Activate Empathy and Join the Movement to Teach What Matters

At Ashoka, we believe that empathy is central to our ability to imagine (and create) better communities, societies, organizations, companies, and institutions. We believe that empathy is a skill. We believe that empathy is a muscle we all have. And most importantly, we believe that, like all muscles, empathy is strengthened by use and exercise.   

In this backdrop, Ashoka Changemakers® has launched a global competition on Jan19, 2012 titled: Activating Empathy: Transforming Schools to Teach What Matters, where more than $70,000 in cash and in-kind prizes will be awarded to the best ideas, programs, and learning models that ensure children master empathy, enabling them to be effective citizens, leaders, and trailblazers.

Also, with this competition, we are challenging teachers, principals, parents, students, and other innovators to rethink our approach to school culture and curricula. The Activating Empathy competition seeks to spark greater collaboration among efforts such as those that encourage social and emotional development, address bullying in ways that advance understanding of others’ perspectives, promote community diversity and respect for differences, or champion children as real-world problem-solvers. 

As quoted by Danielle Goldstone, Director of Ashoka’s Empathy Initiative, “Empathy is essential for success in a rapidly changing world. We are calling on teachers, administrators, parents, students, and innovators to share their ideas for integrating empathy into the core of the student learning experience.”

The work of Ashoka Fellows and others demonstrates that empathy can be learned, practiced, and measured. For instance, 77 percent of students that are active in Peace First, founded by Ashoka Fellow Eric Dawson, reported reduced levels of fighting, thanks to the program, and Mary Gordon’s Roots of Empathy has seen helping behavior increase in up to 78 percent of children who participated in her program.

Entries submissions are invited until March 30. You can also nominate your favorite learning initiatives and post comments on submitted entries via Changemakers.com/empathy. One “people’s choice” winner will be selected by online community voting, and an expert panel of judges will select the two overall winners. As part of its efforts to create the future of play, Mattel is offering $25,000 in prizes for ideas that enhance empathy through play. DonorsChoose.org will also offer $30,000 of Townsend Press Prizes for the top five solutions by a U.S. public-school teacher, student, or administrator that advance the mastery of empathy in a way that addresses bullying.

Follow the initiative (and join us) on Twitter: #startempathy

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Ashoka Changemakers is a community of action that connects social entrepreneurs around the globe to share ideas, inspire, and mentor each other.  Through its online collaborative competitions and Open Growth platform, Changemakers.com is one of the world’s most robust spaces for launching, discussing, and funding ideas to solve the world’s most pressing social problems. Changemakers builds on Ashoka's three-decade history and belief that we all have the ability to be a Changemaker. Ashoka is the global association of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs—more than 2,500 men and women with system-changing solutions for the world’s most urgent social problems.

www.Changemakers.com

http://empathy.ashoka.org 

Gloria D'Souza on how to grow into a "fruitful" entrepreneur

Gloria D'Souza was honored as an Ashoka ChangemakeHER, Changemakers's inaugural celebration of the world's most influential and inspiring women. 

One of the first three Ashoka Fellows, Gloria de Souza (center left) turned down lucrative business career opportunities to teach. She found an educational system that deadened student’s creativity, motivation to learn, problem-solving capacity, and faith in India. Gloria created and introduced modern experiential education that challenged students to think and to solve problems together instead of chanting facts. Her core contribution has not been to invent modern education but to adapt it to make it attractive to everyone in non-Western settings. Her patient work of adoption, persuasion, training, and organizing spread her impact widely. Eventually the government of India introduced her work into other districts, and UNICEF asked her to help first in Sikkim and then beyond. Other areas of India, in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and the Middle East want Gloria to extend her program to their areas.

Who are your favourite changemakers from history? 
Tarabai Moda is one of my favorites. She gave me my best lessons in an environmental approach that makes sensory awareness the key to learning by observation, enquiry, and discovery—indeed, to learning that lasts. 

Tarabai Modak, who lived from 1892 to 1973, is another. She won the Padmabhushan award in 1962 for her original contribution to the field of education.  She pioneered an approach that enabled impoverished rural children, and their parents as well, to learn from their daily experiences in their environment.  She was 65 years of age, when she set in motion her project to educate adivasis (indigenous peoples in India) through anganwadis (a government sponsored child-care and mother-care center), believing that if children cannot reach school, school should reach them.

My exposure to Tarabai Modak’s ingeniously simple and inexpensive ways of using the learner’s available environment—to enable growth in learning skills and in the internalization of concepts related to maths, science, and geography—was my first experience of an authentic environmental approach to learning.

What are three qualities that make a changemaker successful? 
Let me begin by saying that the word “successful” is often perceived as being “that something that attracts name and fame.”

So, let me replace the word “successful” in your question with the word “fruitful” (which carries a kind of organic growth connotation to it).

