Where Change Happens

In 2005, Renske Bakker was ready to do some volunteer work. She had saved enough free days to go somewhere and make a change for seven weeks. The first organisation she went to, had some work, but not in Africa, where she really wanted to go. Fortunately she stumbled upon the website of Noah’s Ark through an acquaintance, and they loved to have her for seven weeks in Uganda.

Noah’s Ark aims to be a home for children to become a somebody out of a nobody. They are home to many children, some of which are literally cast away. But there is much more. The school is attended by 250 children from the region, and in 2012 the secondary school they’re building now will open its doors. Next to that, the organisation runs a clinic, where they help many women to deliver their children. In the whole of Uganda, 500 women die in child labor each month, so having a well-equipped and well-staffed clinic is very important.

For Renske, Uganda was a place of opportunity. But the second she met the children at Noah’s Ark, she fell in love. And during her work there, she found out how much she could make a difference with her education as medical analist. She returned to the Netherlands after her seven weeks, but couldn’t get Uganda off her mind. So she went back to Noah’s Ark to be with the children there and help in any way she can.

Currently, Renske is working in the medical lab and runs the part of the orphanage that takes care of the smallest children (up until 18 months). She trains the staff in how to care for babies, and how important it is for their development to love them. Something that is not a given in Uganda, where taking care of children is simply not a priority. She hopes that with sharing her knowledge and love, she makes an impact on the staff. Next to that, the team of Noah’s Ark provides medical assistance and education where they can.

Renske and Noah’s Ark are making change in Mukono, Uganda.

Nathan Farrugia, from Malta, is a father of two, and also an endurance runner. On top of that, he’s generally a nice guy who’s always finding new ways to raise money and awareness for causes. In the European Year of Volunteering, he decided to embark on an extreme endurance challenge: running 27 marathons, in 27 days, one in each of the 27 EU countries. With this challenge, he’s raising awareness for volunteering and money for charity organisations focusing on improving the lives of children. Half of all the proceeds will go to his own charity, Inspire, the other half will go to a local charity in the countries he’s running. In Latvia, it was RMHC Latvia, but there are still some countries that have no designated charity. So, if you want to join in a great European adventure, and promote the good work you do for children, please contact the team through their website.

As you can see, Nathan is making change happen all over Europe, together with his team Cliff (in the picture) and Lawrence. Your country could be next. See his schedule for exact dates, and follow on Twitter and Facebook for latest news regarding timing.

When Peter Meijer travelled Southern Africa four years ago with his cousin, he was intrigued by the popularity of the bicycle in Malawi. Anything imaginable was transported by bike. And when they heard that people had to walk very far to the nearest hospital, the idea that bicycle carts could be a solution.

Around the same time, Peter learnt about the Bid Challenge, a business plan competition for businesses in the developing world. He entered the competition with a business plan, together with around 3500 others. A coach was appointed to help develop the business plan, and the idea became one of the best 25. In the finals, the ideas was presented to investors, and one of them decided to invest in the plan. During two dicsovery trips to Malawi, Peter found potential customers and suppliers, and a home and workshop. In February 2009 he and his wife moved to Malawi and Peter started Sakaramenta, a social enterprise producing bicycle and hand carts.

As a social enterprise, Sakaramenta aims to stimulate entrepreneurship, create employment and improve access to hospitals. Employees are entitled to education and training, of which Sakaramenta pays 80%. The company also has a bonus system and employees have a say. One of the things Peter learnt from this, is that increasing monthly pay often means that earnings are spent on small things, or shared with family and relatives. Many of his employees experienced a pressure to share their earnings with relatives. So Sakaramenta decided to put part of the pay in a savings account. After two years this money falls free, and employees then have a bigger sum which they can use for larger acquisitions. Some of them have bought land from their savings. Sakaramenta also lends money to employees so they can start their own enterprises.

Peter finds it hard to determine the impact Sakaramenta has on Malawi. He notices an emancipation and skills development in the employees of his business. But a wider impact is hard to measure. On the other hand, the CareCar bike ambulance, the leading product of Sakaramenta, has had a significant impact. Many people have been transported to a hospital on one in the past 2.5 years. Currently there are over 700 CareCars that are on average used once per week.

