Organizations and job descriptions

NEW!  Mann Deshi Group – Maharashtra, India

The Mann Deshi Mahila umbrella of operations encompasses three distinct organizations: Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank, Mann Vikas Samajik Sanstha, and Mann Deshi Mahila Bachat Gat Federation.

The Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank (Mann Deshi) is a regulated cooperative bank run by and for women. Founded in 1997, it is India’s first rural financial institution to receive a cooperative license from the Reserve Bank of India. 100 % of the Bank’s clients are rural women with daily incomes of less than USD 1.5. They live in the inaccessible, drought-prone areas of Maharashtra and North Karnataka and have traditionally been avoided by the commercial banking sector, deemed unprofitable and risky.

Mann Vikas Samajik Sanstha (Mann Vikas) is a non-profit organization that provides a variety of nonfinancial services to its clients. Mann Vikas is responsible for promoting girls’ education and providing women with health education camps, student scholarships, and vocational skills training by means of (mobile) business schools.

Mann Deshi Mahila Bachat Gat Federation (Self-Help Group Federation) is a non-profit association aimed at organizing rural female entrepreneurs. The Federation currently consists of more than 1’560 self-help groups. These groups are made up of self-employed women such as vegetable vendors, milk sellers, and weavers. It receives loans directly from the Bank and, with additional support from the Indian government, conducts lending activities.

NEW!  Magic Bus – Mumbai, India

Established in 1999, Magic Bus brings about a new development platform to the social sector, namely sport and experiential learning. Magic Bus highlights the importance of child friendly and child participatory approaches to personal and social education. The organization promotes the forgotten ‘right to play’ and provides safe spaces for children to play, as well as opportunities for mentorship to those who are usually devoid of a childhood and positive adult role models. The program builds vital skills such as confidence, team work, health and hygiene habits and empowers children to develop a strong sense of community responsibility.

Magic Bus reaches out to over 3’500 children through its Mumbai based sports program, as well as an additional 11’000 through its teacher-training project within the Mumbai Municipal Schools system. The program curriculum is created and delivered based on the age and social background of the children and 15 safe grounds have been identified, where children meet once a week under the guidance of Magic Bus mentors. In addition to this Magic Bus owns and operates a 20 acre Centre for Learning & Development, 2 hours outside of Mumbai. Operational since October 2006, the centre has conducted experiential learning camps for over 5’000 children.

The Heart of Healing – Cape Town, South Africa

The Heart of Healing, founded in 2004, is a Cape Town based social business incubator that capacitates, mobilizes and professionalizes the local NGO sector. The NGO sector in South Africa is grossly under-resourced and struggling to cope with escalating social and environmental problems. The Heart of Healing seeks to develop solutions for the NGO sector to break the handout giving cycle between donors and beneficiaries.

In particular, it focuses on creating sustainable business solutions for social problems, enabling NGOs to become financially viable and thus more effective in addressing pressing social and environmental challenges in South Africa.

Mothers2mothers – Cape Town, South Africa

Mothers2mothers (m2m), founded in 2001, was set-up to meet the needs of pregnant HIV positive mothers seeking help at healthcare facilities providing prenatal care and prevention of mother to child (PMTCT) transmission. m2m aims to reduce the transmission of HIV from mothers to babies and to keep mothers healthy by increasing their access to health-sustaining medical care. m2m aims to empower mothers to battle the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS. m2m starts with a simple idea – hiring mothers living with HIV. These women take part in a training program and are then placed in maternity wards and clinics as Mentor Mothers. They educate new mothers, supporting them as they confront decisions that mean the difference between illness and health.

APOPO – Morogoro, Tanzania

APOPO is a registered charity that trains African giant rats to save human lives. They are primarily used for landmine and UXO clearance and are also being tested to detect Tuberculosis (TB) bacteria in human sputum samples. APOPO was created in Belgium in 1998 and was transferred from Antwerp University in Belgium to Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) in Morogoro, Tanzania, where it has been operating since 2000.

AMICHOCO – Medellín, Colombia

Created in 1997, Amichoco’s core program is a certification scheme for responsible mining and fair-traded metals called Green Gold (Oro Verde), which seeks to protect the tropical rainforest of Darien by strengthening the social capital of its communities and eradicating poverty cycles. It consists of an integral approach to reverse environmental damage, social exclusion, and the perpetuation of poverty caused by large scale mining operations. Building upon both traditional and scientific knowledge, Amichoco developed the first certification scheme for green and fair-traded metals in the world. The Green Gold program provides small-scale artisan miners with access to global markets, better income opportunities, and education on the effects of toxic chemicals on human health and the environment. A part of the prime rate paid by the end costumer of the metals is used to pay a higher price directly to the miners, and the rest goes to a collectively owned fund which will be invested by the communities in the improvement of their quality of life.

Fundação Pró-Cerrado – Goiânia, Brazil

Fundação Pró-Cerrado (FPC) was created in 1994 as an environmental civil society organization to work for the conservation of the Cerrado region in Brazil, one of the most threatened ecosystems in the world. Linking environmental conservation to social inclusion, today FPC tackles poverty by creating vacancies for the insertion of disadvantaged youths in the formal labor market and providing them with job training and complementary education. FPC’s model has a positive impact in eradicating low quality labor, reducing school drop-out rates, and preventing youth criminality, violence, and prostitution.  

Fútbol con Corazón – Barranquilla, Colombia

Fundación Fútbol con Corazón (FCC), founded in 2007, works to prevent youth violence and transform urban conflicts in the city of Barranquilla, Colombia. FCC attracts disadvantaged boys and girls through ‘soccer for peace’, a variation of traditional soccer created to promote peaceful attitudes, values and behaviors. These children are trained in the practice of soccer with a different set of rules that focus on honesty, respect, tolerance and solidarity. Additionally, FCC provides nutrition to the youngsters it benefits and extends its action to engage all community actors in peace-building. Currently, the organization is working with 301 children on one soccer field, and it expects to build ten more over the next decade.