LEADING SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS LEADING SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS ABOUT THE COVER LEADING SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS How Thinking Inside the Box Helped One Ashoka Fellow Tackle What The New York Times Called “The Biggest Health Crisis No One Has Heard Of” Two-and-a-half billion people in the world live with poor vision, which is not only a health problem, but also excludes people from attaining literacy, education and employment, as well as gaining access to information and participating as active citizens. Untreated vision problems cost the global economy $200 billion annually to lost productivity, according to the World Health Organization. Cue Ashoka Fellow Martin Aufmuth, who invented a machine in his laundry room that can make a complete pair of eyeglasses in twelve minutes. His organization, OneDollarGlasses (ODG), uses this “porta- The bending unit – this wooden box contains a complete ble optician’s workshop” in-a-box to train communities to produce optician’s workshop. © Martin Aufmuth customizable eyeglasses, circumventing the traditional provider-pa- tient model and affordability challenges that keep glasses out of reach for so many people around the world. Now in eight countries and spreading, ODG doesn’t just provide glasses; by training people in communities to produce eyeglasses, his solution not only results in affordable glasses so people can work, study and live healthier lives, but also contributes to livelihoods and self-reliance. Training community members to make eyeglasses. Community members are trained to give eye exams, like the trainees © Marianne Dötzer, 2014 on our cover, and then make the glasses, like these trainees from Burkino Faso, (middle right). Bottom right, these family members are beneficiaries of one of the workstations operating in Malawi. Martin is typical of Ashoka Fellows, top social entrepreneurs who do not work in isolation but create roles for many, many others to become changemakers and contribute to the good of all. To read more about his work, see page 62. Mother, daughter and grandmother with OneDollarGlasses. © Martin Aufmuth Cover Photo Credits Top left: © Antje Christ Top middle: © Martin Aufmuth Top right: © Evelyn van Kempen LEADING SOCIAL Bottom left: © Martin Aufmuth ENTREPRENEURS Bottom middle: © Martin Aufmuth Bottom right: © Martin Aufmuth LEADING SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS 1700 North Moore Street | Suite 2000 | Arlington, VA 22209 USA Tel: (703) 527-8300 | Fax: (703) 527-8383 | www.ashoka.org Managing Editor: Lauren Jackman Copy Editors: Christine Regan Davi, Katherine Doley, Vong Ham, Maya Jansson, Danielle Kichler, Carson McBain, Tim Slattery, Irene Wu Production Artist: Sima Designs Contributors: Rahul Adhikari, Istem Akalp, Julie Auffray, Jill L. Barrett, Jeanine Buzali, Sybil Caballero, Maira Cabrini, Tatiana Cary, Amy Clark, Kenny Clewett, Mentor Dida, Katherine Doley, Ifeyinwa Egwaoje, Claire Fallender, Lynsey Farrell, Anna Hamilton, Beth Inabinett, Sanjana Janardhanan, Raghav Khemka, Carson McBain, Kay McDowell, Alex O’Donoghue, Sonia Park, Shantanu Paul, Emilie Pelletier, Angelika Roth, Bridget Rudy, Aya Sabry, Kelsey Sakumoto, Cigdem Selgur, Giulia Sergi, Gorav Seth, Danica Straith, Simon Stumpf, Trina Talukdar, Sarais Tineo, Katie Turner, Rajesh Varghese, Alex Vesey, Nana Watanabe, and Stuart Yasgur. Special Thanks: Bill Carter ISBN‑13: 978‑0‑9995578‑1‑5; ISBN‑10: 0‑9995578‑1‑5 Leading Social Entrepreneurs, 2018 Edition. Copyright © 2018. All rights reserved. This publication was printed by More Vang on Eagle Offset paper—an environmentally friendly produced stock certified by the Forestry Stewardship Council. Ashoka: Innovators for the Public builds, connects and amplifies for an average of three years, organizing a wide range of a global community that is leading the everyone a changemaker high-leverage supports, and—most importantly—engaging movement. We now live in an everything-changing world. This them in a local-to-global collaborative fellowship of their peers. fact requires everyone to be able to contribute to and adapt to By continuing to develop our extensive network of Fellows, change, i.e., to be a changemaker, to be able to participate in Ashoka works to share the wisdom of these leading social entre- and contribute. Based on the insights from our work with more preneurs with a global audience. Our Fellows’ work exposes the than 3,500 of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs in more world’s most urgent and critical needs. Ashoka looks for pat- than 93 countries, Ashoka has an experience-based framework terns in these fields, investigates them to gain new insights, and of empathy, teamwork, new leadership and changemaking that then mobilizes social entrepreneurs to collaborate and expand is the new foundation for living and working together. in the needed areas. Ashoka uses a rigorous, highly-refined, five-step process to In this volume, you