Recipients of Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship (R-Z)

Renascer Child Health Association

	http://www.criancarenascer .org.br/ingles/Inicial-Ing.htm Social Entrepreneur: Vera Cordeiro Grant Amount: $615,000 over three years Award Year: 2006
Click To Watch Videos About Renascer Child Health Association

Working in a public hospital in Rio de Janeiro, Vera Cordeiro felt helpless and frustrated when children who were successfully treated for an infectious disease returned to the hospital and died from the same disease after becoming reinfected at home. Realizing that she needed to treat whole families, she raffled off her belongings and started Renascer Child Health Association in 1991 to work intensively with poor families. Renascer provides an array of social services to approximately 1,000 people per month, helping to lift them out of poverty. Its model has been replicated at 22 other independent centers. Plans call for adding 10 to 13 new centers to the network by the end of 2008.

Riders for Health

	www.riders.org Social Entrepreneurs: Andrea and Barry Coleman Grant Amount: $765,000 over three years Award Year: 2006
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Andrea and Barry Coleman share a passion for motorcycles. Through the racing world, they became involved in fund-raising for children in Africa. After noticing how frequently vehicles broke down and seeing women in childbirth being carried to the hospital in wheelbarrows, they remortgaged their house and founded Riders for Health in 1996. The organization trains local health workers to carry out daily vehicle maintenance and provides technicians who visit monthly to service vehicles, thus making health care available even in remote areas of Africa. In areas served by reliable vehicles, vaccination rates have risen, death rates have dropped and the efficiency of health workers has increased 300 percent.

Room to Read

	www.roomtoread.org Social Entrepreneur: John Wood Grant Amount: $1,215,000 over three years Award Year: 2006
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On a trek to Nepal, John Wood visited a school whose crumbling library was almost devoid of books. Remembering how much his hometown library has affected his life, he returned a short time later on a yak carrying more than 3,000 books. He founded Room to Read in 2000 to provide educational resources for children who might otherwise face lifelong illiteracy. The organization has constructed 942 schools, established more than 5,100 libraries, provided 2.2 million new children’s books, created 150 computer and language rooms, and funded 4,036 girls’ scholarships. Room to Read plans to continue partnering with communities in the developing world to serve 1.9 million more children by 2008.

Root Capital (formerly EcoLogic Finance)

	www.rootcapital.org Social Entrepreneur: William Foote Grant Amount: $465,000 over three years to expand its operations in Latin America and East Africa to foster environment conservation and grassroots economic development Award Year: 2005
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William Foote was an investment banker during the Latin American growth years of the early 1990s. After the peso was devalued in 1994, he spent two years in rural Mexico studying and writing about the financial crisis and its effects on rural people and the environment. He founded EcoLogic Finance (now called Root Capital) to provide loans of between $25,000 and $500,000 to small and medium-sized enterprises targeting sustainable agriculture and fisheries, wild-harvested products, certified wood and ecotourism. Since the organization launched in 1999, it has raised more than $17 million in low-interest loan capital from 50 private investors and has made 407 loans valued of over $80 million to rural producers in Latin American, African and South Asian countries.

Roots of Peace

www.rootsofpeace.org/ Social Entrepreneur: Heidi Kühn Grant Amount: $765,000 over three years Award Year: 2006

A cancer diagnosis and successful treatment prompted Heidi Kühn to want to give back to the less fortunate and to live close to and nurture the land. Inspired by the international campaign to ban land mines, she founded Roots of Peace in 1997 at her family’s home in the California wine country. The organization takes practical steps toward sustainable development and enduring peace by converting minefields to vineyards, agricultural fields and safe migration corridors for wildlife. Roots of Peace has helped renew production in Croatia’s wine-growing regions. In Afghanistan, it has removed 100,000 land mines and proved that farmers could earn more growing grapes than poppies. The model is being extended to additional provinces in Afghanistan, Angola, Croatia and the Kyrgyz Republic.

