News & knowledge

As a young woman growing up in rural Nepal, Tara Bhattarai dreamed of becoming a journalist. But with little formal education and few opportunities for women journalists, her dream seemed out of reach. Then in 2007 GPI opened an office in Kathmandu. Tara and four other local women participated in GPI’s "The Principles & The Practice" training program, a 2-week intensive on ethical storytelling using digital technologies, followed by six months of targeted reporting exercises. Armed with a kit of multimedia tools, Tara and the other GPI reporters in Nepal learned to use digital platforms to increase access to information and create social change.

In the years since that first training, Tara has earned a strong living wage from GPI and has published more than 100 investigative feature stories on a range of pressing social issues. Working within the GPI editorial structure, she has received constant coaching, feedback and skill development. In 2010, the Prime Minister of Nepal became aware of Tara’s high-impact reporting and human storytelling, and along with other members of Parliament he used one of Tara’s articles about violence among inter-caste couples as the basis for a new law criminalizing such violence.

Tara has won or been shortlisted for more than eight international journalism awards, and earlier this year she fulfilled another dream when she became the GPI Country Editor for the Nepal news desk. As editor, Tara is responsible for training and employing the next generation of women in Nepal who dream of creating social change through journalism.

We have successfully run the Mother Goose program for a number of years; see below:
Testimonials

“It has given me lots of different songs that help me and my husband interact with our daughter.”

“The songs are great tools for dealing with stressful situations. It is great to have special social/bonding time to look forward to as a family each week.”

We need something like the Mother Goose model for the single, young, and First nations fathers. This place will also be a safe place for fathers coming out of jails, addictions, and family violence

Meet Pavi - 26, a graduate student at Concordia, and the founder of ‘Grounds’, an organization focused on sustainable consumption.

Using an approach centred around the individual and focused on social and experiential learning, we develop emerging leaders like Pavi into agile high-impact catalysts. Here’s how it works:

1.Cx People + Projects: Every year, we give out 300 Cx Awards, recognizing Canada’s top emerging leaders like Pavi and giving each $2,000 for an impact project they are passionate about

2.Cx Learning Process: For the following year, Pavi and fellow catalysts go through a series of multi-dimensional discovery and learning experiences:

a.Self-learning: Through a weekly digest and Cx Online, a hub of resources and opportunities, Catalysts widen and deepen their perspectives on topics on their own schedule

b.Project learning: Through regular peer brainstorming and reflection sessions, Catalysts learn about effective ideation, project execution, and evaluation using their own projects

c.Peer learning: Through intentionally designed interactions with other Catalysts near and far as part of local and national events such Cx Hubs and Cx Conferences, Catalysts are connected to a network of incredible support, ideas, beliefs, and experiences.

d.Organizational Learning: Through opportunities to take on leadership roles for Cx Hubs, Cx Conferences, and Cx Impact Fairs as well as involvement in the Cx National Team, Catalysts are connected to unique experiences of organizational leadership that otherwise may take years for them to come across.

We will mention two ways. First, in Victoria, the project's home base, we prepare and then publicize the offering of free course that runs a minimum of 4 weeks. Students are free to attend and no registration is required. So far, participation has been so strong that others have asked to stage the classes in their communities. The next step would be finalize arrangements with specific communities and travel there to offer the classes, envisioned now as a weekend event.

All over the world people are suffering from the water crisis: Germs and bacteria contaminate existing water sources and make it perilous to drink from them.

There exists however a simple solution to tackle most of these contaminations: "SODIS" - a simple but effective idea developed by swiss researchers in cooperation with the WHO that allows everyone to purify water. All you have to do is 1) clean a plastic bottle, 2) fill it with the water you want to drink and 3) put it at a sunny place for 6 hours. The UV waves will kill the germs and the water becomes drinkable again.

Even though this method is simple and easy to implement, only few people know about it. This could change if it would be distributed via knowable.org: Our broken down, text-message ready step-by-step guides allow us to take ideas like SODIS even to remote areas and communities! Everyone with a computer, access to a cyber cafe, or just a simple cell phone can easily access the knowable.org-resources, search for featured projects or the topic 'water and sanitation' and learn about SODIS right away.

And our online community takes it even one step further: People who found (or search) for different solutions to the same problem (water contamination) can build upon this idea and publish their findings. That way we are able to build up a connected, clustered and social database of helpful solutions to a broad range of topics (Agriculture, Water, Electronics, Housing, Mobility, Mechanics, etc).

We first evaluate and diagnose the institutional development of a participating organization, comparing it with international best practices in four areas: Governance and Strategy, Funding, Management, Operations and Programs. We then measure the social impact of the organization in Mexican society by integrating four variables: Effectiveness, Efficiency, Reach and Social Return on Investment (SROI). Then we make recommendations aimed at improving the level of institutional development and maximizing social impact. We integrate these recommendations into three Priority Action Items to be followed by the organization in the medium term, and return one year later to re-evaluate the organization. After this process is complete, we work to direct resources and develop strategic alliances with leading initiatives to channel donations to organizations that have been rated using our “Donate with Trust” platform. Filantrofilia is financed through donations and flexible fees for the rating process.

