OUR SERIES ON SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS
From the first season of the FRONTLINE/World series, we have searched for stories about people who innovate in ways that truly transform our interconnected world. This special site will feature the stories of people whose ideas and organizations create new and sustainable markets and services that benefit underserved communities everywhere in the developing world. In a nutshell, these are stories about individuals whose ideas leap beyond charity to find systemic solutions to poverty, education, health and social justice.
FRONTLINE/World has profiled a computer engineer in India who puts Internet kiosks in poor neighborhoods throughout his country, helping bridge the digital divide for thousands of children. In Kenya a world-class long-distance runner uses her prize money to start
a training camp for poor village women, like herself, whose lives are changed
forever. In South Africa a business entrepreneur invents and installs a merry-go-round
pushed round by children that pumps enough water for a village of 2,500,
making the delivery of clean water child's play. In Guatemala, an American
coffee distributor helps develop organic growers among the region's poor
farmers, whose beans can be marketed as "fair trade" providing them
a living wage. In Uganda, two young social entrepreneurs develop a revolutionary
model for microlending, using the Internet to connect borrowers with lenders,
person to person, a venture that has grown from one small village in Africa
to 11 countries around the world.
The
Skoll Foundation has provided major support to extend and grow FRONTLINE/World's reporting
about social entrepreneurs. To learn more about these uncommon heroes and
see these stories streamed online, click on the links below.
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March 2008
How one woman has created a biosphere
In recent years, as the world has become increasingly aware of global warming, an entire industry has grown up around the idea of trading carbon to help eliminate greenhouse gases, most notably CO2. As soon as developed nations began capping carbon emissions, driven primarily by the European Union (EU), a brisk global market for trading carbon developed. read more
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June 2007
Weaving a new life from a lost art
Growing up in Tokyo, Cambodia was never far from my conscience. At train stations, volunteers would ask commuters to empty their change to help one of the poorest countries in Asia. Public-service announcements on television encouraged donations and showed the wide eyes and gaunt faces of Cambodian children. Whenever I left food on my plate at the table, my mother would say, "Think about all of the hungry children in the world!" read more
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June 2007
Sniffing land mines, saving lives
For the past seven years, Bart Weetjens has been running a unique lab in Tanzania, where he trains rats to sniff out deadly unexploded land mines -- the legacy of countless bloody conflicts. In Hero Rats, FRONTLINE/World reporter Alexis Bloom accompanies Weetjens to work in Mozambique to watch his trained rodents in action. read more
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June 2007
Getting children off the streets
"A child on the street is what we call a roofless and rootless kid. He's an unprotected child," says Father Thomas Koshy as we walk through the southern Indian city of Vijayawada. It is the middle of the night and still hot, and there are children sleeping in every nook and corner of the city. As an Indian American who has lived and worked in India, I am not surprised by the scene, but it is disturbing nevertheless. read more
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June 2007
On rough roads and remote rivers
Frustrated by Ecuador's lack of health resources for poor people, Dr. Edgar Rodas created the Cinterandes Foundation in 1995 with a volunteer group of surgeons who shared his ideals. As a medical student in the early 1960s, he was inspired by the work of Project HOPE (Health Opportunities for People Everywhere). As part of this initiative, an American-run hospital boat regularly visited Ecuador's Pacific coast to provide surgeries and medical care for poor people. He vowed to someday emulate this approach and help his own country to better provide medical care. read more
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June 2007
Making room to read
While trekking in Nepal in 1998, American John Wood saw that many children couldn't afford to go to school and that schools in the poorest rural areas had a chronic shortage of books. For Wood it was a transformational experience that spurred him to start a literacy program called Room to Read. This Rough Cut tells the story of Wood's nonprofit that now helps to educate millions of children in the developing world and visits some of the Nepalese children and communities his program has helped. read more
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April 2007
How music is transforming society
In Sounds of Hope, FRONTLINE/World reporter Monica Lam journeys to Paraguay to meet Luis Szaran, a famous musician and social entrepreneur who has dedicated himself to helping redeem the lives of poor and neglected children through music. read more
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October 2006
Continuing our series on social entrepreneurs, FRONTLINE/World travels
to Uganda to explore the impact of microfinance and, in particular,
how one San Francisco-based nonprofit is using the Web to
connect borrowers with lenders, person-to-person online. read more
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October 2005
Turning water into child's play
In rural villages across South Africa, some 5 million people don't have access to clean drinking water.
In this week's Rough Cut, Africa correspondent Amy Costello brings us a surprisingly upbeat tale about Trevor Field,
a canny entrepreneur who decided to tackle South Africa's water woes in his own novel and enterprising way.
read more
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March 2004
Women racing for their lives
Kenyan men have long ranked among the world's best long distance runners, but until recently, Kenyan women have been confined to traditional roles at home and on the farm. FRONTLINE/World reporter Alexis Bloom journeys to the mountain village of Iten in Kenya's northwest highlands, where one of Kenya's first great female marathoners, Lornah Kiplagat, using her prize money, established and operates a camp to train the next generation of women runners. read more
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May 2003
Can fair trade save the farm?
As a worldwide glut of coffee beans forces Central American farmers and their families off their land, FRONTLINE/World's Sam Quinones follows a group of gourmet coffee importers who advocate "fair trade"
as a partial solution to the crisis. He meets tasters, buyers and indigenous farmers in remote coffee-growing regions.
read more
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October 2002
Opening the door to cyberspace
An Indian scientist embeds a high-speed
computer in a wall bordering a slum, turns it on, and watches
what happens as children begin to teach themselves to use
the machine.
read more
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