Blogs

There is a moment when the human spirit stirs. When we see shortcomings in our world, an awareness is kindled and we are driven to act. From the small, fleeting problems of daily life, to the great challenges facing humanity, we have unprecedented opportunity to make a difference.

But what makes us move from awareness to action? From idea to impact? How can we boost our confidence in our ability to solve problems? What are the ingredients to launching a successful solution? How can that idea become a program that touches hundreds? Or thousands?

[Editor's note: This post was written by April Thompson of GoodWeave (previously called the RugMark Foundation). GoodWeave was a finalist in the 2008 Changemakers Ending Global Slavery competition.]

While his elementary school peers repeated addition and subtraction drills in a classroom each day, Narayan wove knot after knot at a Kathmandu carpet loom. For eight years of his early life, Narayan was a bonded child laborer without access to education, toiling up to fifteen hours a day.
[...]

This fall, Roshan Paul, Senior Change Manager at Ashoka, led a professional development workshop on the art of storytelling.  The stories that emerged from it were so powerful we decided to turn some of them into an audio blog series.  Stay tuned and prepare to be moved.
[...]

[Editor's Note: This post was written by Jonathan Lewis, founder and CEO of Opportunity Collaboration, and was originally featured on the Huffington Post.]

Last Saturday on an especially dreary, stormy day in the San Francisco Bay Area, 300 Stanford University students dragged themselves out of their cozy dorm rooms to learn about -- get ready for it -- economic development. This admittedly wonky day was organized by the Stanford Association for International Development (SAID), a voluntary student organization educating the next generation of leaders in global citizenship about international development.

This fall, Roshan Paul, Senior Change Manager at Ashoka, led a professional development workshop on the art of storytelling.  The stories that emerged from it were so powerful we decided to turn some of them into an audio blog series.  We'll be sharing them with you every Monday and Thursday this month. Grab your headphones -- and prepare to be moved.
[...]