The three qualities of a fruitful changemaker are:

• Clarity of vision – what is crying out for change and why?
• Tenacity of purpose – even when unforeseen obstacles interfere with strategic planning, and prevent desired outcomes.
• An open mind – listening to and learning from the wisdom of others, critical and creative thinking (that would envisage necessary detours from earlier plans), and taking the calculated risks that may be called for.

What has made you successful in your work? What specific strategies or tactics did you employ? 

My perception is that Parisar Asha (the organization I was able to set up, thanks to an Ashoka Fellowship) has been fruitful, for the following reasons:

• Parisar Asha has stayed focused on its mission of making quality education an affordable gift, even for the underprivileged, first-generation learner. This reality has resulted in a “spread” that has also enabled Parisar Asha to generate a modest income, thus becoming self-sustaining.
• It has been ever-open to self-evaluation, to learning from feedback, to be being constantly pursuant of updating and refining its processes and products.
• It has, at all times, reminded itself that the only medium of fruitfulness within an organization is respect for teamwork. The contribution of every member is valuable, insofar as interdependence is the key to fruitful functioning.

What are the key elements individuals should keep in mind as they grow as a social entrepreneur?

• Be sensitive to the living condition of all humans whom you encounter in your living environment. Work unceasingly to ensure that the current gaping divide between the haves and the have-nots becomes non-existent.
• Ensure that all that you do revolves around respect for everything that touches your life, living and non-living.
• Be sure never to live by double standards.
• Make an unfailing sense of discipline, transparency and accountability the cardinal principles by which you conduct your life.

Disclaimer: re-posted from www.changemakers.com/blog

Eyewitness Account

CHILD LABOR IN NORTH INDIA’S HAND-WOVEN CARPET SECTOR

by Changemakers Blogger

[Editor's note: This, written by Siddharth Kara, appeared in the Spring 2011 GoodWeave newsletter and is reprinted with permission. GoodWeave works to end child labor in the handmade rug industry and provide educational opportunities for children in South Asia.]

The carpet belt of North India stretches across the state of Uttar Pradesh from the town of Allahabad, east to Bhadohi, ending in the rural reaches beyond Varanasi. I have visited this area several times across the last decade, and despite recent pronouncements by the government of India that child labor no longer exists in the country’s hand-woven carpet sector, there are still innumerable shacks and village huts in this area in which children as young as 10 years of age are coerced to work 16 or more hours a day weaving carpets for export to Europe and North America.

All of these children are poor, low-caste or dalit peasants who are either paid a pittance for their efforts, or are exploited through outright bonded and forced labor. Children are especially prized for carpet weaving, as their nimble fingers and good eyesight are perfectly suited for the intricate motions required to weave carpets that may be 30 to 40 square feet in size, one thread at a time.

At a shelter near Allahabad, I met 34 child slaves who had been freed from two different carpet shacks housing up to 20 children each. One of these young boys, Arjun (a pseudonym), remained deeply traumatized by the violence he suffered in one of these shacks. A dalal (trafficker) paid Arjun’s father 1,000 rupees ($22 US) and promised the child would earn 50 rupees [$1.11 US] per day in carpet weaving, half of which could be sent back to his parents. Arjun was subsequently locked in a shack with several other boys and violently coerced to weave carpets day and night, without ever being paid:

"Most days we were only given one break for eating and one break for toilet. If we tried to sleep, they would beat us. Sometimes they gave us pills so we can work all night. I felt so tired I cut myself often. If the blood from my fingers came on the carpet, they would take green chili and rub it on my wound for punishment," said Arjun.

Though hidden shacks that exploit child slaves in carpet weaving are not uncommon, the majority of exploitation in the carpet sector of North India takes place in small village huts scattered across the region. One village not far west of Varanasi typified what I saw.

The village possessed 34 huts of varying sizes (none larger than 150 square feet), each with around five to six inhabitants, all dalits. Twenty-eight of the huts had carpet looms inside them, usually taking up half of the available living space. Everyone in the village had borrowed money from two brothers who owned all of the land in the area. The reasons for the loans were myriad, to include basic consumption, life ceremonies (weddings and funerals), medicine, hut repairs, and the inheritance of debt from a previous generation.

Once indebted, each of the villagers was put to work as a bonded laborer in three sectors – carpet weaving, agriculture, and brick making. They were paid state stipulated wages (less deductions) by agents of the landowners who visited the villages regularly to ensure work was being completed on schedule. The villagers were not allowed to take any other work or leave the village. In the huts I documented, two or three teenage boys were typically at work behind the looms. In all cases, the huts were cramped and dark with no electricity. There was poor ventilation and a high level of particulate matter from thread dust in the air. Many of the child weavers were suffering from respiratory ailments, spinal deformation, vision ailments, and severe joint pain.

Whether it is in a village hut or a clandestine shack, carpets are still being woven by children in North India.  Poor, landless, disenfranchised and marginally subsistent minority castes and ethnicities remain deeply vulnerable to trafficking and debt bondage. Law enforcement intervention and rule of law are almost entirely absent, allowing wholesale carpet producers to capitalize on the vulnerability of impoverished peasants in countless ways, including the exploitation of low-wage or forced child labor for carpet weaving.

