A Better Place

Better Place is "accelerating the transition to sustainable transportation." Located in Palo Alto, California, the company aims to "turn the dream of mass-selling electric cars into reality." With Better Place, Israeli entrepreneur Shai Agassi, who founded the company, endeavors "to reduce worldwide reliance on oil with a market-based model and infrastructure that could potentially spur widespread adoption of a new breed of electric vehicles."

It is possible: "Better Place delivers the network and services that make an electric car affordable to buy, easy to use, and amazing to own. Electric car drivers will have access to a network of charge spots, battery switch stations and systems that optimize the driving experience and minimize environmental impact and cost." Today,  a 24 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery (about 200 kg/440 lbs) in a mid-sized sedan provides a range of about 160 kilometers (100 miles) on a single charge. At  battery switch stations, an electric vehicle's depleted battery is exchanged for a fully charged one in less time than it takes to stop at a gas station to fill one's tank.

The good news is that, according to Better Place, "sustainable transportation for the mass market is just around the corner. Electric vehicles present the opportunity for energy independence, environmental restoration, and new sources of economic growth." Go to http://www.betterplace.com/ for more information on this sustainable tranportation opportunity.

Stemming World Hunger

Karuturi Global is a genuine change agent, committed to sustainability.  Its stated mission is: "To emerge as an integrated agri-products company servicing the world market through unmatched product, cost and quality advantages.” Today Karuturi Global is a large producer of cut roses, with an 8% share of the floriculture market. The company has businesses in Ethiopia, Kenya and India, producing around 555 million cut roses per year.

However Karuturi Global is now taking up agribusiness as its next ambition. It wishes to be recognized as a genuine change agent for global growth, prosperity, and cultural and economic transformation - to do whatever it can to help alleviate worldwide and African food shortages. Thus Karuturi was among the first foreign firms to acquire land from the Ethiopian and Kenyan governments – more than 300,000 hectares – to grow and produce maize, vegetables, grains, corn, palm oil, and sugarcane.

In Ethiopia, Karuturi Global's social welfare contributions have included distributing wool blankets to the poor and elderly in 2007 and 2008, contributing $75,000 towards the drinking water supply in Holetta and providing free food every week for two years to 100 needy people.

In Kenya, the company has provided healthcare services to locals, food to drought victims and infrastructure to the local police. Karuturi Global affirms that, "Our labour welfare measures in Kenya are having a positive impact on the lives of our Kenyan workers, their families and communities. Taking cue from the success of these measures, we are working on implementing the same in Ethiopia. We plan to provide schools, hospitals, housing and bus facilities to our workers in Ethiopia, along with our social welfare initiatives."

Karuturi also applies eco-friendly policies in its production chain, including using indigenous greenhouses, in-house power generation from biomass, rainwater harvesting, and environment-friendly fertilizers and chemicals. 

According to Karuturi Global, "Every small change counts. ... We do our utmost to conserve the environment and to ensure that our people and our communities grow with us."

Thanks to a Deceptively Simple Product

What company's products have been used in 140 countries? What company has had an effect on millions upon millions of children? What company's CEO has said he reaches more youngsters in the world "than Coca-Cola or Pepsi could ever hope to reach up to the age of ten"?  Give up?

It's Serum Institute of India.

Serum Institute of India is a leader in the production of vaccines. The Insitute was founded in 1966, "with the aim of manufacturing life-saving immuno-biologicals, which were in shortage in the country and imported at high prices." It manufactures vaccines against Diphtheria, Tetanus and Pertussis, as well as Measles, Mumps and Rubella.  The company's reputation and reach is such that agencies like the World Health Organization, the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), and the US National Institutes of Health are working with it to develop vaccines against Meningococcal A, H1N1 Influenza, Rotavirus and other diseases.

Serum Institute's mission is "to develop quality vaccines and offer them at inexpensive prices." Learn more about Serum Institute's high quality standards and modern production means on the company website. 

Simple as ABCD...

John ‘Jody’ Kretzmann and John  McKnight  are the directors of Assets Based Community Development Institute (ABCD Institute) at Northwestern University in the US. ABCD mobilizes struggling communities using resources already at hand and shows them how to work toward positive change.

