#plugintodevin - Your Mark on the World with Devin Thorpe

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin.

Akhil Iyer now leads UNICEF”s global polio eradication effort; he’s spent most of his three-decade career fight polio. He acknowledges that ending polio has proven more difficult than hoped and expected, but he remains optimistic about eradication.

Akhil also shared his thoughts on vaccine safety, noting that millions of people are alive because of vaccines. Speaking to Rotarians who may be concerned about vaccine safety or effectiveness, he said there are millions of children who are not paralyzed today precisely because they have been vaccinated.

Learning from heading up the polio fight in Afghanistan, his last assignment, Akhil remains convinced that we can eradicate polio even there. He notes that the Taliban--nervous about vaccinations for a variety of reasons--has been willing to accommodate vaccination campaigns.

Be a hero! Join the elite group of supporters who ensure that stories like this can continue to be shared! Visit heroes4good.org to become a hero now.

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin.

A generation ago, most people in the U.S. knew a polio survivor. Today, there are so few left, there are very few so many people can’t name an acquaintance, let alone family member, who has been afflicted.

Ina Pinkney was infected in 1944, during World War II, more than a decade before the Salk Vaccine became available, stemming the annual summer epidemics that paralyzed communities almost like it paralyzed children.

Because parents didn’t know how the virus spread or why it did only in summer months, parents avoided many summer activities from ice cream to swimming pools.

Ina shared her touching story with me on World Polio Day, an annual event hosted by Rotary and the other members of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. You can watch it in the video player at the top of this article.

Be a hero! Join the elite group of supporters who ensure that stories like this can continue to be shared! Visit heroes4good.org to become a hero now.

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin.

Carol Pandak, the director of PolioPlus for Rotary International, acknowledged that the fight against polio is difficult. Rooting out polio from conflict regions in Afghanistan especially is challenging. Still, she says, she is not discouraged.

Rotary has increased its annual fundraising commitment from $35 million to $50 million per year to make finishing the job possible. Carol says, “We made a commitment to the world and we haven’t completed it, yet.”

“We hope the end is coming soon,” Carol adds.

Be a hero! Join the elite group of supporters who ensure that stories like this can continue to be shared! Visit heroes4good.org to become a hero now.

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin.

Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2D9ZPhx.

Jed Emerson, 59, widely recognized in the impact investing community, recently published a new book, The Purpose of Capital: Elements of Impact, Financial Flows and Natural Being, that calls into question some of the fundamental precepts of the movement, the very underpinnings of capitalism.

Impact investors seek to solve social problems from poverty to climate change by making investments that will not only mitigate the ills but will provide a financial return.

Early in his book, Emerson observes, “There is a central challenge in this effort to ‘do well and do good’ in that at its core is a commitment to making use of the very financial tools that have failed to create a just, equitable and sustainable world in the pursuit of creating a more just, equitable and sustainable world.”

He’s suggesting we may be treating burn victims with fire because we depend on the light it provides. He may also be questioning our sanity by suggesting we're hoping to solve a problem by continuing to do much the same thing that created it.

Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2D9ZPhx.

Be a hero! Join the elite group of supporters who ensure that stories like this can continue to be shared! Visit heroes4good.org to become a hero now.

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin.

The Johnson & Johnson “credo” was written 75 years ago. Putting the needs of doctors, nurses and patients first has guided the company ever since.

CaringCrowd, sponsored by J&J, is an example of credo-thinking. John Brennick and Derek Fetzer, the co-founders of CaringCrowd--both J&J employees at the time--conceived of a platform where nonprofits, and individuals raising money for nonprofits, could advance their work.

J&J not only supports the platform without charge but often matches donations on the platform--which recently topped $1 million. Brennick says he hopes the second million dollars in donations will come much faster.

Be a hero! Join the elite group of supporters who ensure that stories like this can continue to be shared! Visit heroes4good.org to become a hero now.

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin.

Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2z3IaUq,

Everest, a blockchain startup that began generating revenue in 2017 and now has 12 employees, is working to provide people in the developing world with a blockchain identity that will connect everyone to the 21st-century economy.

Founder Bob Reid, 48, says, “Everest gives the average person the ability to prove who they are, exchange value with another individual or institution, and utilize technology provided by an organization, facility, or agent army.”

There are two social issues the team hopes to address with their technology, he says.

Human Trafficking: By creating an identity utility for humanity, Everest aims to combat human trafficking by supplying a simple means for parents to enroll their children, then, in the case something bad happens, the parent has the ability to flag their children as “missing.” Further, by providing a simple mobile phone app, first responders and healthcare workers are able to screen individuals to make sure that they have not been reported as missing.

Borrowing Costs for Low-Income People: In frontier and developing

Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2z3IaUq.

Be a hero! Join the elite group of supporters who ensure that stories like this can continue to be shared! Visit heroes4good.org to become a hero now.

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin.

Thomas Doochin has created a completely different sort of crowdfunding platform for nonprofits. He’s set up a store where donors can purchase items for specific children sponsored by agencies that support them.

The site, called Daymaker, bridges two gaps that traditional nonprofit crowdfunding sites have, by first allowing donors to give to a specific child and second giving the donor the opportunity to purchase a specific item so that the nonprofit has no discretion about how to use their money.

With the same ease as giving a small donation, donors can now give an item. For some donors, this may be just what they need to allow them to feel comfortable giving to a nonprofit organization.

Be a hero! Join the elite group of supporters who ensure that stories like this can continue to be shared! Visit heroes4good.org to become a hero now.

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin.

Samuel Dameus, a social entrepreneur from Haiti, says the world’s perception of Haiti is malformed, by what we read about Haiti in the media. The Caribbean country rivals its peers for sheer beauty as a destination.

While not without its problems, Haiti’s reputation has become a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. Samuel is working to change the narrative, to help the world reimagine Haiti less as a destination for aid and more as a tourist destination.

Be a hero! Join the elite group of supporters who ensure that stories like this can continue to be shared! Visit heroes4good.org to become a hero now.

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin.

Nathan Ogden broke his neck twice--the second time when he was dropped off an x-ray table a year after being paralyzed. He turned tragedy into triumph, building a successful career as a speaker.

In recent years, he’s turned his attention and his focus to others less fortunate than himself. He’s created a nonprofit organization, Chair the Hope, to provide wheelchairs to people, typically in the developing world, who lack access to this life-changing device.

Watch Nathan’s story in the video player above.

Be a hero! Join the elite group of supporters who ensure that stories like this can continue to be shared! Visit heroes4good.org to become a hero now.

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin.

Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2pZSuZs.

Four students at University College London who launched aptly named Rice Inc. have been awarded the $1 million Hult Prize to meet the official challenge to “build a scalable, sustainable social enterprise that harnesses the power of energy to transform the lives of 10 million people by 2025.”

Their plan is to make fast, effective and affordable rice drying available to smallholder farmers who, lacking the technology, typically lose about 20% of their harvest in the drying process. Today, those farmers simply spread their rice on the ground in the sun, where is it vulnerable to weather, birds and other pests that may eat or contaminate the rice.

“We solve inefficiencies in the rice supply chain caused by an existing power imbalance between smallholder farmers and millers,” says Kisum Chan, the team’s chief marketing officer. “We solve this by providing farmers with access to drying and storage facilities which can potentially unlock the true value of their harvest.”

Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2pZSuZs.

Be a hero! Join the elite group of supporters who ensure that stories like this can continue to be shared! Visit heroes4good.org to become a hero now.