“When I heard, “And the winner is Wendo Dorcas” that evening I took the trophy to my room, sat on my hotel bed and cried until my ribs hurt. I cried for the woman who did not have confidence in herself, who considered herself inferior, who was fearlessly afraid, who was so proud of herself for doing something she had never done before. She had pitched and won. Yes! The villager as I commonly, proudly, refer to [as] myself, had won $10,000 plus a trophy.”
Dorcas’s story is one among many from uplifted women in Resonate’s programs. Its program encourages…
How innovative technology could soon be helping Kenyan farmers
Author: ICSF, Cho Kim, and Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship
Small farmers supply over 80% of the food in the developing world, but today they are confronted with critical challenges of animal waste management, procurement of high quality and affordable fertilizer, and access to inexpensive and reliable energy sources.[1] Climate change, increasing price pressures, and lack of affordable agricultural inputs threaten the viability of small farms, while unsustainable agricultural practices and energy dependency threaten ecosystems, and create further economic and environmental risks to food systems.
What if we could harness Poo…
Central America doesn’t rank as the most active geographic region for social entrepreneurship and impact investing. Yet, as the social enterprise movement becomes more mainstream, it is reaching all parts of the globe. With Central American civil wars from the 1980s having been replaced with entrenched gang violence, it is a region worth understanding and supporting.
In this conversation, Andy Lieberman, Director of New Programs at Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship, shares his insights about social entrepreneurship in Central America.
How does Central America compare with other regions of the world where Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship works?
AL: For…
Leaders in social entrepreneurship, from Miller Center, Skoll, Toniic, Acumen and more, take stock of 2016, look ahead to 2017.
The cusp of the new year naturally prompts reflection about the past and speculation about the future. Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship invited some leaders in social entrepreneurship and impact investing to share their thoughts about the current state of the sector and some trends they see for 2017 and beyond.
“As social entrepreneurship evolves, we need to continually be creative about how we address our ultimate goal, which doesn’t change — and that’s to discover the best ways to help social enterprises worldwide collectively lift billions of people out of poverty,” said Thane Kreiner, Ph.D., …
Postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) is the number one cause of maternal deaths, in particular areas without adequate maternal care facilities and kills over 90,000 women globally every year. This means that every six minutes a woman dies of PPH. InPress Technologies has developed an easy-to-use device aimed to eradicate maternal death caused by PPH that does not require surgery.
Nigeria currently faces a staggering 17 million unit housing deficit. Only half of the population has access to a power supply, two-thirds to clean water and only a third to improved sanitation. Comprehensive Design Services (CDS) is tackling the housing deficit in…
By Joe Schuchter, Associate Director of Social Impact Assessment, Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship
Social entrepreneurship is increasingly recognized as a means of addressing the world’s most pressing social and environmental problems. However, assessing the impact of social enterprises continues to be challenging. Part of the challenge is to find a shared language of impact in the myriad approaches used by social entrepreneurs, impact investors, and development agencies to code, classify, and interpret impact.
Two of the more prominent approaches are the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Global Impact Investing Network’s (GIIN) IRIS. At first glance, the…
Imagine your life today. Every morning you wake up to the chimes and gentle buzz of the alarm on your cell phone. You use your mobile device to check the weather, the news, and to see if there is any traffic on your route to work. Your phone is your navigator, your entertainment, your camera, your planner, and your source for connectivity and communication. Now imagine your life with your cell phone, but with no electricity. Does your phone still serve you the same way?
In Tanzania, over half of the population owns a mobile phone, but only 14% of…
Jahenda Sheilla is a slight, 23-year old woman whose tempered voice might at first give an impression of shyness. But Jahenda is anything but shy. She takes her time to listen, and in reality, there is no need to raise your voice if you believe in what you say. And Jahenda knows exactly what she is saying — and what she wants.
Jahenda grew up in Western Kenya. Her parents divorced when she was young and she did not see her father much. Her mother worked as a subsistence farmer and money was always short. In 2013 she moved to…
Written by Michelle Quinn, originally posted on The Mercury News 6/30/16
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Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship at Santa Clara University accelerates global, innovation-based entrepreneurship in service to humanity.
