March 12, 2009

Skoll Foundation Adds Seven Organizations to its Portfolio of Leading Social Entrepreneurs

$5.35 Million in Unrestricted Grants Will Provide Flexibility in Challenging Economic Environment

PALO ALTO, Calif.—March 12, 2009—The Skoll Foundation today announced Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship for seven organizations working around the world in the areas of tolerance and human rights, health, environmental sustainability, peace and security, and economic and social equity. The recipients, who will each receive three-year grants of $765,000, join the growing global network of Skoll social entrepreneurs, now numbering 72, who are tackling the world’s most critical social and economic challenges.

The Skoll Awards program provides social entrepreneurs who have already achieved significant impact with unrestricted funding to further extend their reach. These new Skoll entrepreneurs have proven their innovations and are delivering results across issues and geographies, including:

• Promoting peace in the Middle East by turning a potential source of conflict – water – into a platform for cooperation;
• Creating powerful examples of how we can build viable contemporary communities that are environmentally sustainable today;
• Connecting microfinance to the issue of water access to drive innovative solutions to the challenge of fresh water scarcity.

The seven organizations receiving Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship are: BioRegional Development Group, EcoPeace – Friends of the Earth Middle East, Fundacion Gaia Amazonas, INJAZ Al-Arab, International Center for Transitional Justice, VisionSpring, and WaterPartners International.   

“Today’s difficult economic environment makes it all the more important to identify organizations that are tackling tough issues and delivering real and sustainable results. Unrestricted funding is particularly valuable against the current economic backdrop, since it provides these entrepreneurs with the flexibility they need to adapt to such difficult challenges,” said Sally Osberg, President and CEO of the Skoll Foundation. “The high quality of applicants this year is further evidence that the model of social entrepreneurship is being adopted by innovators worldwide. We welcome the addition of these impressive leaders and their organizations to the Skoll portfolio and look forward to supporting the next step in their growth.”

The Skoll Awards will be presented by Skoll Foundation Chairman Jeff Skoll, Skoll Foundation President and CEO Sally Osberg and special guest, chairman of the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change, Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri, on March 26 at the sixth annual Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship at the University of Oxford in England. The Skoll World Forum convenes a global community of outstanding practitioners and thought leaders in social entrepreneurship to set the future agenda for visionaries who want to transform society. Apopo and Teach For All, two winners of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship announced in 2008, will also received their awards at the 2009 Forum.
 
THE SKOLL AWARDEES

BioRegional Development Group
Sue Riddlestone and Pooran Desai

Sue Riddlestone and Pooran Desai founded BioRegional Development Group in 1994 in response to the over-consumption they saw as the fundamental cause of environmental problems, and the belief that environmentally sustainable living was possible for mainstream society. BioRegional helps people lead lives within an equitable and sustainable ecological footprint, which it calls One Planet Living. It is best known for The Beddington Zero Energy Development, or BedZED, a sustainable development in south London that serves as the model for One Planet Living communities internationally. BioRegional has incubated eight companies and joint ventures to demonstrate the vision of bioregionalism in a market economy, influencing policy and transforming industry along the way.

EcoPeace-Friends of the Earth Middle East
Gidon Bromberg, Nader Khateeb, Munqeth Mehyar

Recognizing that environmental issues know no political boundaries, Israeli Gidon Bromberg and Jordanian Munqeth Mehyar co-founded EcoPeace in 1994, to promote cooperation in protecting the region’s shared water resources and environmental heritage. Palestinian Nader Khateeb joined EcoPeace in 2001. By turning an area of conflict – water – into a platform for on-the-ground cooperation, EcoPeace is able to promote problem solving through people-to-people contact, advancing regional development and creating necessary conditions for lasting peace. The Good Water Neighbors community exchange project, and programs to rehabilitate the Lower Jordan River, are leading examples of cross-border initiatives that have fostered collaboration and increased awareness of common interests.

Fundacion Gaia Amazonas
Martin von Hildebrand

Martin von Hildebrand founded Fundacion Gaia Amazonas in 1990 to encourage the Amazon’s indigenous peoples to manage their territories sustainably and conserve the cultural and biological diversity of the northwest Amazon region. After living with indigenous communities in the 1970s, Martin worked within the Colombian government to guide an unprecedented move in 1987 of handing back 50 million acres of Amazon rainforest to indigenous inhabitants. In Colombia today, largely due to Martin’s vision and leadership, nearly 62 million acres of Amazon rainforest are in the hands of indigenous peoples who hold the rights to their lands, manage their own education and health programs, and design and implement environmental management plans.