Peter Meijer and his Sakaramenta enterprise are making a change in Biantyre, Malawi.

Yee Ping Fruehwein is fighting against the merciless finning and trading of sharks in the oceans across the world. She is not on a boat, crossing the oceans taking action against killing of the most endangered species, like Captain Paul Watson, the founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, who she truly admires. Yee Ping uses the power of the social media- she spreads the word through Facebook and Twitter, raises funds and - watch out! - calls up US and Canadian senators to convince them to vote on legislation bills to ban the finning and trading of sharks. Her way to make a change is through awareness and education. A successful petition she participated in: “The Maldives has just become the first nation to declare a ban on shark fishing.”

Where Change Happens (WCH): How did it all start?
Yee Ping (YP): In my culture, the Malaysian-Chinese, people eat shark fin soup to show status. Shark fin soup has been a Chinese delicacy since the Ming Dynasty. Back then, only the Emperor and his guests ate it. Until about twenty years ago, shark fin soup was served mostly in Hong Kong and other cities with Chinese populations, but only rarely in China, itself. This relatively low consumption of shark fin soup did not result in a significant problem for shark survival.

But now, many of the 1.3 billion people of China are enjoying more prosperity. Shark fin soup has become popular, even obligatory, at banquets, business dinners, and weddings. That adds up to a lot of shark fin soup, and a lot of sharks are being killed for this soup.

Shark fin soup is responsible for the destruction of shark populations throughout the world. Up to 73 million sharks are killed each year, and the greatest cause is the growing demand for shark fin soup. These sharks are generally not caught for their meat, but for their valuable fins. The most prized shark fins can cost hundreds of dollars, with the average being about US$450 (HK$3500) per pound. Shark meat, in contrast, is worth less than most fish.

Sharks play a very important role in the oceans in a way that an average fish does not. Sharks are at the top of the food chain in virtually every part of every ocean. In that role, they keep populations of other fish healthy and in proper proportion for their ecosystem. The less fishes like sharks and tuna are there, the more are the smaller fishes. If an overpopulation of small fishes is created, the phytoplankton is dramatically reduced, which result in less “green ocean inhabitants” to convert the CO2 emissions in oxygen.

WCH: What do you say to people when they accuse you that you’re in a race against your own culture?
YP: Times change and certain traits of the culture just have to go away with it.

WCH: How do you convince your friends who get married not to serve shark fin soup at their weddings?
YP: If you don’t serve shark fin soup, you lose face. To avoid this, I do the following: I offer my friends, who are getting married to design, print and send them cards that they could put on every table at the wedding reception with the text. “Thank you for joining us to celebrate our big day. We decide not to serve shark fin soup in order to preserve the oceans.” This is a key to keep the respectful glances of all guests. Yee Ping believes this will create a ripple effect and hopefully even create a trend amongst the young Chinese.

WCH: When do you think you will be successful?
YP: When global shark finning is illegal.

A Malaysian Chinese, Yee Ping is multi-media designer and an experienced diver who - no wonder! - loves passionately the deep dark blue ocean waters. Needless to say, she walks the talk and didn’t serve shark fin soup at her wedding. Yee Ping makes change happen from out ofMalaysia.

This story of change for social good was brought to us by Krassimira Iordanova from Anokha Jewellery.

After coming back to Slovakia from a stay in Dubai, Ivana Sendecka was astonished to see how much talent, passion and committed hard working people there were all around her in her home country. In her work as a consultant she met amazing clients and colleagues. However, she was puzzled by the shyness and low levels of confidence. She decided it was her job to inspire people. Tell them it is okay to stand out, take initiative, lead and say no to your superiors. And thus, she quit her job and set out to inspire the emerging leaders of Slovakia.

