26 February 2008

Social Entrepreneurs: Ashoka North America and Travel to India May Slow My Posts, Maybe


I'm heading to India today after 24 hours in Miami.

Here in Miami we celebrated the new crop of Ashoka North America Fellows, leading social entrepreneurs from the US, Canada, and Mexico/Central America in the fields of social financial services, youth empowerment, the envrionment, and economic development. An awesome and insipiring crew.

Here is the full list of Fellows welcomed in a ceremony last night hosted by the Knight Foundation:

• Amy Bank, Puntos de Encuentro – Using mass media to help women and youth discuss and defend human rights (Managua, Nicaragua and San Francisco, California)
• Bruce Cahan, Urban Logic, Inc. – Adding social values to lending and spending (Palo Alto, California)
• Oona Chatterjee, Make the Road New York – Uniting poor communities to create the change they seek (Brooklyn, New York)
• Gerald Chertavian, Year Up – Placing young urban adults and corporate America on a shared path to success (Boston, Massachusetts)
• Eric Dawson, Peace Games – Bringing children and their schools a shared purpose: leading the way to peace (Boston, Massachusetts)
• Alisa del Tufo, Threshold Collaborative – Enabling communities to help troubled families heal (North Bennington, Vermont)
• Jonah Edelman, Stand for Children – Raising voices and casting ballots for those too young to vote (Portland, Oregon)
• William F. Foote (Global Fellow), Root Capital – Opening global markets to small producers by redefining their investment value (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
• Rosanne Haggerty (Senior Fellow), Common Ground – Restoring buildings and rebuilding lives to end homelessness (New York, New York)
• Kathryn Hall-Trujillo, Birthing Project USA – Bringing women of color together to nurture young moms and their babies (Taos, New Mexico, and Sacramento, California)
• Farhana Huq, C.E.O. Women (Creating Economic Opportunities for Women) – Propelling immigrant women into leading roles in business and life (Oakland, California)
• Esther Lardent (Senior Fellow), The Pro Bono Institute – Integrating civic engagement into the practice of law (Washington, DC)
• Peter Nares (Senior Fellow), Social and Enterprise Development Innovations – Opening the way to replace poverty with economic independence worldwide (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
• Abelardo Palma, Formación y Capacitación, A.C. – Preserving the culture and identity of indigenous children through bilingual education (San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, México)
• Billy Parish, Energy Action Coalition/The Dream Reborn – Employing youth and the underserved in greening our planet (Flagstaff, Arizona)
• Sidney Ribaux, Équiterre – Creating environmentally and socially sustainable communities (Montréal, Quebéc, Canada)
• Daniel Ross, Nuestras Raíces – Transplanting knowledge and culture to create jobs, guide youth, and renew urban America (Holyoke, Massachusetts)
• Omar Rodríguez, Solano Edumar – Protecting Costa Rica’s ocean environment through education and community involvement (Puntarenas, Costa Rica)
• Jayne Stoyles, Canadian Centre for International Justice – Guaranteeing that human rights abusers are brought to justice anywhere in the world (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada)
• Atsumasa Tochisako (Global Fellow), Microfinance International Corporation – Putting global banking to work for immigrants and their homelands (Washington, DC)
• Michel Venne, Institut du Nouveau Monde – Reinventing the public forum as a platform for citizen action (Montréal, Quebéc, Canada)

I am heading to India for a selection panel and to visit some of our environment-focused entrepreneurs over the next two weeks. I hope to continue my posts from that wired country, but I may be more sporadic than usual.

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