In this unprecedented and uncertain era, it’s more important than ever to gather our collective strength and support and elevate groups that build a more sustainable, peaceful, and prosperous future for all. In that spirit, the Skoll Foundation has named five organizations as the 2020 Skoll Awardees for Social Entrepreneurship. Each one is driving ambitious change in unique ways.
Dr. Aparna Hegde’s nonprofit ARMMAN in India gives women the tools they need to navigate pregnancy and raise healthy kids. mMitra is ARMMAN’s free mobile voice-call service that delivers timed and targeted preventive care information directly to expectant and new moms. Dr. Hegde aims to minimize India’s maternal and child mortality rate, one of the highest in the world. ARMMAN’s staff coordinates counseling, and village health workers visit rural areas to deliver vital prenatal care. The group’s network of trained and informed healthcare workers, paired with reliable health text-messaging, has increased access to life-saving care for millions of women and their babies across India.
In the U.S., the work of the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) sparks civic engagement and mobilizes a more informed electorate. CTCL trains election workers at polling locations nationwide so they can run efficient, secure operations that voters trust. Although the U.S. has almost 8,000 different decentralized jurisdictions that handle elections, CTCL’s work ensures that voters can depend on the most fundamental process in any participatory democracy. The group also produces voter education resources to help build a well-informed electorate. Founders Tiana Epps-Johnson, Donny Bridges, and Whitney May have galvanized millions of voters in the face of discriminatory voting laws, virulent misinformation, and increased cybersecurity threats.
Glasswing International co-founder Celina de Sola understands the power of community to address the violence and trauma that has swept the Northern Triangle of Central America (El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras). Glasswing leverages existing community resources—like schools and hospitals—to enable holistic healing and interrupt cycles of violence. Their efforts have supported nearly 90,000 children in neighborhoods impacted by violence and through a partnership with the national government of El Salvador, that number will multiply exponentially. The organization’s transformative work with local groups strengthens community resilience through thousands of individual efforts.
The International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) tackles climate change and air pollution by producing and disseminating first-rate, unbiased research and analysis to government officials and regulators—around the world—to improve the environmental performance and energy efficiency of road, marine, and air transportation. Co-founder Drew Kodjak and his team provide the trusted information needed to modernize the transportation sector, which represents one-quarter of global carbon emissions. Whether it’s ships, cars, trucks, or airplanes, ICCT works to improve the environmental performance and energy efficiency of all modes of transportation to benefit public health and ambitious climate change mitigation efforts.
Drew Sullivan and Paul Radu of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) are fighting large-scale corruption with their international network of dedicated investigative reporters. The group’s partnerships span the globe. By developing and equipping a global network of investigative journalists and publishing their stories, they expose crime and corruption and empower the public to hold power to account. OCCRP sees a future in which corruption and organized crime are drastically reduced and in which democracy thrives with a more informed citizenry, increased accountability, and sharply higher costs for criminal activity.
“These extraordinary leaders are working to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems. They are bringing new and innovative solutions into healthcare, climate and transportation, corruption, violence prevention, and democracy,” said Don Gips, CEO of the Skoll Foundation. Awardee organizations receive $1.5 million in core support to scale their work and address critically important issues around the globe in a rapidly changing world.
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