Rugmark Foundation USA

www.rugmark.org Social Entrepreneur: Nina Smith Grant Amount: $440,000 over three years to help increase consumer demand for rugs made in accordance with humanitarian standards Award Year: 2005

Click To Watch Videos About Rugmark Foundation USA (click the links below to play the video) Quicktime format: - The Most Beautiful Rug: Young Heroes Speaking Tour, Spring 2007 - The Young Heroes of RugMark: Dwell Daily Video, Footage by TurnHere, courtesy of Dwell.com - Stolen Childhoods, Produced by Galen Films, narrated by Meryl Streep with testimony by Senator Tom Harkin Windows Media Player format: - The Most Beautiful Rug: Young Heroes Speaking Tour, Spring 2007 - The Young Heroes of RugMark: Dwell Daily Video, Footage by TurnHere, courtesy of Dwell.com - Stolen Childhoods, Produced by Galen Films, narrated by Meryl Streep with testimony by Senator Tom Harkin

Rugmark International was founded in 1994 to eliminate child labor in carpet manufacturing. In Nepal, Pakistan and India, the organization monitors factories, certifies carpets are made without child labor and rescues and educates child laborers. In consumer countries, it seeks to create market preference for certified rugs. In 1999, Nina Smith brought this vision to the United States as Rugmark Foundation USA and imports of certified rugs have helped reduce the number of bonded child laborers from 1 million to 250,000. Her goal is to bring U.S. market share to 15 percent, which could result in the rescue of thousands of children from forced labor and the preservation of jobs for adults.

Search for Common Ground

	www.sfcg.org/ Social Entrepreneurs: John and Susan Collin Marks Grant Amount: $765,000 over three years Award Year: 2006
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John Marks, a former diplomat, founded Search for Common Ground (SFCG) at the height of the Cold War to build bridges between East and West. Susan Collin Marks, a South African peacemaker, joined in 1994. SFCG works in 17 countries to transform and heal violent conflict across whole societies. Its toolbox includes such well-known means of conflict resolution as mediation, facilitation and back-channel dialogue; and less traditional methods like community organizing, TV and radio soap opera, music-video and sports. SFCG specializes in using popular culture to create understanding among ethnic communities and to achieve measurable change in attitudes. It is working to bring its media production capacity to global scale.

Sonidos de La Tierra

	http://www.sonidosdelatierra.org.py Social Entrepreneur: Luis Szarán Grant Amount: $465,000 over three years to replicate musical education and community development programs in Paraguay Award Year: 2005
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The eighth child of struggling farmers, Luis Szarán was “discovered” by a prominent musician and was given the opportunity to study music with master teachers in Europe. He founded Sonidos de la Tierra in early 2002 in Paraguay to help children from similar backgrounds have opportunities like his own. He says, “Young people who play Mozart by day do not break windows at night,” and he likes to point out that singing or playing in a musical ensemble imparts discipline, self-esteem and teamwork. He has helped residents of 105 communities establish philanthropic societies, work together to improve the future of their children and directly benefit 8,000 young people.

Teach For America

http://www.teachforamerica.org Social Entrepreneur: Wendy Kopp Grant Amount: $1,015,000 over three years Award Year: 2008

Wendy Kopp was struck by the inequities in the U.S. education system as a freshman at Princeton University where she saw smart, talented public school students struggle academically because of their weak preparation. At the same time, many of her peers were searching for jobs that would offer significance and meaning. In her senior thesis, she outlined a plan to build a national teachers corps by recruiting recent college graduates to teach in America’s neediest schools. Upon graduation, she began implementing her idea, raising $2.5 million and convincing schools to participate. In its first year, Teach For America placed 500 young teachers in low-income classrooms. Today, Teach For America fields 6,000 corps members, reaching 500,000 students; at the same time, its 14,000 alumni are serving as important leaders and advocates for education reform. Skoll funding will support Teach For All, a new organization created as a partnership between Teach For America and Teach First, the first adaptation of the program in the U.K., to help entrepreneurs in other countries who are pursuing the development of the Teach For America model locally.

TransFair USA

	www.transfairusa.org Social Entrepreneur: Paul Rice Grant Amount: $615,000 over three years to expand brand awareness, consumer demand and distribution of fairly traded coffee, and to expand fair trade-certified product varieties Award Year: 2005
Click To Watch Videos About TransFair USA

Paul Rice founded TransFair USA in 1998 to build a more equitable and sustainable model of international trade that benefits producers, consumers, industry and the earth. TransFair USA helps small farmers in developing countries consolidate their power through its work with 65 cooperatives in 48 countries. By certifying the products of these cooperatives as fair trade, it guarantees consumers that farmers were paid fairly. Fair trade farmers also meet minimum international employment and environmental standards. Since inception, certification by TransFair USA has generated $100 million in additional income for family farmers. By 2009, the organization estimates benefits will bring $150 million per year in additional income to farmers in its network.