Claims that child labor in the rug industry exists because producers cannot afford to pay full wages are spurious. To the contrary – the typical carpet weaving business model produces more than sufficient profits to pay full and fair wages; however, greed drives exploiters to utilize bonded, forced and underage labor to maximize profits in full violation of the law. In my forthcoming book on bonded labor, I developed profit and loss statements for a “typical” carpet weaving business that employs 30 bonded or child laborers. Such a business can generate $952 in net profits per laborer on a net profit margin of 50.7 percent. At best, nominal or no wages may be paid to the carpet weavers, even though there is ample profit available to compensate them fairly.

This exploitation will not end until we negate the financial incentive for producers who act with impunity. GoodWeave offers a successful, replicable model for transforming the industry, by putting the power into consumers’ hands to hold producers accountable for their actions and by giving them the choice of a child- and slave-labor free purchase.

Siddharth Kara is a Fellow on Human Trafficking at Harvard University and author of Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery. His research into the hand-woven carpet sector of South Asia will be included in his forthcoming book on bonded and child labor in South Asia, to be released in Fall 2012.

Photo credit: U. Roberto Romano

Disclaimer: re-posted from www.changemakers.com/blog. 

Asia #SocEntChat on #innovatehealth: Summary & Excerpts

Ashoka Changemakers and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Pioneer Portfolio together have launched a competition titled 'Innovations For Health: Solutions That Cross Borders' to seek health care solutions from anywhere in the world that have the potential to be applied in other countries to improve health and health care systems.

Ashoka Changemakers hosted the Asia #SocEntchat on Jan 10, 2012 for its Asia twitter community to discuss replicable healthcare models and views on what kinds of health care challenges are shared by communities around the world, in the realm of Innovation for Health competition.  The 2-hour session was attended by more than 100 participants and gathered above 400 tweets from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, HongKong, Israel, Nigeria, Finland, UK and many other countries.  Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Pioneer Portfolio co-moderated parts of the session. Major participation for this online event came from India and Indonesia.

Here are some excerpts from the discussions:

Q 1. What are the examples of public health issues that the Asia communities face?

India

- Access to qualitative and quantitative medical and healthcare facilities in remote rural areas is a challenge. In remote villages people die of TB, Appendicitis, and food poisoning. Filaria identified in 13 districts of 7 endemic states, - AP, Bihar, Kerala, Orissa, TN, UP, WB, covering about 41 million people. In the last five years, Japanese Encephalitis caused by flavivirus group has acquired serious magnitude in 11 states.

- Common Health issues discussed were infant mortality, tuberculosis control and control of diseases caused due to mosquito bites.

- One of the common public health issues is level of awareness and sanitation in remote rural areas.

-  Yet another public health hazard is disposal of hospital waste that poses threat to general masses.    Contaminated cotton is often used for ear buds. Small pathological containers are often used as packing container for spices by roadside vendors.

- Implementation of Government’s medical aid for general masses is not very effective and is full of layers of corruption. Except for Polio Eradication, other government schemes on healthcare has not been successful (There are iodine, vitamin A related government schemes also, never saw in action). There is a Govt TB treatment program, but poor villagers from remote areas are made to pay for it.

- Many unregulated healthcare providers present huge challenges especially in remote areas for low income group population. Many government doctors are engaged in private practice and lower-ranking staff are engaged in the racket of injecting saline injections and charging patients for it.

- Punjab province has one of most extensive health infrastructure.

Pakistan

- Pakistan is currently facing issues like quality, accessibility & coverage of services especially MNCH services. Some new public health problems like Dengue has also been observed.

- Pakistan is still battling with polio. UNICEF is undertaking a study to find fact and cause.

Indonesia

- Public health issues in Indonesia include accessing public health facility, reproductive health and sanitation.

- Indonesia has a high rate of malnutrition due to improper nourishment of children.

Nigeria

-  The problem of access and quality is rampant in Nigeria but rural areas are the worse hit.

-  In must rural areas in Nigeria, hospitals are without electricity, water, mattresses, bedsheet and other needs.

- Changemakers are faced with huge corruption, politicizing health schemes and lack of funds.

Q 2. What are some obstacles to the scaling/expansion of viable solutions to other countries/regions?

- Lack of coordination between various implementation organisations, especially between donor & government.

- Scaling or expansion also largely depends on the country's public health policy.  

- Lack of proper documentation and dearth of coordinating platform for sharing information.

- Inadequate public-private engagement or partnerships.

- One of the big challenges to expansion is availability of skilled human resource.

- Socio-economic inequality has been a crucial obstacle in health care in India

Q 3. What is the role of social entrepreneurs in improving health processes? Are there some examples of such initiatives?

 -  Apollo recently launched the telemedicine service. It has health insurance that costs 2.5 US cents/day for a family of 5, for a village in Andhra Pradesh of 50,000 people.

