Online Competition Designates Three Breakthrough Projects to fight malnutrition
Washington, DC, 17 February 2010, The Changemakers online community has voted for the best solutions to fight malnutrition in the Improved Nutrition: Solutions through Innovation competition and has designated its three winners.
Among them are: a cost-effective food fortification device that dispenses nutritious grain in Haiti; a school lunch program that provides healthy meals to 1 million schoolchildren in India; and a community garden initiative that empowers Rwandans living with HIV/AIDS through nutritious and prosperous sustainable agriculture.
"The winners of this competition prove that, with a little creativity, we as a global community can nourish and strengthen everyone in the world," said Charlie Brown, Changemakers' Executive Director. "We know that behind every successful project comes innovative thinking, hard work and risk taking," said Marc Van Ameringen Executive Director of GAIN. "It is essential to have social entrepreneurs as grassroot change agents to inspire us in the fight against malnutrition."
"We have the technology and resources to provide proper access and information to all people, and Changemakers is thrilled to help continue the work being done by the winning innovators in Haiti, India, and Rwanda," Brown added.
The competition was hosted by Ashoka’s Changemakers.com and the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN). More than 240 entries were submitted from 48 countries in Africa, Asia, South, Central, and North America, and the Caribbean.
The Changemakers online community voted for the winners from a group of 13 finalists chosen for their innovative approaches to strengthening the global population. Congratulations to the winners:
1. Small-Scale Fortification: Innovative Technology for the Developing World (Haiti). Developing a simple device for small-scale electric millers to weigh and proportionately dispense nutrients into grain that is affordable, effective and accurate. Aiming to reach 22,000 people in 4,000 vulnerable rural households.
2. Fortified Midday Meals for Government Schoolchildren through Centralized Kitchens (India). Feeding 1 million underprivileged government schoolchildren a hygienically prepared, fortified, and tasty midday meal every working day.
3. Gardens for Health (Rwanda). Forming cooperatives with more than 4,000 members and their families that give people living with HIV/AIDS access to land and patient capital for community gardens, seeds and tree seedlings for family home gardens, technical assistance in sustainable agriculture and nutrition, and market linkages.
Each winner will receive a USD $5000 prize and will be featured on Changemakers.com as one of the best ideas for lessening malnutrition. Up to five social entrepreneurs will be invited by GAIN to participate in the 2010 GAIN Business Alliance Global Forum in Dubai, 25-26 May 2010. The entrepreneurs will have an opportunity to network, share knowledge and experience, and discuss collaboration with business. "For us, mobilizing the private sector is part of our DNA, central to our mission and mandate of eliminating global undernutrition," added Marc Van Ameringen, Executive Director of GAIN.
About the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN)
The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is an alliance driven by the vision of a world without malnutrition. GAIN mobilizes public-private partnerships and provides financial and technical support to deliver healthier foods and supplements to those people most at risk of malnutrition. Our innovative partnership projects in more than 25 countries are improving the lives of over 200 million people. Our project portfolio is growing and our goal is to reach one billion people.
About Ashoka’s Changemakers
Changemakers is an initiative of Ashoka, an organization with over three decades of finding, funding, and expanding the work of social entrepreneurs across the globe. It is a global online community of action that connects people to share ideas, inspire and mentor each other, and find and support the best ideas in social innovation. The Changemakers online community builds on this history and expands the Ashoka vision by creating an "Everyone a Changemaker" world through networking, relationship-building, and the sourcing of funding opportunities.
Through its open and transparent competition and collaboration process, Changemakers is creating the world’s most robust online community for launching, refining, and scaling innovative ideas that help solve pressing social problems.
For more information contact:
Delyse Sylvester
Director of Community
Ashoka’s Changemakers
Tel: 250-352-0616
Cell: 250-551-0570
Email:
dsylvester@ashoka.org
