Category: English posts

Power with Purpose

Five women who are really changing the world. Through their action, they are tackling some of the world’s most pressing problems. Through their attitudes and words, they are illuminating the path for others.

Devex, the media platform for the global development community, has announced yesterday the names of the five women leading their 2016 Power with Purpose list, a leadership recognition for the most influential women.

I would like to present them here, each of them through some of their inspiring words :

Purpose is to have a guiding star, a very clear North, that brings together everything that you do in life. Never work unless you’re passionate about it, do not compromise your passion.

Christiana Figueres, a Costa Rican diplomat, is the woman behind the Paris Climate Conference agreement.

 

Embracing the gentleness that comes with being a woman is actually even more powerful.

Eleni Gabre-Madhin, an Ethiopian economist, created the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX), a tool that allows Ethiopian farmers to be linked to the global economy and get a fair price for their crops.

 

Brace for change, and when change comes, grab it ! It is an opportunity, even if it is a little scary. Go with it !

Kristalina Georgieva is a Bulgarian economist who is now European Commissioner for Budget and Human Resources, who has dedicated her life to tackle humanitarian crisis trough the world.

 

You need to have focus to to whatever it is you want to do, and to have clarity.

Fayeeza Naqvi is a Pakistani philanthropist, co-founder of the Aman Foundation, who launched the AmanAmbulance Service in Karachi, to ensure timely and high quality ambulance services in a city where fifteen percent of severely injured children used to die en route to medical facilities.

 

Keep trying to make a difference ! Whatever happens to you, you know you went down fighting !

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is Nigerian economist who fought corruption and poverty as Nigeria’s finance minister, and now fights for the 19 millions children still in need of vaccines.

 

 

Devex is the media platform for the global development community. A social enterprise that connects and informs 600,000+ development, health, humanitarian, and sustainability professionals through news, business intelligence, and funding & career opportunities.

The Frontline of Climate Change: The Heroic Struggle of Anote Tong, President of Kiribati

The Frontline of Climate Change: The Heroic Struggle of Anote Tong, President of Kiribati

With one of the lowest carbon-emission footprints in the world, the Pacific islands nation of Kiribati, is one of the first places to confront sea level rise and other devastating real-life consequences of climate change.

Anote Tong, President of the Republic of Kiribati, is engaged in a “David against Goliath” struggle, telling his people’s story all around the world and looking for solutions that will allow the survival of his country as a Nation. “Could we live in floating islands? How to relocate people without losing our identity?”.

Listen to Anote Tong, an extraordinary man and leader, in a personal conversation with TED Curator Chris Anderson.

Arctic disaster : when video is the most powerful call to action

Arctic disaster : when video is the most powerful call to action

Participants to the the annual meeting of AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) last saturday, gasped as they were shown this one minute video compressing 25 years of satellite data of Arctic Ocean ice retreat. When climate change, and as its most severe part of it, Arctic warming and ice retreat, has been a scientific evidence for years, a simple time lapse video is able to provoke a shock in a meeting of people that have probably read loads of reports and are already aware of the situation. This video is powerful call to action and a tool to raise awareness about the real situation of Arctic ice retreat.

More information:
Science : http://news.sciencemag.org/climate/2014/02/video-polar-disaster-movie
AAAS : http://www.aaas.org/
NOAA : http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/

Thank you Mandela

“As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.”
― Nelson Mandela

“We don’t generate pity, we generate employment!”

“We don’t generate pity, we generate employment!”

In 2010 I created the whole content of a campaign called “Harmony Peoples” for the Red Cross, on economic alternatives of indigenous people in Ecuador and Bolivia. At that time I met in Ecuador Rosa Guaman, an extraordinary woman, community leader and director of Jambi Kiwa, a company that produces, processes and exports medicinal plants worldwide. I was dazzled by Rosa’s words, that expressed the spirit a successful development project must have, but I also felt impressed by her capacity to analyze the effects of consumerism, on our environment of course, but also on our minds.

I have now added English subtitles to the video of Rosa’s interview, so if you are a development professional, or simply a person who has doubts about our own development model’s sustainability, don’t lose a word of Rosa’s interview, she is inspiring! (5 min. video – clic on “captions” icon under the image to activate subtitles).

The business success of a group of women

“We don’t generate pity, we generate employment!”. Rosa Guamán, managing director, Jambi Kiwa.
“We don’t generate pity, we generate employment!”. Rosa Guamán, managing director, Jambi Kiwa.

Jambi Kiwa was born as a cooperative founded by women led by Rosa Guaman, in order to grow, process and sell medicinal and aromatic plants. It brings together more than 600 families in the Chimborazo region that benefit from better economic income from the sale of products in the domestic and international market through fair trade networks. In 2003, Jambi Kiwa won the “Successful women-led ventures Latin American Award” (REPEM, Uruguay).

What has made these women so successful? The use of specific indigenous knowledge, traditional forms of community activity, a strong spirit of resistance and an extraordinary vision.

An economic, social, cultural, health and ecological project.

In the indigenous approach of development, economic benefits are not considered “development” if they imply imbalances in other areas of life and society or in the environment. So the aims of Jambi Kiwa are not only income generation for the families, but also:

Jambi Kiwa's processing factory in Riobamba. The entire process of plant's growing and transformation is natural. The products are made on the basis of Andean medicine recipes.
Jambi Kiwa’s processing factory in Riobamba. The entire process of plant’s growing and transformation is natural. The products are made on the basis of Andean medicine recipes.
– Recovering and reasserting the worth of the ancestral knowledge of plant growing: organic and quality production of endemic crop only.
– Recover and reassert the worth of the Andean Medicine : Jambi Kiwa is also al school of Andean Medicine.
– Educate and alphabetize and train partners coming from rural areas.
– Respect gender equality and children.
– Preserve the environment by eradicating deforestation and clearing by fire.
– Encourage efforts, mutual aid and equitable involvement of its partners in development efforts.

Changing lives with a lamp: Ewans Wadongo brilliant idea.

Changing lives with a lamp: Ewans Wadongo brilliant idea.

I would like to resume posting in this blog with this beautiful and inspiring project.

If you don’t know it yet, put your sunglasses on, you are going to be dazzled! Young Kenyan engineer Ewans Wadongo brings together intelligence, creativity and beauty, in a very simple and sustainable way to fight poverty: a solar lamp.

If like me you have fallen in love with Ewans’ idea, you can act by:
>> Like Just One Lamp on Facebook

>> Donate to the project (before the end of the year) through globalgiving.org website
>> Like and Share this post around you through Likes and Share buttons at the bottom of this post.

References
En español : http://cultura.elpais.com/cultura/2013/10/18/actualidad/1382116066_939172.html
In english :
– http://sustainbydesign.wordpress.com/2013/05/02/a-bright-future-the-mwangabora-lamp/
– http://www.pad-fairs.com/london/en/wadongo-lanterns/

Digital humanitarism

Digital humanitarism

Social media, mobile devices and other digital tools open a whole range of possibilities for the humanitarian action. Paul Conneally, public communications manager for the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, is giving excellent examples here of how the humanitarian action can benefit from new technologies.
TEDxRC2, Geneva, november 2011