Her initiative, the Next Generation of Leaders in Slovakia movement, aims to inspire self-transformation to develop leaders for a better Slovakia. And Ivana gave it all she had. She got in touch with some of the leading thinkers of our time to learn, worked hard to build an online presence and credibility and slowly but steadily got her movement going. There was no plan. Next steps emerged along the way. There was simply a vision: getting out the talent. Help started to come in. Slovaks who offered to help, but also speakers and thought leaders from the US, who came to Slovakia for NGLS conferences. She even got a well-deserved mention in the book The Truth About Leadership.

Obviously, the NGLS movement changed Ivana’s life. Big time. But what she seems to value most, is how other people get inspired. People started their own businesses, followed their hearts and started travelling and even wrote university theses about the movement. And not only in Slovakia. She mentions proudly that in Pakistan some people and kids got so inspired, they started a similar movement there.

Making change happen can have an incredible impact on a person’s life. And it’s hard work. Ivana’s tip for emerging change makers: “Follow your gut feeling, be authentic, learn and connect with the best people, work damn hard, ignore all nay-sayers, be ready for ups and downs, tears of joy and sorrow; all of it is part of a journey for those who dare to make their dreams true.”

Ivana Sendecka makes change happen in Slovakia. And beyond.

Services like Foursquare and Gowalla were welcomed with great excitement. For some, however, the idea of just using them to collect mayorships and badges and broadcast where you are seemed silly. How about using these location based services to take on and try to solve actual problems? This was what Artas Bartas (picture) thought in the run up to a recent Garage48 event in Tallinn. 

 

And so, in April 2011, an international team was formed that produced the first version of the Bribespot app in 48 hours. Bribespot is an anti-corruption version of Foursquare. Sort of. Through the app, people can anonymously report corruption. Big or small. And the website is witness of the demand for such an idea. Already many bribe requests are recorded. Most of them are testament to how common it still is to ask for bribes. Whether it is by a police officer who offers to not write a speeding ticket, or by healthcare workers that will get you your test results immediately in stead of in a month. To some in Western Europe or the US, this might seem silly, but in too many countries, corruption is still an enormous issue and too widespread.

 

After the Garage48 event, all participants went back home to their normal lives. But the Bribespot idea did not leave their minds, and soon they were working on a better working version of the website, the Android app and an iPhone app. All this is ready now to be launched. Plans for the future include further development of the apps and website, and reporting functions to unlock the data for journalists, legislators, researchers and ngos.

 

With Bribespot, Kimmo, Dovydas, Mehrnoosh, Paulius, Sten, Aleksandr, Paulius, Viktor, Tomas, Vytautas and Artas Bartas are making change in already more than 10 countries.

Claudia Keys is a 6-year old social entrepreneur from New Zealand. To help the victims of the Christchurch Earthquake, she went to the local Timaru Farmers Market and sold handmade rubber balls. “Lots of people bought them and this week I made some pens and animals and my friends Loganne and Milly came with me and made balls and animals and we sold them too.”

As you can see, her work is contagious. She inspired her friends to help her in her efforts. They did some marketing and expanded the business as well.

“Everyone is really friendly and we went round to ask everyone to buy things from us and we sold HEAPS. Some other kids came and joined us and made things too.”

Claudia not only inspires her friends, but also her family. “Oscar, my brother, came with us today and helped making apple juice. People bring apples from their trees and Oscar was asked to help with lots of other kids. He got given a great big chopper on a handle and then they put the apples into a barrel which squeezes the juice out. Anyone can buy a glass for 50 cents... it was really yummy.”

 

The Timaru Farmers Market is where Claudia makes change happen.

This is one of two treatment rooms of our Care Mobile, a traveling health clinic for children. With it, we deliver basic and specialised health care to children all over Latvia.

In 2007, a group of concerned residents of Latvia started a charity. They identified the challenge that not all children in Latvia had access to healthcare as they should. With the charity they raised the necessary support to make change happen, and in 2010 the Care Mobil arrived in Latvia. It started fully operating in 2011, and in the first 5 months it has brought doctors, mainly specialists, to around 800 children in Latvia that did not have access to these before.

For more information, see the website of RMHC Latvija.