Bicycles for Africa

Got an old bicycle in your garage that you don't know what to do with? Send it to Bern, where it will be restored and shipped to Africa so people living in rural areas can cycle to work. That's what Paolo Richter does. His company, Gump-& Drahtesel hires unemployed individuals to recycle old bicycles for Africa, while helping them get back into the labor force in Switzerland.

Hundreds of jobless people work in Richter's bicycle and wood workshops, where they learn to be mechanics or sales people, and receive professional and personal training to reenter the job market. Over 7,000 repaired bikes are sent to Africa each year. Gump-& Drahtesel also makes lamps, jewellery and decorative items from spare bicycle parts, which are then sold in Bern to support the company's African project, while giving unemployed individuals work experience.

What a great idea: employing people who need work, training them in new skills while providing a product that offers greater mobility to people who need transportation to get to work.

Job Factory: Providing Jobs for Unemployed Youth

Job Factory provides job training to unemployed teenagers and young people in Basel, Switzerland and helps them find work, giving them hope and a second chance. No matter why the youths are jobless, so they do not begin their career on welfare, Job Factory offers six-month internships to approximately 300 young adults each year, in such areas as cooking and restaurant management, administration, housekeeping, printing, information technology, manufacturing, hairdressing, handicrafts and recycling. Job Factory also provides coaching through its Job Training Foundation, helping the youth recognize their talents and develop their capabilities while tackling their weaknesses and deficiencies.

Since Job Factory was established by Robert Roth in 2000, over 2,000 youths have taken part in Job Factory's training program. To date, 80% of Job Factory's trainees have successfully completed their internships and gone on to find an apprenticeship or job, or have gone back to school.

Job Factory is in fact Robert Roth's second endeavor to provide employment to young people in Switzerland. In 1976 he created Weizenkorn, a business that employs youths with psychological problems. That experience taught him that not just young people with psychological problems or physical disabilities were having trouble finding jobs. Others were also losing hope, so he founded Job Factory. Meanwhile, Weizenkorn has become the largest employer of people with psychological disorders in Switzerland.

One Job for America

Here's a great idea from America. Join the University of Kansas, Specialized Bicycle Components, Texas Connected, Real Robotics, Illinois Glove Company, Adobe, Christie's and other companies in pledging a job. And then read about the initiative from Carla Emil, the originator of this idea.

Empowering Women in the Workforce

Founded in 1991, Phulki demonstrates how investing in on-site daycare services at the workplace, be it in factories, companies or government offices, can benefit working mothers as well as their employers. The organization was started in Bangladesh by Suraiya Haque as a way to allow disadvantaged mothers to breastfeed their infants while at work and gain access to childcare during the day. Today Phulki operates 130 childcare facilities, which the company either manages for a fee or runs with the help of the employers whose company personnel are trained in daycare management by Phulki. Business owners in Bangladesh who have worked with Phulki concur that Phulki's daycare services lead to employees who are more productive at work, happier and absent less often. Haque's efforts have also helped women stay in jobs, allowing them greater economic security and independence as well as increased gender balance and empowerment.

Excerpt from Outstanding Social Entrepreneurs 2010, the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship