able to cover 100% of its operational costs, making it the first self-sufficient school in the world.

Today Fundación Paraguaya owns two other Paraguayan agricultural schools that are working towards self-sufficiency.  Martin Burt travels the world working with Fundación Paraguaya's sister organization Teach a Man to Fish to coach other schools throughout the world in their efforts to become self-sufficient.  He envisions the self-sufficient school as an important answer to the global problem of rural education.

Sources

Fundación Paraguaya Website
WISE Website 2009 Laureate

Schwab Foundation Profile

Social Edge Blog

Check Out This Video 

Martin Burt, an uncommon hero starts microcredit in Paraguay (Skoll Foundation)

Meet Jessica Jackley

© Epic, 2010

Prized for Co-Founding Kiva and ProFounder

"The stories we tell about each other matter very much."

Jessica Jackley majored in philosophy and political science.  She never expected to change the world--especially through business.  However, attending a lecture by Muhammad Yunus was all it took to change that.  For the first time, she was introduced to the concept of microfinance, a system of providing small loans and other banking services to the poor...and she loved it.

In fact, Jessica was so excited about microfinance that she quit her job to spend three months working for Village Enterprise Fund in East Africa.  Her job was to interview microloan recipients to evaluate how the loans had impacted their lives. The results were impressive, and she was thrilled to see the dignity that microfinance programs offered to these otherwise-ignored entrepreneurs.  

When Jessica returned to the US, she wanted to make microfinance available to more would-be borrowers.  In the spring of 2004, Jessica and Matt Flannery founded Kiva, the world's first peer-to-peer microlending website.  Here's how it works: anyone can go to the website, browse entrepreneur stories and pictures, chose a cause, and make a $25 loan.  Simple but revolutionary.  

As of today, Kiva has loaned an impressive $175,365,825 to 455,859 entrepreneurs in 54 countries. The current repayment rate is 98.99%.  With Kiva running successfully, Jessica has moved on to another exciting project.  She is the founder and CEO of ProFounder, a website that provides an online platform to help small entrepreneurs in the U.S. raise start-up cash.

Sources:
Jessica Jackley's TED Profile
Kiva Website 
Profounder Website


Check Out This Video:
Jessica Jackley: Poverty, Money--and Love (TED Video)

Meet Paul Farmer

© Epic, 2010

Prized for Co-Founding Partners in Health

"This could be very simple: the well should take care of the sick."

Between his undergraduate studies and medical school, Paul Farmer decided to spend one year in Haiti learning about the local people and their health care systems.  During his his time at Duke, he had met many Haitian farmers as he visited tobacco plantations and migrant labor camps not far from the university.  After seeing their awful living conditions in the US, reading all he could about Haiti, and writing papers on Haitian topics, Paul was ready to see the country for himself.

Paul remembers a poignant moment while volunteering at a hospital in Haiti.  He was speaking with a doctor who was about to return to the US.  The doctor was a good man who loved the Haitian people, but he couldn't wait to get out of Haiti and back to his home.  "I realized, hearing him talk, that something had happened to me already," Paul later reflected.  "He was leaving Haiti, really leaving in body and mind, and I realized I was going to have trouble with that."  Later that same day, Paul frantically gathered money to pay for a blood transfusion to treat a pregnant woman with a severe case of malaria.  Despite his efforts, the money was too little too late.  The woman died.  Paul determined then to build his own hospital in Haiti, one that cared for Haiti's poor without regard to payment.

In 1984, Paul returned to the Harvard University to begin joint degrees in anthropology and medicine.  But he couldn't stay away from Haiti, even while working on two doctorate degrees.  Somehow he managed to start the Clinique Bon Sauveur in 1985 in Haiti, while still securing impressive grades at Harvard.  

In 1987, as he continued working towards his degrees, Paul co-founded Partners in Health or PIH, an initiative originally created to support health-related activities in Cange, Haiti.  PIH built clinics and schools, provided training for health care workers, organized mobile screening units, and  researched health issues in rural Haiti.  The organization's mission is both medical and moral: whatever it takes, meaning that when a person is sick, PIH is committed to use any and all means at their disposal to make the person well.  "Just as we would do if a member of our own family--or we ourselves--were ill," explains PIH's website.   

Today PIH has expanded to become a global health care system for the poor.   As of 2009, the organization boasts 49 health centers and hospitals in 11 countries with 11,000 employees committed to doing whatever it takes.