We make a difference directly with the organizations that we evaluate, at an operational level. We have been working hard to affect more general systemic changes in attitude toward philanthropic giving through formalized alliances and agreements with second-floor foundations, who are beginning to use our ratings to inform their giving practices. We promote impact-based giving, and provide reliable information through which second-floor foundations can strategically donate to maximize the impact of their pesos.

People will have a space to provide feedback and suggestions on how to improve research studies. The website will encourage innovation by having competitions to see who can suggest the best solution for addressing the weaknesses in a particular research study.

The TerraVerde Circle seeks to create a platform that brings together asset owners, asset managers, investment consultants, family offices, corporate entities, foundations, endowments, academics, NGOs, college students, and college-run investment funds. The TerraVerde Circle connects interested investors with the opportunities within the sector and the know-how to capitalize on them. As an example, college endowments are suprisingly reluctant towards impact investing due to the perception of an inefficient, unprofitable market and a lack of clear understanding of opportunities within the sector. The TerraVerde Circle's primary activities as an information provider to potential impact investors would break down these walls to capital flow; if the college endowment investors had access to a marketplace of impact investment ideas, related research, impact investment updates, and sound input on how to make those investments profitable, they would be far more likely to become capital providers. The TerraVerde Circle, functioning as a conduit for impact capital, thus opens the spigot for financing to local social entrepreneurs. Suddenly, college endowments that were previously removed or reluctant feel a strong connection to communities and individuals across the globe who are pioneering solutions to pressing problems. Financing for irrigation solutions in the Middle East, female education initiatives in Africa, and medical access in Southeast Asia becomes available, with access to capital bringing these projects from mere ideas to fruitful realization.

Developing youth social competencies and promoting youth participation in the development and implementation of socially important projects will be achieved by introducing state-of-the-art communication technologies to youth networks. New learning materials, on-line trainings and face-to-face trainings will be developed and made available through the Learning and Knowledge Transfer Hub to be established under the joint project.
Social competencies will be formed through the following instruments and project activities:
Capacity development of youth in secondary schools, including volunteers and other target groups, though face-to-face and on-line trainings and web-design, etc.;
Networking and peer-to-peer networking between project target groups and other players;
Practical experience for students from pedagogical schools by volunteering in project activities in rural schools and youth centers;
Support to creating e-communities and developing web-community social services and projects involving project target groups;
Support to youth to develop skills for solving community problems, including proactive approaches and citizenship skills;
Training of teachers in the organization and career orientation curricula for secondary schools;
Introduce volunteerism in the local development agenda;
Utilize information,learning,training materials on the Project Portal Learning and Knowledge Transfer Hub for further development of youth

Currently, much of the materials used in Tanzanian schools does not explicitly reveal to students how they can be agents for positive change in their country. Through daily instruction CFC will reveal to students that a better world is possible and can be created with their own hands. The CFC curricula is simple; it consists of a teachers manual for each grade level that comes complete with articles and worksheets that can be copied for student use. Initially these manuals will be distributed to World Teach Volunteers who will work in different schools across Tanzania. These teachers will be free to share the materials with fellow Tanzanian teachers who want to use them. Once the pilot program establishes student literacy growth through ongoing assessment results, I plan to partner with Uwezo Tanzania and the Tanzanian Ministry of Education to implement this curriculum in secondary schools nationwide. Pilot implementation of the CFC curriculum will begin this August. Although this program will be initially implemented through World Teach in Tanzania, it is my ultimate goal to partner with other education non-profits across Africa to create country specific curricula that focuses on empathy and self empowerment through social change. The ultimate goal of breaking the cycle of violence in Africa will be met by instilling empathy and problem solving skills in students through these tailor made nation wide curricula.

We work in high schools to start an after school program—Global Issues Club (GIC). During the summer, club leaders receive leadership training to prepare them for running club meetings during the year. As they sharpen their leadership skills, students review the previous year’s activities, make necessary changes, and choose issues to work with. In order to meet our second goal, to holistically educate participants about global issues and human rights concerns, GILD built Sharing our World (SoW). SoW is a partnership project with the Peace Corps Fellows Program at the University of Missouri-Columbia. We use SoW to connect students to those in the field. During meetings, students learn about their chosen issues through speakers, films, and other sources and also plan fundraising events to benefit the organization they chose. To learn more about the SoW, please visit the site www.gildhumanrights.org/sharingouroworld/ As we grow, we want to offer service-learning opportunities to our students in order for them to work side by side with nonprofit organizations. We will do this during Spring Break and in the summer. During the summer, students select a destination and organization to serve for up to eight weeks. Club members will have spent the school year learning about a particular issue in which they can choose to serve or select another issue. Sophomores will serve in their respective states or provinces. Juniors will serve anywhere in their countries and senior will serve overseas.