Stories of ChangeVOL 1:

Fellows and their Journeys

Ashoka was founded on the belief that social entrepreneurs are the most powerful force changing the world. For almost 30 years Ashoka has been seeking out and supporting the best innovators working to create systemic change to join the Ashoka Fellowship. But innovation happens at many levels and Ashoka’s mission is to create a world in which many more people can enjoy the freedom, self‑permission and support to make a difference – an Everyone a Changemaker™ World.

Though the world is still in need of visionary social entrepreneurs, changemaking is not limited to them. Over the years of selecting, supporting and working with Ashoka Fellows we have realized that one of the key determinates for the success of an initiative is community involvement and empowerment. Successful social entrepreneurs mobilize their communities to create change, serving as role‑models and facilitators for hundreds and thousands of others to become changemakers, bringing us closer to a more empathetic, more equitable world, a world of changemakers.

In this eBook you will find the stories of 10 Ashoka Fellows. Each of them is an inspirational visionary who has overcome significant obstacles to bring about the change they wish to see in the world. And while these stories, focus on their personal journeys; each Ashoka Fellow also becomes a role model for an entire community of changemakers who in turn fuel a movement that inspires an Everyone A Changemaker™ society.

STORIES OF CHANGEStories of Change is Ashoka’s new electronic book series. Through these publications we will share the stories of the changemakers in the Ashoka community: Fellows, Youth Venturers, staff and partners. People who are producing system change solutions for social problems, inspiring innovation and creating an Everyone A Changemaker™ world.

We hope you enjoy and share these stories. But most importantly, we hope these stories will inspire you to continue creating change in your community.

Fellows and their Journeys

Table of Contents

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Writer: Aliya BhatiaEditor and Coordinator: Tom DawkinsLayout: Aliya Bhatia and Rachel LandContributors: Karabi Acharya, Leah Fotis, Wil Kristin, Scott Rechler, Beverly Schwartz, Tyler SpaldingCover Photo: Peter Dench

Attribution‑Noncommercial‑No Derivative Works

Fellows and their Journeys ..................................................................................................................1

Jürgen Griesbeck ..................................................................................................................................3

Nicole Rycroft ......................................................................................................................................4

Sandra Aguebor .....................................................................................................................................5

Bart Weetjens .......................................................................................................................................6

Sunitha Krishnan ...................................................................................................................................7

Hany El‑Miniawy ...................................................................................................................................8

Al Harris ................................................................................................................................................9

Chetna Gala‑Sinha ..............................................................................................................................10

Benki Piyãko ........................................................................................................................................11

Ursula Sladek ......................................................................................................................................12

Connect with Ashoka .........................................................................................................................13

3

In 1994, Colombian national football player Andres Escobar returned home to the city of Medellín after accidentally scoring a goal on his own team during the World Cup. His first night back, he was shot twelve times by one of many Colombians who blamed him for Colombia’s early exit from the tournament. His friend Jürgen [www.ashoka.org/fellow/jurgen] was shocked – Of all endeavors, how could football have been so lethal in a city that desperately needed sports to be a positive force?

And so, in that city of Medellín, then a crime magnet with upwards of 5,000 homicides per year, Jürgen Griesbeck started Football for Peace. Jürgen’s football program had a different set of rules, designed to break gender barriers, reward fairness, and keep kids out of gangs and violence. After sweeping up 10,000 children into his program, Jürgen trained local leaders to continue the program and moved on.

At his next stop in post‑reunification Germany, Jürgen used football to combat xenophobia and racism. In time, he realized that there was no shortage of clubs that use sports to keep kids out of trouble. Rather, the problem was that these clubs were scattered across the globe with no way to share their experiences and insights. Therefore, Jürgen decided to create a platform to bind the world of football together. He calls it streetfootballworld [www.streetfootballworld.org].

After channeling new causes, financial support, and partners to hundreds of thousands of children whose common denominator is football, streetfootballworld is bringing its cultural transformation full‑circle through a partnership with the FIFA World Cup. streetfootballworld has encouraged the global football association to re‑conceive and even rename its corporate social responsibility strategy to support social development.