Sources
Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder
Partners in Health Website

Check Out This Video
Paul Farmer's This I Believe Video

Meet Liu Xiaobo

© Epic, 2010

   Prized for Fighting for Human Rights in China

"The democratization of Chinese politics can be put off no longer." -- Charter 08

When Liu Xiaobo was announced as this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner, most of the world scratched their heads.  But not in China.  Furious Chinese authorities quickly censored the incoming news, broke up local celebrations, and placed Liu's wife under house arrest.  Then China issued a statement reprimanding the Nobel Committee for their "desecration" of the prestigious award.

Though less known outside of China, Liu is a well-known literary critic and activist within his country.  He was a professor for many years at Beijing Normal University.  Since Liu's involvement in the nonviolent Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, he has been a strong spokesperson in calling for freedom of speech, democratic elections, and constitutional reform.  He has been sent to prison or labor camps four times for his political activism.  When he isn't in jail, Liu is often under government surveillance or house arrest.  

Liu is currently two years into an eleven-year prison sentence.  The charge?  Inciting subversion of state power.  He was arrested just days before the publication of Charter 08, a document in which he and others called for greater human rights in China. 

Today Liu's future remains uncertain, but we applaud him "for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China."  

Sources

Pen American Center Website
Nobel Prize Website
China's Charter 08 (Translated)
NPR: Chinese Dissident Liu Wins Nobel Peace Prize

Check Out This Video
Nobel Peace Prize Announcement

Meet Wendy Kopp

© Epic, 2010

Prized for Founding Teach For America

"When people think the issue can be solved, it becomes a moral imperative to be part of the solution." 

As Wendy Kopp neared college graduation, she still had no idea what she wanted to do with her life.  Desperately, she started searching for job opportunities. Though she hadn't previously considered teaching, Wendy decided that she wanted to spend time teaching in New York City.  But it wasn't that simple.  She soon discovered that trying to figure out how to land a teaching job in NYC was like trying to get through a maze. This difficult process led Wendy to ask an important question: Why don't we recruit people to teach in low-income communities as aggressively as people are being recruited to work on Wall Street?

Wendy became convinced that many college graduates would be interested in making a difference through teaching if an effective teaching corps existed.  Passionate about this idea, Wendy devoted her undergraduate senior thesis to the topic.  In her thesis, she outlined a two-year teaching corps that would recruit, train, and place recent college graduates in low-income schools across the United States. 

In 1990, just one year after submitting her thesis, Wendy had raised $2.5 million dollars to officially launch Teach For America.  With the mission to eliminate educational inequity by involving top-graduates in the education process, Teach for America began with a  corps of 500 teachers working in six low-income communities.  

Two decades later, Teach For America has grown to become a widely recognized and respected organization.  Teaching corps positions are highly-coveted among college graduates: this year more than 46,000 people (including 12% of all Ivy League seniors) applied for about 5,000 positions.  Currently, Teach For America boasts a network of over 28,000 current teachers and alumni that are impacting more than 300,000 students each year. 

Sources

Teach For America Website

New York Times: Charisma?  To Her, It's Overrated

Good Q&A: Wendy Kopp

Economist Interview: Eight Questions for Wendy Kopp

Check Out This Video 

Wendy Kopp, 2006 McGraw Prize in Education Winner

Meet Nick Moon & Martin Fisher

© Epic, 2010

Prized for Founding KickStart (formerly ApproTEC)

"If you look at the problems in Africa--in other developing countries -- the solution is to create a middle class." --Martin Fisher

When Martin Fisher (pictured on the right) traveled to Peru, it was the first time he had ever encountered poverty in the developing world.  As he trekked through the Andes, he couldn't stop thinking about how his background in mechanical engineering could be utilized to fight poverty.  Armed with a new PhD and a Fulbright Scholarship, Martin flew to Kenya to study the relationship between poverty and technology.

Enter Nick Moon.  A skilled carpenter, Nick was already in Kenya working with ACTIONAID to teach and utilize valuable construction techniques in impoverished slums and villages.  Martin learned about Nick's work and sought him out for help with his study.  Eventually, Martin joined the ACTIONAID team as well.  What was originally planned for a 10 month stay turned into a permanent job.

But something wasn't working.   Nick and Martin both began to see a discouraging pattern that so many of their projects were following.  Initially, projects would seem like a big success.  Aid workers would invest lots of time, energy, and money into getting things started.  Once the projects were up and running, funding and support would be withdrawn, and aid workers would move on to new ones.  Later, when aid workers would return to check up on their previous assignments, they were almost always dismayed to find the projects not functioning properly or even at all.