- The main focus of Cancer buster community in Indonesia is providing balance information about cancer for child patients and their parents & assisting those who suffered.

- Gram Vikas (which literally means 'Village Development') is an organization that has been working since 1979, to bring about sustainable improvement in the quality of life including use and management of natural resources.

- Mr. Durojaiye launched his company after noticing that even though 20 million people lived in Lagos, there were very few public toilets, thus creating a health hazard. His mobile toilets are now built locally with local materials.

- One of the key health focuses of NGOs in rural Morocco is to reduce newborns death and congenital disability. 

-  Barefoot College, started by Bunker Roy in 1972, has made innumerable school dropouts in villages into “barefoot” doctors

- Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy and Thulasiraj D Ravilla established Aravind Eye Hospital in 1976. It has treated more than 2.3 million outpatients and carried out more than 2, 70,000 operations in 2006-07, most of them free.

- Narayana Hrudayalaya Institute of Medical Sciences & its network of hospitals run by Devi Shetty perform 20 free surgeries a day.

- Successful models can only have the maximum effect when Govt and Social Entrepreneurs work to complement each other.

- Collaborative approach has been adopted by people in South Halmahera, Indonesia to eradicate malaria.

Q 4. Are there health innovations you have seen around the world that you would like to see in your country?

-  Better e-systems in South African state hospitals that improves efficiency of hospital administration.

- Cambodian rural areas have health counsellors on motorbikes for tuberculosis (mobile DOTS).

-  Preventing low birth weight with chewing gum done by Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. The team hopes to roll out chewing gum or gummy snacks containing polyols to try to reduce early births in Malawi.

-  Stopping HIV transmission with a vacuum pack @ Duke University from Durham, N.C

-  Mobile heart monitoring and data gathering @ Save the Children Federation from Westport, Connecticut.

- Isha Foundation's Mobile Health Clinics tours surrounding villages.

- An innovative alternative to forceps @ The World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. The devices is a film-like polyethylene like open plastic bag wrapped around the head of the baby, sealed to help extraction during complications. WHO says Odon could be safer and easier than forceps, and would require lesser training.

- Diagnosing with paper stamps @Diagnostics for All, Inc. from Cambridge, Massachussets. Diagnostics for all created 2 postage stamp-sized paper tools to detect anaemia, hypertensive disorders for high-risk pregnancy.

- Ashoka Fellow Anna Alisjahbana has also created vacuum foot pump for birthing (Frontiers for Health Indonesia).

- Telemedicine is also gaining wide popularity.

- Coupled with mobile health units, telediagnostics could be a great solution for rural areas.

- In Pune (India ), Project for sweepers named, START YOUR BACKWARD COUNTING BACTERIA- HERE WE COME.

Q 5. For someone starting health initiative in your country, would you have some advice?

-  Mobile applications are useful only when there is high penetration and use of the applications.

- Newly trained midwives are providing basic healthcare to over 20,000 mothers and children monthly in 5 districts in Afghanistan.

- A woman health officer has motivated sweeper community of Kalyani (Kolkata) to shun open defecation & start using toilets. These sweepers now use theatre to spread awareness and motivate fellow-sweepers to maintain good hygiene and sanitation.

- The Yeshasvini Cooperative Farmers Health Scheme is a young but successful microinsurance scheme in Karnataka.

- Stagnant water is the agent for spreading many diseases. Planting LOTUS in such regions helps to remove stagnant water.

- PlayAble believe that INCLUSIVE SPORTS has an amazing power to create awareness.

- In the Maoist belt of Orissa, where doctors fear to venture, an NGO named ASHA serves a deprived community with healthcare solutions.

- A community radio initiative in Bihar enables locals to voice their problems and raises awareness on mother/child health.

- SHALOM Delhi is an HIV/AIDS project, providing care and support to people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs) in and around Delhi. Their Transgender Project Aims to bring healing and care to eunuchs through care, nutritional & medical support and health education.

Useful Resources: 

@Feature | Blockchangemakers Enter Innovation for Health competition at http://www.changemakers.com/innovations4health

@Feature | BlockCHMInnovations Check out our Highlights Report from 2011 which shows new innovations and key trends from around the world! http://healthmarketinnovations.org/sites/healthmarketinnovations.org/files/CHMI-report-120211-digital.pdf

@meryemefaris @CHMInnovations @changemakers More promising innovations can be found in our free online database! http://healthmarketinnovations.org/programs

@EnnoventSEbot #socentchat The World Bank http://wbi.worldbank.org/developmentmarketplace/ encourages funding dev projects through social entrepreneurship.... - 3:15 PM Jan 10th, 2012

@Feature | Blockbridge_ofa @changemakers_id @changemakers Generating data to measure impact of programs http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/09/melinda-gates-answers-your-questions/ via @nytimes #socentchat #innovatehealth -2:50 PM Jan 10th, 2012

