Role Models for Change

Eddie Ndopu, a social entrepreneur and advocate for disability rights, discusses his personal journey and the misconceptions he encounters as a person with a degenerative condition called spinal muscular atrophy. He emphasizes the importance of validating the humanity of all individuals, regardless of their background or abilities. Ndopu encourages others facing similar challenges to embrace vulnerability and lean into discomfort, as it can lead to deep connections and personal growth. He believes that love is a transformative force and advocates for practicing love as a form of liberation. Ndopu also highlights the need for rest, joy, and imagination in social justice work, and calls for radical creativity to bring about meaningful change. Despite the pain and suffering in the world, he believes in the capacity to love and continue to make a difference.

Lizzie Kiama, a social entrepreneur from Kenya, works with women and girls with disabilities to advance their sexual reproductive rights. She focuses on changing perceptions around their sexuality and addressing the stigma and discrimination they face. One of the main problems she highlights is the lack of data on disability in the healthcare system, which leads to a lack of financial investment in addressing the issue. Lizzie's organization works to influence policies and spaces like the Skoll Forum to advocate for change. She also shares a case study of a policy change she was involved in. Lizzie's personal journey of becoming disabled later in life inspired her to start a non-profit and approach disability advocacy in a unique and fun way. Her vision is to create a world where biases are openly discussed and addressed.

Human rights lawyer Karen Tse is Founder and CEO of International Bridges to Justice, an organization that provides prisoners in 48 countries with access to justice and prevents torture as a tool for confession. Every day in countries throughout the world, hundreds of thousands of citizens are arbitrarily detained, tortured, and denied access to counsel. International Bridges to Justice defends those citizens with early access to properly trained counsel--justice defenders. Journalist Ray Suarez sat down with Tse to find out how International Bridges To Justice fights to preserve the rule of law, end investigative torture, and implement the judicial infrastructure that protects the rights of prisoners.

According the UNHCR, there are 25.4 million people currently registered as refugees, and over half of them are under the age of 18. These numbers will continue to grow as global conflicts, economic volatility, and climate change force many more to flee their homelands. What can be done to ensure that refugee youth have access to quality mental healthcare, education, and opportunities? How can we better support their integration into communities of resettlement and their re-integration when they return home?

Muzoon Almellehan is an education activist and Unicef Goodwill Ambassador. She fled her homeland in Syria, and sought refuge in Jordan where she advocates for the rights of children to access quality education. Journalist Ray Suarez sat down with Almellehan to hear more about her experience as a refugee and her efforts to ensure educational opportunity for every child.

Sherrie Westin is President of Global Impact and Philanthropy for Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street. She leads the Workshop’s efforts to serve vulnerable children through mass media and targeted initiatives in the United States and around the world. Westin spearheaded a partnership to create the largest early childhood intervention in the history of humanitarian response, bringing critical education and nurturing care to refugee children in the Syrian response region.

Working with the International Rescue Committee, she led Sesame Workshop’s efforts to compete for and win a historic $100 million grant from the MacArthur Foundation to fund this work. With an additional $100 million grant from The Lego Foundation, this initiative has expanded to Bangladesh. She also oversees Sesame Street in Communities, Sesame’s comprehensive initiative designed to give children the tools they need to overcome traumatic experiences.

Journalist Ray Suarez interviewed Westin to learn about Sesame Street’s efforts in Afghanistan, and how its local, culturally appropriate programs promote gender equity and plant the seeds for transformative societal change.

Essam Daod co-founded Humanity Crew in 2015 to provide first response mental health and psycho-social support for refugees and people in crisis. Journalist Ray Suarez sat down with Daod to hear more about his unique “inverted pyramid” approach to mental health support, and how communities have the capacity to heal themselves.

Emily Bancroft is President of VillageReach, an organization that works to transform health care delivery to reach everyone. VillageReach won the Skoll Award in 2006. Its initiative in Malawi, Chipatala cha pa Foni, a toll-free hotline that provides health and nutrition information to people in remote communities, is an international model for closing rural healthcare gaps.

VillageReach recently transitioned Chipatala cha pa Foni successfully to the Malawian Ministry of Health which has made the service its primary platform for COVD-19 information. James Nardella, former Skoll Foundation Principal and current Chief Program Officer for Last Mile Health, sat down with Emily in April of 2019 to talk about her personal journey to this work, why government partnerships are a crucial lever for systems change, and her vision for global health equity.

Sohini Bhattacharya is the CEO and President of Breakthrough, a global human rights organization working to drive culture change to build a world where all people live in dignity, equality, and respect. Among its many initiatives, Breakthrough reaches nearly half a million adolescents in India through school and community programs, ensuring girls face less discrimination, complete school, and delay their age at marriage. James Nardella, former Skoll Foundation Principal and current Chief Program Officer for Last Mile Health, sat down with Sohini to talk about the hard work of shifting culture norms of gender-based violence and discrimination. James started the conversation by asking Sohini about her childhood in India.

Ai-jen Poo is a leading labor activist and the founder of National Domestic Workers Alliance. The Alliance works to bring dignity and fairness to the growing numbers of workers who provide care and clean our homes, the majority of whom are immigrants and women of color. Ray Suarez sat down with Ai-jen at the 2019 Skoll World Forum to talk about the future of work in the age of automation and a new kind of support infrastructure she calls “Universal Family Care”.

In May 2015, a group of ambitious philanthropic collaborators, including the Skoll Foundation, pledged to make a measurable dent in Africa’s hunger crisis through a catalytic $100 million investment to dramatically scale the work of One Acre Fund. A Skoll Awardee in 2010, One Acre Fund boosts the productivity of smallholder farmers with financing and training they need to grow themselves out of poverty.

One Acre Fund now serves more than 750,000 farmer families in Africa directly and more than a million additional families through government partnerships. With the $100 million Audacious Project investment, One Acre Fund set a bold target for 2020: 1.25 million farming families reached through the core program, and another 3 million reached through government partnerships and private sector agrodealers. To unlock the Audacious funding, they’ll need to reach these goals, One Acre Fund must raise $200 million—a 1:2 matching mechanism. Their big picture systems-level vision of change is to fully transform agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa.

Over the last ten years One Acre Fund has grown in leaps, with more than 6,000 staff now in sub-Saharan Africa. James Nardella recently sat down with Andrew Youn, Founder and CEO of One Acre Fund, for a conversation about what drives him in his work, some of his early setbacks, and what he loves about the complexity of massive warehouses.