My dear friend Sean Harry and I were discussing my career and personal interests over coffee this morning, and my love for various humanitarian and social causes came up. Additionally, I am intrigued by the philosophy behind social entrepreneurship, and that is that innovators can and choose to do business in a way that solves human problems and evokes change, not simply pads the founders' pocketbook. I like the way Bill Drayton, leading social entrepreneur and founder of Ashoka, said it best when he said: "Social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish, or teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry."
Sean also pointed me to an interesting international social venture: Play Pumps International. Play Pumps International is a non-profit organization that installs and maintains merry-go-rounds that not only provide entertainment for young children, but also pumps clean drinking water in Sub-Saharan Africa. These pumps fill a tangible community need, in villages where water must often be carried in buckets and walked back to town, causing countless other health and social problems.
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3 comments:
Sarah, Your posts are great. I think you are finding your voice and what you want to do for a living. Take a look at both of these posts and write about two dozen others, and you will know EXACTLY what your USP is!
Thanks for the plug!
Sean Harry
www.orcms.com
This is really interesting. I love creative solutions. It will take more to help the poor than just throwing money at them. Programs like this go about solving real problems in new ways. I love it.
This a great idea, however I believe they can expand on it. Why not have an entire playground pumping water? They could have a Teeter-Totter do the same thing, and each item could be sponored by a company. In return the donor would be able to put their logo directly on the item. I do have to admit the video did get me excited, but there is much more that can be done.
-Drew
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