@Feature | Blockudayusuf Check our website : http://cancerbustercommunity.org/ <-- @changemakers #socentchat, we focused on motivate patients and parents who suffered cancer -2:44 PM Jan 10th, 2012

Quotable tweets:

@Feature | Blocklahwahleh RT @statweestics: #socentchat is getting popular, +1200% the last hour : http://t.co/QXuv3JwM -2:33 PM Jan 10th, 2012

@Feature | Block ableinlife Listen to the people and communities first! Find out what they really need and not what the government thinks they need! #socentchat -3:34 PM Jan 10th, 2012

@Feature | Block AkilaCharagi Mobile applications are useful only when there is high penetration and use of the apps. Can poor people afford the mob apps? #SocEntChat -3:48 PM Jan 10th, 2012

@Feature | BlockHinaHazrat Please look into the health of EUNUCHS, they are even not allowed to enter hospitals- talking in broad sense! #socentchat -3:49 PM Jan 10th, 2012

@Feature | BlockHinaHazrat HEAVEN ON EARTH is a project which is working on EUNUCH in Pakistan!

@Feature | BlockHinaHazrat Next time, Jennifer Ali will be joining us, she is the leading Health Change Agent in Pakistan! #socentchat - 4:10 PM (IST), Jan 10th, 2012

Feature | Block@CHMInnovations We have found that a health market place with many unregulated healthcare providers presents huge challenges #globalhealth #SocEntChat -2:14 PM Jan 10th, 2012

Feature | Block@CHMInnovations Thanks for the great #innovatehealth chat! Well worth getting up in the middle of the night. Now back to bed! #SocEntChat - 4:10 PM (IST), Jan 10th, 2012

@Feature | Block pioneerrwjf Thanks 2 those who participated in @changemakers #SocEntChat! Learn about #innovatehealth solutions that cross borders http://t.co/Vr5Ub2Kq - 4:10 PM (IST), Jan 10th, 2012

Join Ashoka Changemakers on January 10, 2012, at 2pm IST for Asia #SocEntChat on Innovations for Health.

Ashoka Changemakers and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Pioneer Portfolio together have launched a competition titled 'Innovations For Health: Solutions That Cross Borders' to seek health care solutions from anywhere in the world that have the potential to be applied in other countries to improve health and health care systems.

If you know about any healthcare models that could be replicated elsewhere or have views on healthcare to share or are interested in knowing about what kinds of health care challenges are shared by communities around the world - Join Ashoka Changemakers on January 10, 2012, for Asia #SocEntChat on Innovations for Health.

Join @changemakers from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Indian Standard Time (IST) — that's 3:30 to 5:30 a.m. EST — to participate in a Twitter-based discussion with innovators, social entrepreneurs, and enthusiasts about health care solutions that have the potential to be applied in other countries in order to improve health and health care. This is your chance to make your voice heard or to ask experts in the field your most burning questions.

What is a #SocEntChat and how does it work? 

A #SocEntChat is a real-time, Twitter-based discussion about social entrepreneurship that focuses on specific issues, areas, themes, and events. It is designed for current and aspiring social entrepreneurs, funders, journalists, and supporters to share ideas, discuss the state of the field, identify the latest innovations, and pinpoint areas requiring deeper exploration.

Joining the conversation is easy. Just log-in to Twitter at 2 p.m. on January 10, 2012. Then:

• Use the #SocEntChat hashtag to make your comments visible in the stream. Use search.twitter.com or an application like Tweetdeck (www.tweetdeck.com) or thwirl (www.thwirl.com) to follow the #SocEntChat hashtag and keep up with the conversation.
• Introduce yourself and take a minute to get to know the other chatters when you join.
• Send your questions to @changemakers without the hash tag (to keep them out of the stream) so they can be considered for this conversation.

Please remember to use the #SocEntChat hashtag, stay on topic, be respectful, and have fun! And be sure to invite your friends and followers to join the discussion, too; the best way is to post a tweet like this one:

Join @changemakers on Jan 10 at 2pm IST for a #SocEntChat on health innovations that cross borders! Spread the word & save the date! #innovatehealth

Looking forward to catching you on Twitter!

Team of @changemakers in Asia

Fighting for Tigers, Giving Animals a Voice

Prerna Singh Bindra was honored as an Ashoka ChangemakeHER, Changemakers's inaugural celebration of the world's most influentual and inspiring women. Find her fellow honorees' voices here.

Prerna Singh Bindra is a journalist and lobbyist for conservation. She has consulted with Friends of Women's World Banking to make microfinance more accessible to rural women. She edits the conservation journal Tigerlink and received the Carl Zeiss Award for her work in wildlife conservation.

★★★

Who are your favorite female changemakers from history?

1. Rachel Carson’s seminal work Silent Spring helped spark the environmental movement as we know it today. She showed the world what pesticides have poisoned our world—the presence of toxic chemicals in water and on land, in our soil and food, and its impact on other creatures of the earth.
   
   Rachel warned about the presence of DDT in mother’s milk. She faced the wrath of the pesticide industry, but her work resulted in the banning of DDT and enactment of environment regulations.
   