"Challenging the traditional approach to solving urban problems, which focuses service providers and funding agencies on the needs and deficiencies of neighborhoods, Kretzmann and McKnight have demonstrated that community assets are key building blocks in sustainable urban and rural community revitalization efforts. These community assets include:

-the skills of local residents

-the power of local associations

-the resources of public, private and non-profit institutions

-the physical infrastructure and space in a community

-the economic resources and potential of local places

-the local history and culture of a neighborhood."

Such is ABCD Institute's description of the positive features they employ to facilitate successful "inside out" local community development.

Two examples of ABCD capacity building:

"Jody Kretzmann partnered with Coady International Institute to help facilitate a week of discussions by community development leaders from Brazil, Ecuador, Morocco, Egypt, South Africa, Ethiopia, Kenya, Vietnam, Philippines, India, as well as Canada and the US, describing and analyzing their successful community building efforts and sharing strategies and perspectives. These discussions led to the publication of a volume of case studies, From Clients to Citizens: Communities Changing the Course of their own Development."

Faculty member "Deborah Puntenney worked with Greater Lyons Township, Illinois on their Aging Well initiative for which she designed and implemented an asset-based citizen-engagement project emphasizing healthy aging."

Visit the ABCD Institute at Northwestern University's School of Education and Social Policy for more information on doing asset-based community development work.

Good News on a New Health Blog

High-Tech Volunteer Emergency Medical Services Group Speeds Care in Israel: ground-breaking volunteer rescue scheme serves as the subject of Bill Hinchberger's debut as a health blogger. Hinchberger is a Paris-based writer who is on the lookout for story ideas for the new blog. Leave your suggestions and tips as comments here.

KaBOOM!

Many of you in the US will no doubt have heard about KaBOOM!  Elsewhere, though, little is known about this non-profit organization, "dedicated to saving play for America’s children." What is KaBOOM!? In their own words, "We are peppy, purple-adorned people who passionately promote the power of play!"

It's clear that children are more sendentary than in the past, back when there were fewer TVs, video games and computers. According to KaBOOM!, "Our children are playing less than any previous generation, and this lack of play is causing them profound physical, intellectual, social, and emotional harm. The Play Deficit is an important problem, and it is imperative that we solve it to ensure our children have long, healthy, and happy lives."

Created officially in April 1996 by Darell Hammond, according to their website, so far "KaBOOM! has built over 2,000 playgrounds, saving play for over 5.5 million children." You can help them build one too: click here for KaBOOM!'s detailed Project Planner that provides all the information you will need to build a playground in just one day! 

Or click here to find out how to make your community more playful. One simple idea: sit on a bench near a park - it will make the play area safer, especially if you sit there regularly and take friends with you. Or take a picture of a playground near you and then upload that photo on the KaBOOM! Playspace Finder to help parents find nearby playspaces.

There are many ways to help this cause, which will help put smiles on children's faces and make them healthier at the same time! To find out more go to http://kaboom.org/ or read about the movement in Hammond's book.

Aiding the Delivery of Health Care in Africa

Riders for Health is "working to make sure all health workers in Africa have access to reliable transportation so they can reach the most isolated people with regular and predictable health care." In its own words, the social enterprise's vision is "of a world in which the poor do not suffer and die for lack of access to health care and other vital services simply because they are isolated by distance or terrain."

Founded in the UK in 1988 by Andrea and Barry Coleman, current estimates reckon that 11 million Africans have access to health care due to Riders' programs. The organization manages over 1,000 vehicles to deliver health care services in Gambia, Kenya, Lesotho, Nigeria, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Zambia. According to Outstanding Social Entrepreneurs 2011, "Riders for Health’s innovative transport systems incorporate driving skills training, daily maintenance procedures, fuelling supply-chain logistics for replacement parts, and interval preventative maintenance. By using a motorcycle, for example, health workers have increased their number of visits to remote communities by at least 300%."

Just one example: in Zimbabwe, health workers driving motocycles were able to deliver mosquito nets and drugs against malaria to secluded areas, decreasing the death rate from the disease there by 20%.

Since one of the main obstacles to health care provision in Africa is poor access and distribution of health products to rural areas, Riders for Health's initiative has proved fundamental to aiding people even in the most out-of-the-way places.