Echoing Green, an organisation which funds social entrepreneurship and innovation all over the world, has announced the social entrepreneurs for its 2020 fellowship.
Members of the 2020 class are tackling pressing global issues including systemic racism, educational inequities, unemployment, air pollution, and mental health care.
The 2020 Echoing Green Fellows come from across the globe, working in seven different countries and territories (India, Ghana, Kenya, Zambia, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, and the United States) and were selected from a pool of 3,134 applicants working in 161 countries after a 10-month vetting process.
Four Africans were selected for the fellowship and they are: Joceylne Agbo (Nigeria), founder of Farm On Wheels; Samlara Baah (Ghana), founder and CEO of Loo Works; Charlot Magayi (Kenya), founder and CEO of Mukuru Clean Stoves; and Muzalema Mwanza (Zambia), co-founder of Safe Motherhood Alliance.
Jocelyne’s Farm On Wheels enables smallholder rural farmers to improve food security and way of life at the family level first, with the deeper mission of providing a better life for rural women and youth to reduce poverty in hard-to-reach rural communities. Farm On Wheels provides direct access to quality farm inputs, training, extension services, input credit, and market linkage, enabling farmers to increase their production capacity, yield, and income. Over the long term, Farm On Wheels is committed to improving the lives of smallholder rural farmers, preserving the environment, and contributing to food security.
Samlara’s Loo Works uses plastic waste to create sanitation solutions for marginalized communities in West Africa. Loo Works manufactures toilet systems composed of a container-based toilet attached to a biological digester, giving households a hygienic, low-cost toilet system that does not need to be emptied regularly. Loo Works’ toilet systems save lives while using recycled plastics and sawdust, otherwise known as wood plastic composite. This process upcycles the thousands of tons of plastic waste generated in-country each day.
Charlot’s Mukuru Clean Stoves (MCS) designs, manufactures, and distributes improved, efficient, and reliable cookstoves. MCS makes its stoves with locally sourced recycled metal and distributes them through networks of local women business owners and microfinance institutions. MCS’s vision is to significantly reduce household air pollution in underserved markets in Africa.
Muzalema’s Safe Motherhood Alliance develops and distributes innovative, climate-smart healthcare products that meet the unique needs of pregnant women living in low-resource settings and rural areas. Safe births in Sub-Saharan Africa are a challenge, and the Safe Motherhood Alliance understands that anxiety over childbirth can often lead to using unsafe practices. Its work focuses on removing anxiety from the birth process and rebuilding trust between communities and clinics. Safe Motherhood Alliance’s vision is to advance women’s access to healthcare by engaging spheres of influence that affect their choices, so they can deliver a healthier and wealthier world, passed on for generations.
