One of the deliverables of the G-20 SME Finance Challenge – besides the launch of a $528 million SME Finance Innovation Fund supported by South Korea, the U.S., Canada, and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) – was connecting competition winners with donors and investors at a small and medium-size enterprise (SME) conference in Cologne, Germany after the Seoul Summit.
Emily May, the Executive Director of Hollaback! believes that we all have the right to feel safe, confident and sexy, without being subjected to street harassment. Using mobile technology, Hollaback! allows girls and women to report harassment and assault safely with their phones, publicly sharing stories of street harassment and photos of their harassers on the HollabackNYC.com website. May predicts that instant online reporting will become a new model of activism in the 21st century, creating movements to address a wide variety of social challenges.
Somaly Mam is so triumphantly beautiful, it’s difficult to think of her as a victim, or anyone’s slave. But she was both – sold into sexual slavery at the tender age of 12, raped, tortured and prostituted until she finally escaped and was able to build a new life for herself. But she vowed never to forget those left behind in the brothels, and Somaly made it her life’s mission to rescue, rehabilitate and reintegrate trafficked girls and give them a new chance at life.
Last Friday, the Global Security Challenge (GSC) – a Dragon’s Den-style event and central hub for security innovators, start-ups and investors around the globe – announced this year’s Best Security Start-Up and Best Security SME: mPedigree and iWebGate. (Previous winners and finalists have gone on to raise over $80 million investment as a result of the challenge.)
You’re invited to an inspiring evening of learning, sharing and creative thinking around new solutions to advance lasting social change!
The first-ever Ashoka Twin Cities Solutions Forum will bring together leading social entrepreneurs and proven business innovators from the Twin Cities to explore how business principles can be applied to solve social problems. The evening will feature nationally renowned social entrepreneurs and Ashoka Fellows, Andy Lipkis and Jill Vialet. The interview will be hosted by media personality and entrepreneur, Rick Kupchella.
The event is FREE and will be held at the Walker Art Center on Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2010 at 7 p.m. with a reception to follow.
Ashoka Solutions Forum Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2010 Forum begins at 7 p.m. (doors open at 6:30) Walker Arts Center, McGuire Theater Reception begins at 8:15 p.m. in the Skyline Room
The event is co-sponsored by InCommons and The Knight Foundation. This forum is the debut event of the new Ashoka Twin Cities chapter. Space is limited.
"When it comes to creating jobs and opportunity, often times it's the small and medium sized enterprises that make all the difference in people's lives. And one of the biggest challenges for such companies is to make sure they receive the financing that they need. We look forward to — as a consequence of this award — seeing more and more creative mechanisms to finance worthy enterprises. And many of the lessons that are going to be learned from these projects are ones that hopefully can be expanded to a whole host of countries for years to come."
The G-20 has just committed more than one-half billion dollars to support the winners of the G-20 SME Finance Challenge. President Barack Obama, Korean President Lee Myung-bak, and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper congratulated the winners in person and announced this stupendous funding commitment at the closing of the G-20 Seoul Summit. Of course, the winners of the G-20 SME Finance Challenge were present at the G-20 Seoul Summit, too.
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[South Korean President Lee Myung-bak (C), U.S. President Barak Obama (third from L) and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper (third from R) pose with SME Finance Challenge Award people’s choice winners Scott Gilmore, Peace Dividend Trust executive director (L); Sylvia Beate Wisniwski, European Fund for Southeast Europe executive director (second from L); Obama, Myung-bak, and Harper; SME Finance Challenge Award people’s choice winner Onno Schellekens, Medical Credit Fund co-founder (second from right), and Bill Carter, Ashoka's diamond leader for Africa - at the closing of the G-20 Seoul Summit on Nov. 12.]
[What worked for women in WWII, works for women in Ghana today.]
It was an earth-shaking moment. Leticia Brenyah was helping rural women in her Ashanti Ghana village to improve their lives with classes in personal hygiene, money management, and healthcare when it suddenly occurred to her that what they really needed was a break. These women were farmers, like 60% of Ghanaians, and like most smallholder farmers, they spent hours in the fields plowing, planting, weeding and harvesting by hand, using tons of harmful chemicals, exhausting themselves and the soils.
Watch live streaming video from ashoka at livestream.com Changemakers! Join us today between 12:30-1 PM (EST) for a series of interviews with three Ashoka Fellows: Molly Barker, Kristin Hayden, and Vishal Talreja.Molly is building a new women’s liberation movement that breaks the cultural stereotypes and barriers preventing girls and young women from living healthy, authentic lives. Kristin wants more young Americans to understand and experience the cultures that are most relevant to our country’s future. She is reaching out to help disadvantaged American youth become the next generation of global leaders with a new worldview. Vishal, a former investment banker and venture capitalist, has built a network of volunteers that offer vulnerable children opportunities to increase their chances for normal childhood development.
Last Friday, the 