will find profiles introducing a sample of identify the most important emerging social change ideas and the ideas and leading social entrepreneurs recently elected by the entrepreneurs behind them who, together, will redefine Ashoka. They are grouped according to six broad fields: civic their fields, be it human rights or the environment or any other engagement, environment, full economic citizenship, health, area of human need. This process focuses sharply on five key human rights, and learning/education. These sketches introduce criteria: entrepreneurs at different stages in their careers; some have • A big, pattern-setting New Idea already had profound social impact but most are just launch- ing their work. However, annual Ashoka evaluations show that • Creativity in both goal setting and problem solving five years after their election, 76 percent of Ashoka Fellows • Entrepreneurial quality have changed the pattern in their field at the national level. Moreover, they encourage many others to stand up and become • The social impact of the New Idea changemakers. Both as role models and because, to succeed, they must—and do—find local changemakers in community • Ethical fiber after community that adopt and spread their models. Once Fellows are elected, Ashoka makes sure that they have Ashoka invites everyone to contribute in the most powerful the supports and full freedom—including the ability to work way by joining with us as co-leaders in the “everyone a change- full-time—they need to launch their visions and succeed. This maker” movement. We are social entrepreneurs, youth entre- includes providing a launch stipend to the degree it is needed preneurs, and change leaders across sectors who are bring- ing this powerful framework to our communities, businesses, schools, and neighborhoods. PREFACE The New Inequality Dear Friend, Missing a turning point is a really, really bad idea—especially The organizations you lead need even more help. They must hire when it is the biggest ever. changemakers, help all their people become changemakers, and organize in fluid, open teams of teams even while becom- That’s what’s happening now to far too many of us. ing more tightly focused. Starting your day confident in your football skills will get you Most of us fight for equal opportunity for all. A turning point nowhere if the world’s game is now chess. like this is an opportunity for any disadvantaged group to leap- frog ahead. Unfortunately, it is all too easy for such groups Everywhere, societies are increasingly divided. Two examples: instead to fall quickly further behind. This is deeply disturbing universally worsening income distributions and, increasingly, given that so many of the world’s people still suffer from the old “us versus them” politics. The chief reason is that those who gender, ethnic, religious, and social inequalities. are successful players in the new game (which requires com- plex changemaking skills) are doing very well indeed; but those For a fair and healthy society, we all need to work hard to ensure who don’t see it and have none of the new skills required are that this new era is an “everyone a changemaker” world. This being pushed out. As the CEO of a major U.S. company that is is, of course, Ashoka’s goal. doing very well in the new game put it to me not too long ago, “[Hiring only those with changemaking skills] is simply bottom This moment feels to me quite like the few years before the line.” American civil rights movement and, a bit later, the women’s movement. Each went through its respective half-dozen dra- The worst thing society can do to anyone is to not want them. matic turning point years. Decades of underlying change and To leave them useless, unable to contribute. preparation had created new realities, but few people saw the signs. The key to society’s tipping into the turning point years This is the new inequality. where quickly everyone sees the new game—and the hundred It’s not just that the old game—give a person a skill (banker, things they can and need to do—is building broadening aware- baker) and organize work (guilds, assembly lines, law firms) so ness. Here, you can surely help importantly. that people repeat their skill forever—is in exponentially fast You and all the rest of us in the broad Ashoka movement and decline. It’s that the new game is not just different; it’s the community are uniquely well-positioned (1) to see and seize the opposite of the old patterns in almost every way. One must opportunities of this historic turning point for our family, friends, now organize in always-morphing teams of teams. And each organizations, and ourselves; and (2) to ensure that everyone at team needs all its members to spot new patterns occurring least has equal opportunities to do so. anywhere, see the implications, and help build and live in a consequent new team of teams. These complex skills require To serve this historic turning point, what are the Ashoka com- new approaches to everything, from growing up to leadership.