Thanks to Jürgen’s work, the years since Escobar’s death have witnessed the World Cup become part of the movement to ensure that sports are about nurture instead of vengeance.

Jürgen Griesbeck GERMANY

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Nicole Rycroft [www.ashoka.org/fellow/rycroft] went from being a human barrier between a logger’s saw and the bark of a tree to using market incentives to make the last edition of the Harry Potter series the greenest book in publishing history. Nicole began as a tree hugger of the literal sort, stopping loggers from cutting ancient trees by standing between them and the forests. During one particular iteration of her routine, she realized that physical intervention was only a tactic – It would require a comprehensive strategy to protect the forest from fragmentation and charm loggers, printers, publishers, and writers into changing their ways.

With that, Markets Initiative [www.canopyplanet.org] germinated, sprouted, and has grown as strong as some of the moss‑bedazzled boreal beauties that Nicole works to preserve. After significant progress in nudging printers to stock Ancient Forest Friendly paper, Nicole’s hard work achieved a breakthrough nothing short of wizardry. [She collaborated with J. K. Rowling and publishers] to use recycled paper in the 5th and 6th editions of Harry Potter, and then made the final edition the greenest book in publishing history. This saved hundreds of thousands of trees and millions of gallons of water.

Wasting not a moment on celebration, [Nicole worked with Canada Geographic] and got their June 2008 copy printed on paper made with agricultural waste from wheat production. With this victory, she proved that magazine paper – the highest quality form of commercial paper stock – could come from waste materials. She is now working to change the machinery on North American paper mills so that the “wheat sheet” and other alternatives to traditional paper can further substitute for ecologically unsustainable printing stocks.

Slowly, the world is creeping towards Nicole’s dream – That our children will be in awe when they hear that paper was once made from forests.

Nicole Rycroft CANADA

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Even in countries with the most progressive declarations of equal rights, it is uncommon for a woman to be the face of an auto repair garage. Nigeria was no exception – Until the 1990s, the entire country had never seen a trained female in the profession. Sandra Aguebor [www.ashoka.org/fellow/aguebor] made history as the first woman to complete her auto‑mechanic degree and don the matching coveralls. Now, she is training underprivileged Nigerian women in the nuts and bolts of cars, equality, and life.

Sandra’s trainees in the Lady Mechanics Initiative [www.ladymechanicinitiative.org] are often school dropouts or former prostitutes. With Sandra’s encouragement and the prospect of financial security, they exchange their painted nails and fancy hairdos for grease‑stained uniforms and a tool kit. In addition to learning and working in the garage, they are often blazing through the streets rallying other women to take Sandra’s courses.

Sandra has also reached out to other sectors of society. She has crossed religious boundaries by welcoming twelve traditionally‑garbed Muslim women into the Lady Mechanics Initiative for training. She has also forged corporate and non‑profit partnerships to provide stipends and health insurance to her students and their families. She appears regularly on television and radio, teaching women of all trades basic mechanics so that a car malfunction does not become a catalyst for robbery or sexual assault.

Sandra was once just a child with a fascination for engine oil. Now, after enduring insults through school and opening her first garage with nothing more than cardboard for a roof, Sandra has broken past the gender taboo into the world of auto mechanics. Her organization maintains a number of prestigious corporate fleets and shares the wealth with the women in her program. She has challenged the biases of her community, and her pupils look forwards to doing the same by opening their own garages across Nigeria.

Sandra Aguebor NIGERIA

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The threat of death by mines in Africa has driven innumerable people from their farms and communities. Until recently, humanitarian operations responded by sending mechanical detectors and imported dogs to restore the land. It seemed that true healing was beyond reach: In the same breath Africa cleared its mines, it became more indebted to Western technologies.

But starting in 1998, Belgian‑born Buddhist monk Bart Weetjens [www.ashoka.org/fellow/weetjens] began de‑mining Africa with a smaller and much lower maintenance mechanism. Many years ago, he quit military school out of disgust for war and gave up his childhood hamster business to prevent the critters he sold from becoming snake‑feed at the local pet shop. In the same spirit of peace and interdependence, Bart left his budding career in product development behind and promoted a more sustainable solution to African de‑mining: HeroRATS [www.herorat.org].