   Rachel Carson showed the world the power of the pen, and what one woman can do—to change the world.
2. Dr. Jane Goodall, the world’s foremost primatologist and conservationist is my hero. She went into the jungles of Africa (Gombe National Park, Tanzania) to study wild chimpanzees in 1960. Her research and books changed the way we looked at our next of kin. She is courageous, compassionate, and a pioneer in her field.
3. All those woman who fight against all the odds to stand up for their rights, such as Bhanwari Devi, who was gang raped by the upper-castes in a village in Rajasthan, India. She risked her life and faced social boycott to fight for justice and bring her rapists to book.

What are the three qualities that make a changemaker successful?

1. A sense of passion and conviction. A sense of “I believe.”
   
   It is when you believe in something that you find the courage to follow your convictions, in spite of the odds.
   
   When I started to write—I worked for a national newspaper writing about films, shopping, fashion, and theater—about wildlife and conservation issues, the editor scoffed. “Nobody would read that stuff,” he said. “Do it in your own time, with your own resources.”
   
   There was little room for the environment in the popular press then, but I persisted. I thought of new ways to present a story and packaged it well. I got meaty stuff: I essentially gave the editor little choice. The stories made it to page one, and the editor of a rival daily said they now had to employ an environment reporter too.
2. You have to empower other people to recognize their skills and expertise, to tap it—encourage it. Knowledge is meant to be shared, not locked in or used for personal glory.
3. A vision. And ways to work out things . . . any which way.

What has made you successful in your work? What specific strategies or tactics did you employ?
I haven’t—consciously—employed any particular strategies in my work.  There aren’t set formulas for success except hard work and that little “extra” something that you put in.

I have some mantras I go by: I never give up. In my line of work—conservation—there are many failures. In times of despair, I liken it to that of an onco-surgeon: you do your bit, and you might delay the inevitable, but more often than not you lose the battle—the cancer of greed will ravage the forest.

Even if you lobby and campaign against a road that is cutting into tiger habitat—it may happen, but it’s a murky battle. You are up against big business and politicians—there are powerful lobbies at work.

But you don’t give up . . . you battle on. Because somewhere, sometimes, and without even knowing it, you will have made a difference. And that one success that you achieved makes it worthwhile.

For example, an issue that I raised about frontline staff not getting wages in a tiger reserve resulted—eventually—in funds being released for the reserve. I was the first journalist to go into Simlipal Tiger Reserve in Orissa (no official had been in either) after it was attacked by Naxals, and to draw attention to it. That was followed up by the efforts of a lot of other people that resulted in the park being taken up us a special initiative by the central government. Today, despite many problems, the park has seen some positive changes.

One of my stories that focused on tourism infrastructure was the impetus for a survey around tiger reserves to study the impact of tourism on tigers and their habitat.  Now there are guidelines and rules for tourism around wildlife habitats.

This is what makes it all worthwhile: the small changes that you can help make. And it’s not just a concrete action—it’s also in the way of thinking.

The cause is greater than the self.

Work with others and work as a team. Sure, there will be differences and divergent viewpoints, but strength lies in unity.

If a story makes an impact, or you can lobby successfully, it is always a collective effort—a local organization provides information, the staff provides input and acts on the ground, an NGO or an official will take your story further, a lawyer might file a PIL.

Don’t be half-hearted in your work, it gets you nowhere. Put in your best, do your best, and you cannot go wrong. You will succeed.

It’s clichéd, but it’s true: animals don’t have a voice or a vote, so I am their voice (I think from their point of view, they are my constituency). I believe that they have as much right to live, and die, in dignity as any human being does. They were born free. They should live free.

Knowing what you do now, what one thing would you have done differently in your life? 

I would have written a diary—a record of my life (such as it is!). But I get lazy by the end of the day. I get tired of the battles, so I lose putting pen to paper (again!) and capturing so many of the wonderful things I did, the places I have seen, and the people I have met.

What is your superpower? Or what one superpower would you want to have? 

My superpower?  In Julie Andrews’ words: I have confidence in me! And in what I do.

And the set of values my family instilled in me.

The joy I feel when I am in the forest, at one with nature. Watching a tiger or an elephant calf at play. Listening to the sound of the stream, the robin singing its love song. Watching a rainbow streak across a sky, a leaf fall slowly on the forest floor, a squirrel making a nest. Ours is a beautiful world.

The superpower I want to have: a magic wand, I guess, to remove all suffering and peace in the world, etc.!

Seriously though, I pray to God to give me the strength to help make a difference; to stay positive when things are going wrong; to deal with the loss when we cannot make a difference.
 
What advice would you have now for your former 15-year old self? 
As a 15-year-old, I did not know what direction my life would take. I didn’t have any elaborate plan. I just loved animals, and it was this emotive connection and a strong sense of injustice that I felt, on their behalf, that led me up this path.