INJAZ al-Arab
Soraya Salti

In 2001, Soraya Salti decided to leave her business consulting job to lead INJAZ Jordan, predecessor organization to INJAZ al-Arab, a regional movement operating in 12 MENA countries. As Junior Achievement’s first foray into the Middle East, INJAZ is the only education program in the Arab world that teaches students business, entrepreneurship, and life skills, as part of a regular school curriculum. INJAZ instills Arab youth with a sense of self-motivation, confidence and empowerment, while fostering among business leaders a responsibility for investing their resources in the future of the region’s youth. Since its inception, more than 300,000 students have been reached and 10,000 volunteers engaged, in INJAZ programs.

International Center for Transitional Justice
Juan Mendez and Paul van Zyl

Juan Mendez and Paul van Zyl have dedicated their lives to protecting human rights. Paul’s experience with South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission inspired him to co-found ICTJ in 2001 to help post-conflict societies pursue accountability for mass atrocities and repair social fractures. Juan’s interest in transitional justice grew out of his legal and advocacy work in 1970s Latin America and his subsequent experience as a leading global human rights activist. He joined ICTJ in 2004. Today, ICTJ is recognized for pioneering integrated, comprehensive, and localized approaches to transitional justice with tools, expertise and comparative knowledge necessary to help countries heal.

VisionSpring
Jordan Kassalow

Jordan Kassalow’s idea for VisionSpring grew out of over 20 years’ experience providing eye care to the world’s poor and a chance visit with a weaver in rural Mexico who lost her job due to failing vision. Jordan realized that something as simple as inexpensive, ready-made eyeglasses could have a significant impact on reducing poverty – for those who suffer from poor vision, and for those who take advantage of the business opportunity to sell glasses. Since 2003, VisionSpring’s award-winning innovation, the “Business in a Bag,” has empowered Vision Entrepreneurs across four continents to run profitable businesses selling eyeglasses – over 200,000 pairs to date.

WaterPartners International
Gary White

Over 20 years ago in Guatemala, Gary White watched a little girl carrying contaminated water alongside a stream of open sewage, back to her shack. Shortly thereafter, Gary started WaterPartners, dedicating his life to bringing safe drinking water to people living without it. WaterPartners has grown into the leader in microcredit solutions for the water and sanitation sector while continuing its original grant-based model. Both approaches have resulted in healthier communities, less time and money spent obtaining water, and improved dignity. Since its inception in 1990, WaterPartners has invested approximately $6 million in water and sanitation projects, which have directly benefited more than 350,000 people.

Two organizations whose selection for the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship was announced last summer but who will also receive their awards at the Skoll World Forum in Oxford on March 26 are:

Apopo (HeroRATS)
Bart Weetjens

As a child, Bart Weetjens kept rodents as pets and bred them as a schoolboy’s small business. In the early 1990s, Bart’s interest was drawn to the humanitarian issue of landmines. Bart’s analysis indicated that the main bottleneck in mine clearance was the high cost, extreme danger and time intensity of the detection process. Bart saw the limitations of using mine detection dogs in Africa, including their vulnerability to tropical diseases, climate and the need for expensive foreign trainers. Local rats, far cheaper than dogs and well-suited for the tropical environment, seemed a natural solution to Bart. The idea was greeted with laughter from mine removal experts. Thanks to Bart’s persistence, the Belgian government provided a research grant in 1997. Since then, Bart and his team have developed and transformed their HeroRAT technology into a leading method for mine detection in Africa. He has since extended this technology to other challenges, such as tuberculosis detection.

Teach For All (Teach For America)
Wendy Kopp

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.

About the Skoll Foundation

The Skoll Foundation was created in 1999 by eBay's first president, Jeff Skoll, to promote his vision of a more peaceful and prosperous world. Today the Skoll Foundation advances systemic change to benefit communities around the world by investing in, connecting and celebrating social entrepreneurs - individuals dedicated to innovative, bottom-up solutions that transform unequal and unjust social, environmental and economic systems.

The Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship is the foundation's flagship program. There are currently 59 organizations represented by 72 remarkable social entrepreneurs in the program, working individually and together across regions, countries and continents to deliver solutions to the world’s most challenging economic and social problems. The Skoll Foundation connects social entrepreneurs and other partners in the field via an online community at www.socialedge.org, and through the annual Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship. The foundation also celebrates social entrepreneurs by telling their stories through partnerships with organizations like the PBS Foundation and the Sundance Institute, with the goal of promoting large-scale public awareness of social entrepreneurship. For more information, visit www.skollfoundation.org.