While less glamorous and affectionate than machines or dogs, African Giant Pouched Rats have an extraordinary sense of smell and store and find pockets of food in the model of a perfect mine detector. They can detect mines and even tuberculosis with their sense of smell. With training, Bart has turned these rats into heroes, heroes that are jumping continents as countries like Colombia adapt Bart’s strategy for their own demining projects.

Bart and his organization APOPO [www.apopo.org] have found a way to keep the cycle of healing at home at a minimal price with the fastest and even most harmonious result. Having gotten this far, Bart has even begun to break through the Middle Ages stereotype of nasty, plague carrying rats by having his rats send letters and take on a personality. Here’s to Everyone a Changemaker™, and every rat a Hero.

Bart Weetjens TANZANIA

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At first glance, no one would suspect that small and slight Sunitha Krishnan [www.ashoka.org/fellow/sunitha] is the proud mother of thousands by day and a brothel‑buster by night. Resisting societal pressures that lock child prostitutes into life‑long outcast, Sunitha is empowering sex trafficking victims to win some of the first successful legal battles against Indian brothels. Sunitha’s emphasis is on creating opportunities for these women to build new lives. Her organization Prajwala [www.prajwalaindia.org] and its partners have taught Sunitha’s metaphorical daughters to run everything from pizza parlors to printing presses. With her help, even those burdened by the stigma of HIV have the opportunity to attain complete rehabilitation – and the ingredients to attract a loving spouse.

The darker side of Sunitha’s work is dealing with the brothels and the authorities. Sunitha has raided many brothels and quibbled with a number of two‑faced police officers, and as a result she has her share of bruises and enemies. She has suffered beatings and a damaged eardrum, and six of her colleagues have been murdered. But Sunitha’s history drives her forwards. For Sunitha, it was not the trauma of rape in her childhood that led her into this risky business. Rather, it was the unfairness of her family’s response: Instead of blaming the rapist, they blamed her for the damage to the family’s name. Sunitha rebelled and became a social worker, determined to liberate herself and all those trapped in the same situation. Wherever she goes, her infective energy is bringing her fight to new frontiers.

Those who she has nurtured who go on to find a husband often marry at Prajwala. Those who she saved who are adopted into a family have trouble giving up Sunitha as their surrogate mother. All remain grateful forever for the second chance she helps them create. Sunitha – small, slight, unsuspecting – wins new victories every day.

Sunitha Krishnan INDIA

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Despite North Africa’s rich history in ancient architecture and the availability of local materials, many of its rising architects look abroad for inspiration and resources. As a result, much of the region’s newer construction is tied closer to the international steel and concrete markets than to the needs of its own people.

Hany El‑Miniawy [www.ashoka.org/fellow/hany] was disappointed – How could architects worship wealth and ‘The Foreign’ at the expense of lower‑income Egyptians and Algerians who live in rickety shacks? Hany searched from the bank of the Nile to the back yards of industrial plants to find a way to escape the costly noose of international construction markets. He eventually found the solution in his expertise in chemistry and high‑tech modeling.

Hany develops the brick materials for low‑cost housing by mixing a pinch of industrial waste into rediscovered local clays and rocks. Rice straw, cement dust, and iron ash fortify his bricks against regional weather conditions and insect infestations. In this way, he reduces the cost of building materials, waste from industry, and reliance on imports.

Hany teaches the local communities everything from pressing the bricks to overcoming the challenge of installing durable ceilings. He is focused not only on teaching but learning from local practices and traditions. Thanks to his constant interaction with the communities he helps, Hany’s housing is low‑cost, safe, and replicable. For example, Hany’s direct involvement in a 1,000 home project in Algeria snowballed into the creation of 3,500 additional units. By participating as labor in the building of their own homes, the owners gain a sense of ownership and accomplishment as well as new skills for future jobs.

Overall, his program ADAPT and his collaboration with Ashoka’s Housing for All [www.ashoka.org/fec_housing] has led to the improvement of the housing situation of over 100,000 Algerians and Egyptians.

