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Fellows in the spotlight: Prema Gopalan India SSP: Self Education for Development founder wins gender prize May 2007. Indian Fellow Prema Gopalan has been selected the 2007 recipient of the Mary Fran Myers Gender and Disaster Award. Prema is recognized as an expert in community-driven, genderequitable disaster response and resilience initiatives. Lenin Raghuvanshi India Human rights advocate wins 007 Gwangju Prize and $50,000 honorarium May 2007. The 2007 Gwangju Prize for Human Rights was awarded to Fellow Lenin Raghuvanshi for his work in northern India. Dr. Lenin leads the People’s Vigilance Committee on Human Rights which has over 50,000 members working against caste discrimination and torture across five Indian states. A Day with Young Ashoka An Ashoka Fellow adept at mobilizing funding for gender empowerment, Rita Thapa recently hosted a Nepal Young Ashoka event at her organization’s headquarters. Acting on the principle that Everyone is a Changemaker, the program offered a space for Fellows’ kids to share their experiences as children of social entrepreneurs and to gain exposure to Ashoka and Fellows. Young Ashoka Program Young Ashoka aims to encourage and enable a new generation of social entrepreneurs. It strengthens Ashoka as a caring community and an effective lifelong network for Fellows and their children. Ashoka Nepal Representative Sadhana Shrestha and Nepali Fellow Vinaya Kasajoo facilitated the session, which was attended by eighteen Young Ashokans. After introducing the mission of Thapa’s organization, called TEWA, Rita’s daughter Riva spoke about the importance of philanthropy and public service in modern Nepal. Connecting those principles with ways in which young people can be involved in society, she motivated the children to enter the field themselves. Riva shared her own experience as a child of a social entrepreneur. It was hard for her to cope with her mother’s extended business-related absences, though she gradually came to understand the value of her mother’s work and draw inspiration from it. Vinaya Kasajoo, a Fellow who trains barefoot journalists, then taught the children principles of writing stories, both fiction and non-fiction, to spark what he calls “logical creative thinking.” To reach out to the visual learners, he connected these stories with pictures and illustrations and showed how each portion enhances the value of the other. Africa Rising: Jo’burg o-I (cont.) and regional collaborations. Patrick Gathitu and Adrian Mukhebi, for example, want to connect their agricultural improvement projects in Kenya. Agatha Chukweuke wants to extend her Nigerian support and advocacy network for service industry employees to Uganda and South Africa, where Maria Baryamujura and Noel de Villers work. Rachel Mamoss (Kenya) wants to help Nkem Momah in Nigeria to add a disability component to his emergency health care services. One of the most popular sessions was on Fellow Security, led by global fellowship director Samjhana Upadhyay, where she The children then divided into groups and selected pictures that they had to formulate into stories. Enthusiastic, they produced creative pieces that Vinaya is compiling and publishing as a children’s book. At the end of the day Sadhana briefed the participants on the importance of networking with other Young Ashoka members. Aiding this is the new website www. ashokitos.org, launched by members Abhinav and Dipankar Kasajoo. It is a platform to share with, learn about and engage other Young Ashoka members. Members were then given their first task as a group. To encourage true engagement in their communities, they each received a fundraising box from TEWA. In three months they will reconvene and hold a formal event pooling all the money each child has raised and donate it to TEWA. ■ addressed the three levels of threat and appropriate responses for each. The many African Fellows working in environments of severe corruption sought to make security a higher priority in future meetings. This session followed from a Fellow Security Consultation in Dakar in early July where 15 Fellows cont. pg3
Africa Rising: Jo’burg o-I (cont.) and staff members from the region met and built a cohesive strategy for Fellow Security focused in Africa. The other popular program was a Fellow Visit to two Senior Fellows’ workplaces, which exposed new Fellows to projects that successfully scaled. Veronica Khosa, elected in 2000, started Tateni Home Care Nursing Services for HIV/AIDS patients, a model that the South African government has adopted in more than fifty places. Mandla Mentoor, elected in 2002, enables township youth to clean up their communities, changing garbage heaps into what he calls Mountains of Hope. Having converted one of Soweto’s eyesores into a thriving community center, he is now spreading this model to other townships. Many of the inductee Fellows were inspired by both Veronica and Mandla. “Many Ashoka Fellows work alone,” said Dennis Sonkoi, “but with Ashoka we get that motivation, that support of being in a family.” Quotes from Fellows Ashoka is like an engine, it propels our ideas. - Adrian Mukhebi, Kenya Tailored to the African context were workshops on ethics by South African Fellow Douglas Racionzer and regional representative Chimene Chetty and on fundraising and resource mobilization sessions by CBI Director Geralda Wildschutt and CBI Investee Roche van Wyk. Other highlights included sessions on scaling up organizations by Olivier Kayser and engaging the business sector by Lisa Nitze, Ashoka Vice- Presidents in London and Washington. Fellows then practiced at a Business-Social Bridge Breakfast Roundtable with representatives from Danone, Woolworth’s retail chain, investment banks, and Ashoka Fellows and staff in Johannesburg for the 2007 Pan-African Induction the citizen sector. Resulting fundraising and partnership opportunities have already set the groundwork for the Ashoka Support Network in Africa and for African Roadshows in the US and Europe in 2008. Local and national media coverage of the Orientation/Induction enhanced this, landing Ashoka on allafrica.com and on South African radio. Fellows showcased their achievements to the one hundred thirty attendees of the Pan-African Induction event held at an historic downtown Johannesburg hotel. Regional representatives and veteran Fellows welcomed their new peers with warm words and embraces. Participants spoke to Ashoka’s value on the continent. Newly elected Kenya Fellow Dennis Sonkoi said, “when you are working in your little corner, Ashoka brings you out and lets you see how many people think your idea is good, how you are respected and recognized and validations of what ideas you work on.” Special thanks go to the Southern Africa regional team for hosting its guests brilliantly. As the hope for Africa grows, Ashoka will be growing right along with it—with social entrepreneurs leading the way. ■ Fellows in the spotlight: orri Vigfusson Global Ashoka Global Fellow wins the presigious Goldman Environmental Prize April 2007. Orri’s innovative approach and unwavering commitment to reverse the near-extinction of wild North Atlantic salmon recently earned him the $125,000 Goldman prize. It is awarded annually to six environmental heroes and is the largest award of its kind in the world. Mercedes De Freitas Venezuela Transparencia Venezuela wins the $5,000 Changemakers competition, Ending Corruption: Honesty Instituted June 2007. Three Ashoka Fellows’ programs were selected finalists in the most recent Changemakers competition. Merchy’s, one of three winners, enables citizen groups to openly evaluate their local governments in an effort to prevent corruption.
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