Verité

http://www.verite.org Social Entrepreneur: Dan Viederman Grant Amount: $1,015,000 over three years Award Year: 2007

Dan Viederman’s experience in leading nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in rapidly growing countries like China convinced him of the need to improve workplace conditions globally. When he came to Verité in 2001, he took the organization beyond its factory audit roots and engaged workers in a solutions-driven, participatory model that in 2006 improved working conditions for 420,000 workers. Verité's reputation for credibility and impact has prompted international firms such as Gap, Levi’s and Starbucks to seek its help for major restructurings. With support from Skoll, Verité is strengthening partnerships with NGOs in dozens of countries and will train 1,500 practitioners to replicate its model by the end of 2009.

VillageReach

	www.villagereach.org Social Entrepreneur: Blaise Judja-Sato Grant Amount: $765,000 over three years Award Year: 2006
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Born in Cameroon, Blaise Judja-Sato was a successful U.S. businessman when a devastating flood in Mozambique prompted his return to Africa. While helping with relief efforts, he saw how difficult it was to get medicines across the “last mile” to those in need. He founded VillageReach to solve infrastructure gaps in remote areas, including locating quality suppliers and providing reliable transport and training in vaccine management and safe waste disposal. VillageReach has equipped and trained staff in 251 clinics that serve 5.2 million people in Mozambique. It is expanding to additional provinces in Mozambique, and into Malawi.

Visayan Forum Foundation

www.visayanforum.org Social Entrepreneur: Cecilia Flores-Oebanda Grant Amount: $1,015,000 over three years Award Year: 2008

As a child in the Philippines, Cecilia Flores-Oebanda helped her family survive by selling fish and scavenging garbage. As freedom-fighters against the Marcos dictatorship, she and her husband were imprisoned for four years and separated from their oldest son. Their two other children were born in detention.  After democracy prevailed, Cecilia founded the Visayan Forum Foundation (VFF) in 1991 to eliminate human trafficking through public-private partnerships that rescue, protect and reintegrate victims. The organization has served 18,500 victims and potential victims to date and has filed 66 legal cases on behalf of 166 complainants. By 2011, VFF plans to expand its multi-sectoral networks and expand its program against human trafficking.

Witness

	www.witness.org Social Entrepreneur: Gillian Caldwell Grant Amount: $615,000 over three years to increase the skill and impact of human rights organizations Award Year: 2005
Click To Watch Videos About WITNESS

WITNESS was launched in 1992 with the simple goal of getting video cameras into the hands of human rights activists. One of them was Gillian Caldwell, who was investigating Russian prostitution rings with undercover cameras. She told WITNESS that advocates needed training and access to more media outlets in order to be successful. WITNESS hired her as executive director in 1998, and she has built the organization into a major international resource for the media and the human rights field. The organization’s partner groups in 70 countries have produced videos that have been used as evidence in legal proceedings, as testimony before U.N. commissions, for grassroots education and mobilization and as a deterrent to further abuse.

YouthBuild USA

	http://www.youthbuild.org Social Entrepreneur: Dorothy Stoneman Grant Amount: $1,015,000 over three years Award Year: 2007
Click To Watch Videos About YouthBuild USA

After graduating from Harvard University, Dorothy Stoneman joined the civil rights movement and lived in Harlem for 20 years. Seeing abandoned buildings, homeless people and idle youths moved her to start YouthBuild to create a positive future for low-income young people. YouthBuild re-enrolls them in an alternative YouthBuild school where they complete high school and build affordable homes for their neighbors while transforming their own lives. Each year YouthBuild programs engage 8,000 youths in local programs supported by the national YouthBuild USA organization in 44 states and produce affordable housing for 1,000 low-income or homeless families. Skoll support is helping 500 YouthBuild graduates tell their stories to millions of Americans, expand the program and fund a re-entry program for adjudicated youths in three states.