Martin and Nick spent a lot of time trying to figure out what was going wrong.  They eventually decided to create an organization that they hoped would provide sustainable solutions to poverty.  In 1991, Martin and Nick founded ApproTEC, which was later renamed KickStart.  The company designs affordable technologies that help their customers increase their incomes.  KickStart's most successful product is the MoneyMaker Irrigation Pump.

To date, KickStart has sold over 156,000 irrigation pumps and created more than 99,900 new enterprises.  Each year, their products facilitate over $101 million in new profits and wages for their customers. 

Sources
PBS New Heroes Website http://www.pbs.org/opb/thenewheroes/meet/moon.html
Lemelson-MIT Program http://web.mit.edu/invent/a-winners/a-fisher.html
Kickstart Website http://www.kickstart.org/about-us/

Check Out This Video
PBS The New Heroes: Nick Moon & Martin Fisher

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud1rwf8_Cv0

Meet Jacqueline Novogratz

© Epic, 2010

Prized for Founding The Acumen Fund

"Philanthropy alone lacks the feedback mechanisms of markets, which are the best listening devices we have; and yet markets alone too easily leave the most vulnerable behind." 

Would you have the guts to give up a high-paying job on Wall Street to try to change the world?  Jacqueline Novogratz did.  After three years of working as an international banker, she accepted a position with a nonprofit microfinance organization working in Africa.  

It wasn't an easy transition.  Many of the organization's women were angry to have a  slender, young, American girl for their new boss.  Most of her family and friends thought she was crazy. But eventually, Jacqueline was able to find her niche.  She moved to Rwanda, where she co-founded the country's first microfinance organization called Duterimbere.  While there, she also helped to overhaul "the blue bakery" (that she later found out should have been green). Jacqueline's time in Africa changed her forever: believing that an understanding of business is essential to creating sustainable, scalable, and empowering solutions, she left Africa to pursue an MBA.

After business school, Jacqueline worked for the Rockefeller Foundation, directing their Philanthropy Workshop and Next Generation Leadership program.  During this time, her vision of a combination of philanthropy and business solutions began to solidify.  

In 2001, Jacqueline's vision culminated in the foundation of The Acumen Fund, a venture fund that uses a business approach to fight global poverty.  The fund invests both money and business expertise in new businesses and organizations that offer valuable services and products to the poor.  Jacqueline says, "We termed [it] patient capital--not traditional charity, not traditional business, but something in-between."

Today, The Acumen Fund is helping over 36 million people through  investing millions of dollars in 35 "thriving enterprises" throughout East Africa, India, and Pakistan. 

Sources

The Blue Sweater by Jacqueline Novogratz (fantastic read)

The Acumen Fund Website

Check Out This Video

Jacqueline Novogratz's TED Speech on Patient Capital (time well spent)

Meet G. Venkataswamy

© Epic, 2010

Prized for Founding Aravind Eye Care

"Intelligence and capability are not enough.  There must be the joy of doing something beautiful." 

When G. Venkataswamy, affectionately known as Dr. V, retired at the age of 58, he didn't really retire.  Instead, he was thinking about McDonald's assembly lines and how they related to opthamology, his life's work.  What if you applied the assembly line approach to create more affordable eye care? he wondered.  Passionately believing that good vision is crucial to creating economic stability, he mortgaged his home to establish a twelve-bed eye hospital for Southern India's poor.

That was the beginning of Aravind Eye Care System, which has grown to become the largest and most productive eye care system in the world.  Using an assembly line approach, Dr. V figured out how to streamline eye care into a smooth, efficient, and cost-effective system.  Dr. V also pioneered the idea of mass free eye camps for the poor.  The results are staggering: Aravind doctors perform 2,200 surgeries annually compared to 250 surgeries per year in nearby hospitals. 

But with the high cost of replacement lenses ($150 a pair), Dr. V's ability to perform surgeries was limited.  In 1992, he collaborated with David Green to create Aurolab,  a company that uses a creative new technology to manufacture lenses, bringing down the cost to just $5 per pair.  Aravind uses a sliding price scale to determine the amount patients pay.  Those who can afford to pay the full price of $10 subsidize the 70% who can't. 

Though Dr. V died in 2006, after performing over 100,000 successful eye surgeries, his legend lives on in the Aravind Eye Care System.   Today  there are five Aravind Eye Hospitals in India, serving more than 2 million patients and  performing more than 270,000 surgeries a year.

Sources

Aravind Website

ASCRS Website
My Hero Project Website 

PBS New Heroes Website

Check Out This Video

PBS NewsHour: Hospital Provides Top Eye Care for All Patients