Global Social Benefit Incubator Participants Selected

by Nathaniel Whittemore · 2009-04-07 14:51:00 UTC
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From dastkarandhra.org

The participants of the 2009 Global Social Benefit Incubator have just been announced. The leaders of each of the 20 selected organizations with spend about three weeks at Santa Clara University this summer, where they will have an intensive, skills-focused curriculum designed to help them take their project to the next level.

The group they've chosen is incredibly global, with projects coming from India, Brazil, Mexico, Ghana and elsewhere. The project focuses range from communications technology to energy and environment to health to economic development.

Two of my favorites:

Annapurna Mamidipudi
Dastkar Andhra, India
www.dastkarandhra.org
Dastkar Andhra promotes rural livelihoods by providing technical training for handloom weavers, and linking rural co-operative institutions to marketing networks in urban India.  This ensures sustainable livelihoods for handloom weavers who face the threat of large scale migration into urban slums, and helps a generation of weavers to come out of poverty.  Unlike government programs which treat handloom work as a welfare activity, or intermediaries and traders with unfair practices, Dastkar Andhra sets up equitable, sustainable, production marketing systems which allow weavers to live with self respect and dignity.

Manoj Sinha
Husk Power Systems, India
www.huskpowersystems.com
HPS provides low-cost power as a pay-for-usage service (similar to a utility in the U.S.) that enables farmers to reduce irrigation costs by 45%, entrepreneurs to create businesses and increase profit margins, and households to dramatically reduce cost/lumen-output ratio (over 200% savings).  Further, the service increases productivity in villages as fuel doesn’t have to be procured on foot from cities that are usually 5-7 miles away.  Finally, HPS systems eliminate over 190 tons of CO2 emissions annually per village by replacing kerosene, diesel, and methane output with renewable sources.

Congrats to all of the new GSBI participants. Read about the rest of the crew on Social Edge.

Nathaniel Whittemore is the founder of Assetmap. Previously he was the founding director of the Northwestern University Center for Global Engagement.
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