Hany El‑Miniawy EGYPT

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While tagging sharks off the coast of South Africa, zoologist Al Harris [www.ashoka.org/aharris] pondered a void in marine research. Just up the continent off the coast of Madagascar were some of the world’s largest coral reefs, but they remained undocumented and vulnerable to insatiable fish markets. To research and protect these magnificent waters, Al would have to start from scratch. But, with neither money nor accreditation, he was at the mercy of foundations that expected him to get a doctorate degree before they would fund his work. Rather than delay conservation with five more years of education, Al launched an ecotourism business to enlist volunteers to collect the data as they were enjoying the colorful underwater view of Madagascar’s reefs.

As Al’s findings confirmed, the reefs were suffering from global warming and over fishing. Self‑imposed limitations were absent because of the amount of time it would take for a fishing village to see positive results. Al’s company Blue Ventures [www.blueventures.org] began to fix this problem by targeting one of the area’s eight‑legged cash crops: Octopi. By choosing to protect an animal that could mature and replenish itself in just months, Al wasted little time building the local villages’ appreciation of seasonal no‑take zones. Within two years, twenty three additional villages embraced their conservation scheme for octopi and Madagascar’s government adopted it in national legislation.

Beyond octopi, Green Turtles, and hammerheads, Blue Ventures has also taken some less photogenic but arguably tasty animals into its protective flippers. It has started the world’s first sea cucumber farming project to help the villages continue supplying the Orient with culinary delicacies without completely depleting the species.

Now Blue Ventures and its network of seafaring communities are exchanging their conservation knowledge with other islands including Fiji and Malaysia. They are also roping in fishing companies as a new ally as they use their research to prove the benefits of conservation for both the sea and the dinner plates that depend on it.

Al Harris MADAGASCAR

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City‑raised Chetna Gala‑Sinha [www.ashoka.org/fellow/chetna] responded to the plight of rural women in India by creating a new bank specially catering to their needs. Surprisingly, the bank’s grand opening was a flop. How could poor laborers afford to take an entire day off work to hike across several villages to reach the bank and open their loan? The transaction costs and societal pressures were too high.

Today, the Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank [www.manndeshi.org] is a powerhouse with over 60,000 clients, three fourths of whom have seen an improvement in their livelihoods since they took out their first loan. It is run entirely by women. And, it is the first and only rural financial institution to receive a cooperative banking license from the Reserve Bank of India. Widows who are normally social outcasts in India were finally able to regain their dignity and even open their own schools. Women once abused by their families have divorced and used the bank’s support to become profitable seamstresses. Laborers caught in the grasp of moneylenders have broken free with Chetna’s low interest loans and smart investments in buffalo and farming.

With the same knowledge of rural Indian society that got her bank off the ground, Chetna established several supporting institutions. One has empowered over 5,000 women to break through a major Indian taboo and become property owners to protect them from losing land in a divorce. Another is the first business school for rural women, which teaches day laborers the skills to start a successful enterprise and allows them to benefit from the agricultural value chain. Those participating in the program have emerged as successful businesswomen and community leaders.

Similar to Muhammad Yunus’s work in Bangladesh, Chetna has inspired a ripple effect in women’s empowerment across rural India. Institutions, credit unions, and other villages are taking their cues from her work. As a result, education and financial empowerment are reaching women near and far.

Chetna Gala‑Sinha INDIA

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World‑famous musician Milton Nascimento visited Western Brazil when Benki Piyãko [www.ashoka.org/fellow/benki] was in his early teens. Even at that age, Benki’s dedication to the Amazon inspired Milton’s work: The musician’s next album featured a song named after Benki that marveled at the potential of Brazil’s indigenous children.

Later, with the voice of a seasoned leader who had grayed his hair on the toils of community advocacy, Benki toured Brazil’s conferences and universities to rally for conservation in indigenous communities. Except that Benki once again did not require age to communicate his message – At the time, he was only 16, and his maturity stunned his audiences and thrust him and his efforts into the national spotlight.