I’m glad that I didn’t plan my life. I’m glad that I followed my heart, even though it wasn’t the easiest thing in the world.

In another sense, it would have been good if I had aspired for more, and realized the potential—the potential of what is possible with hard work and courage. This is something most girls need to know.

What advice? I don’t know—maybe to have used the opportunities I had, and not pass them over.

Maybe I would have told myself to have more fun. I was too serious a teen!

How do you envision your field to be different in 30 years? What big changes do you hope to see?

It’s just going to get more difficult. The threats to wildlife and pressures on their habitat are accelerating by the day with the rapidly expanding population and raised aspirations and lifestyles.

Let’s take India: we have a population of 1.2 billion now and it is increasing by the second—it will be 1.6 billion by 2050. India is growing, and it wants to grow faster. Environment and wildlife are the casualties in this mad pursuit of a double-digit GDP.

For growth you need power, largely to be fueled by coal. There is a constant pressure to free forests for coal. Will we be able to withstand this pressure? The axe will fall not only on the forests, but also on communities that depend on it. And on us, because our forests are the catchment of our rivers.

Conserving forests is crucial in this era of climate change. Forests play a key role in sequestering and storing carbon.

The battle is getting more complex—more difficult. How do we marry this obsession with growth to ecological concerns. It will get more polarized by the day. How do we protect wildlife and conserve resources against this onslaught?

I don’t know about 30 years—we have to counter the tide, starting yesterday.

My hope lies in the growing army of young crusaders who feel this sense of wrong in the way we treat the planet. They are the inheritors of the earth, and they are working in myriad, wondrous ways to help heal the world. A child took up odd jobs—shoe polishing and car washing included—to donate to tiger conservation. Another has set up a website to acquaint kids her age (around ten) with environmental issues, and so on.

How do you know when the time is right to act?  

Any time is a good time to act. The only thing I tell myself: think before you act. But sometimes you’ve got to just act. If you think too much, you won’t take the plunge (it’s like marriage, you know—if you think hard, the downside starts showing).

Don’t wait for others to act. Don’t assume it is someone else’s responsibility—the government, NGOs—whoever. You act. Your act will be the mobilizing force.

The time to act is now: from small changes (I know someone who fought relentlessly to stop the use of pesticides and to switch to neem and other herbal alternatives in their society garden), to tackling the big issues like water conservation.

What are key elements that individuals should keep in mind as they grow as a social entrepreneur?

• Have a complete, consistent commitment to your idea, and to taking that idea forward at the right moment.
• People are the key—having the right people on board.
• Seize opportunities.

You need to invent new approaches to a problem. You need to impact the thinking of the people—plant a thought process, an idea. I felt the pressing need to connect the concerns of wildlife and conservation issues to the people, the policymakers, the politicians, and the bureaucrats. They had to be foremost in their minds—not relegated or classed as something that does not impact your life.

You must highlight issues—whether it is hacking a city’s green lungs, or a road cutting through elephant forests, or a mine pillaging tiger habitat and fertile fields—and bring them into the public domain.

I used the media to bring issues of conservation to the fore—to ensure that these issues have a wider and diverse audience. I used words to reach out; to tell stories that touch a chord. Media became my tool to build public opinion and to be part of a pressure lobby.

And you must keep innovating—exploring each and every opportunity to reach your goal. Currently, I have changed direction a bit. While I continue to write, I am working with governments and NGOs on conservation issues. My strategy has been modified a bit, but the goal remains.

What issue do you think women of the future will be working on in 50 years?
I don’t think they will be all that much different from what they are working on today. Women have come a long way, but the battle for personal freedom will continue.

I think one of the major issues that women will work on is preserving natural resources. Women are the hardest hit when natural resources are scarce. Though I am mainly talking about women in the rural landscape, in the future this scarcity is going to cross the rural-urban and the rich-poor divide. It will affect all of us—be it water or fuel.

I think we will have more women coming forward to work on these issues.

Woman is a nurturer, and I believe she will have a major role to play in healing the planet.

What have you learned from younger generations? 

I learnt to take more risks. To—occasionally—throw caution to the winds; to be spontaneous.

One child taught me the import and impact of what one does. I used to write a nature column for children. It was just something I did, at times. It was merely a deadline to be met until I met this little boy who had stuck all my nature columns in his scrapbook, and would eagerly await the next one. We talked about why the sparrows were missing in his garden, why my dog followed me everywhere, and why tigers need to be saved.

I had planted a seed, and I never knew it.

What does a woman of the future look like?

More confident. More empowered. In more key leadership positions and governance.

Prerna Singh Bindra

Disclaimer: re-published from www.changemakers.com/blog

Mobile Gaming for Change: AN INTERVIEW WITH HILMI QURAISHI

by Changemakers Blogger

Photo via jackol

Recently, Changemakers reported on innovations in health, including Hilmi Quraishi’s mobile phone games that give teens points for knowing more about HIV/AIDS and prevention. Changemakers sat down with Quraishi to discuss his work founding and leading ZMQ Software Systems, which has created dozens of games and technology solutions for the social sector, including ones that raise awareness about climate change and that address the UN’s Millennium goals, such as sanitation, clean water, and children’s health. 