Benki holds the hereditary role of community leader in the border region where Brazil meets Peru. He has united the indigenous regions to resist Peruvian loggers who cross into Brazil and illegally harvest their forests. The regions use Benki’s methodology to inventory their lands and then temporarily refrain from using scarcer resources like wild game and bees. The people he trains to implement the inventory strategy also serve as an indigenous police patrol that has persevered in the face of death threats in their quest to seal the border against Peruvian loggers.

The results of Benki’s efforts have lived up to the impression he left on his audiences in his youth. Through his nonviolent but highly perceptive strategies, he and the peoples of the border have replanted one fourth of their deforested land. He has also established a school for environmental education that teaches indigenous communities about their surroundings and the best tools for conservation. Through his connections and high‑tech public advocacy, he has extended his work to the national level. Benki has lived up to Milton’s lyrics and preserved both the resources and the spirituality of his people.

Benki Piyãko BRAZIL

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As Chernobyl rained radioactive waste on playgrounds across Europe, Ursula [www.ashoka.org/usladek] lay stuck in bed with a broken leg, unable to physically restrain her children and keep them indoors. She and the rest of her town spent days worrying about problems as simple as the safety of their food supplies as they waited for government action. None came.

At a time when ‘green’ was still a color and not a creed, Ursula filled the void with a campaign called Parents for a Nuclear‑Free Future [www.nuclear‑free.com]. Parents for a Nuclear‑Free Future fought nuclear power by using energy‑saving competitions to reduce the town’s need for such power in the first place. Next, Ursula began to move the power sources closer to the town to reduce energy inefficiency. She and her organization restored decaying hydro‑electric plants and even retrofitted swimming pools to produce thermal power. But when all her efforts could not convince the utility monopolies to include environmental incentives in their contracts, Ursula set out to convince the town to ditch the power company. Her organization published a 400‑page long study on the benefits of localizing energy production, got pro‑bono support from fifteen of the country’s best advertising firms, and eventually raised the financial capital and popular support to buy back the grid.

The company she founded [www.ews‑schoenau.de] to localize electricity production revolutionized the meaning of public ownership. Citizens of her town now produce their own electricity at home and sell what they save to the energy grid. Because of the short distance between the plant and the bulb, this electricity loses little potency as it travels the power lines and is three times more efficient than centralized production. With this model, ninety five percent of the power from Ursula’s company is renewable – None is nuclear. As more cities from Germany and abroad replicate her model, she has gotten that much closer to a world where her children will radiate only out of joy and not out of nuclear contamination.

Ursula Sladek GERMANY

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ABOUT ASHOKA

Connect with AshokaWe hope you have enjoyed the stories in this publication and we invite you to join our online communities and become part of the Ashoka community.

CHANGEMAKERS.COMChangemakers is Ashoka’s community of changemakers, a platform for those wishing to make a difference and the organizations that wish to engage with them. Changemakers open‑sources social change ideas by hosting competitions and conversations that matter.

ASHOKA IS SOCIAL!Twitter [http://www.twitter.com/ashokatweets]Facebook [http://bit.ly/AshokaFB]LinkedIN [http://bit.ly/AshokaLI]YouTube [http://www.youtube.com/ashokavideos]

Ashoka was founded on the belief the social entrepreneurs are the most powerful force for changing the world. Our investment in leading entrepreneurs is deliberate – we support the best innovators, who we believe will achieve the greatest impact for systemic social change. These entrepreneurs also serve as role‑models and facilitators for the next generation of social leaders, building an Everyone A Changemakers™ world.

We believe that the synergy between a passionate “who,” an innovative “what,” a sustainable “how,” and a community of changemakers can and will change the world.

SUPPORT OUR WORK!Ashoka would not exist without an amazing network of supporters around the world. Join this community by becoming an Ashoka Member [www.ashoka.org/membership].

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Photo Credit: Janet Jarman

The most significant historical event of our time is the

emergence of social entrepreneurs as the dominant

force for social change around the world and the

newly competitive citizen sector they are creating.

These extraordinary individuals solve critical social

issues on a global scale from every area of need. They

inspire others to adopt and spread their innovations—

demonstrating to all citizens that they, too, have the

potential to be powerful changemakers.