Changemakers: What was the idea behind ZMQ?

 

Quraishi: ZMQ is almost 10 years old now. Around 2004 or 2005, India was experiencing an epidemic of  HIV/AIDS. It was a huge issue then, and still is in both India and the developing world. In our search for how to reach people with information about the disease, we started developing mobile-based games on HIV/AIDS. 

 

We realized that popular games, like cricket or Who Wants to be Millionaire, could be converted into simple, user-friendly mobile games that also carried messages about HIV/AIDS facts and prevention. The games were done in 16 different languages spoken in India (including Hindi and other regional languages).  

 

Later on, we were able to partner with a popular mobile operator, Reliance, to have these games distributed for free to all their subscribers. We made it free, because our intent was to create mass awareness of a very serious health issue. After three years, we were reaching almost  42 million handsets.

 

Changemakers: How did you expand into Africa?

 

Quraishi: After our initial success, we replicated the model from India in East Africa — Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The games also dealt with HIV/AIDS awareness, and the project was a big hit there as well. 

 

Since then, we have used mobile games (offered either at a very low cost or for free) as a medium of communication, and today we are a part of a number of government and social sector campaigns in India and Africa, including government campaigns dealing with tuberculosis, family planning, climate change, maternal health, child health, pollution, and hygiene. 

 

We are now able to reach almost 115 million people with our various campaigns; these games can be played not only in India and East Africa, but also in West Africa, Mali, and Senegal.  

 

Changemakers: Can you share a bit more about how these games work to spread awareness? What’s an example of a way that a game can be used to generate meaningful change?

 

Quraishi: Games embedded with messages are one way of really bombarding people with information about HIV/AIDS. We track the scores earned by users and their gaming behavior to determine whether the games have successfully changed their level of awareness. 

 

In terms of the how the games work, some games are simple and fast, but addictive. These attract novice users. Other popular games like cricket, available on mobiles in India, or football for Africa, have strategic messaging connected to each of the user’s actions. In the cricket game, scoring a run also gets you a message about how you can prevent HIV/AIDS. 

 

We even have roleplaying games that highlight decision-making and real-life learning. For example, a player might take on the character of a girl coming from a village to the city. Maybe she meets her cousins and invites them to go to a party, et cetera. Through the game, we can invite the user to roleplay decision-making in situations they might encounter in the real world.

 

And then through the mobile games, we are able to create and map what I call “virtual behavior change.” At the beginning of each game, the user must first answer a questionnaire with 5 yes-or-no questions on, for example, HIV/AIDS. Once you’ve play the game 10 times (or for a month), we are able to see how your answers have changed — whether you’ve gotten more questions right, etcetera.

 

It’s virtual learning. It’s difficult to gauge how a person would behave in real life, but in terms of knowledge, users do get information that makes them more aware, and the games do combat ignorance. It’s the first step to making positive behavioral changes.

 

Changemakers: Are there other ways that mobile technology can be used to deliver the information that people need? 

 

Quraishi: Mobile applications are a new opportunity. For example, we are running a campaign in India targeting women who are expectant mothers. With support from the Ministry of Health, all expectant mothers who are mobile users and registered with the government health program will be getting messages on a weekly basis about the “dos and don’ts” of pregnancy, such as nutrition, medicine, and tests. 

 

We also give them a very small graphical image of the baby growing inside on a weekly basis. It is another mode of giving information, where the majority of our content is basically in iconic language. You can download audio narration, because 80 to 85 percent of women in the villages are either illiterate or semi-literate. So icons can be very powerful tools to provide information on critical health issues. 

 

Changemakers: What exciting changes are you seeing on the horizon or do you feel need to happen in the citizen media space?

 

Quraishi: Citizen media is a very powerful tool, although its usage has come under scrutiny. At the moment, we are seeing this as something very positive, but whether it could be used for something negative is uncertain. At this moment its power is that it can change anything in one instant — as happened in Morocco, Egypt, and also in Libya.

 

Mobile phones can really change the system. We’re also working on another game to help make people aware of the election process and their rights. It’s just a pilot on a district scale at the moment, but we are working on getting 75 ministers of India to participate to in a public-polling iniatitive. The game allows people to vote on the ministers’ performance. We also have a specialized campaign for women to encourage those in rural areas to vote from their homes using the mobile phones.

 

Changemakers: Thanks so much taking the time to speak. Do you have any final thoughts or hopes for our Citizen Media competition?

 

Quraishi: Citizen Media has huge potential. The Changemakers competition is going to surface a lot of newcomers – all new innovations happen basically at the lower end, by start-ups, so I am sure it will be a very good launching pad for those who are doing very innovative work which may not have been noticed yet. So this platform will be the chance for start-ups to debut their citizen media ideas and innovations in a global forum.