BRAC has expanded outside Bangladesh: Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uganda and Sudan, which is reflected in his advice to fellow social entrepreneurs: "You need to be ambitious! Build an organization to its full capacity and grow it. Don't be satisfied too early, and you will have a bigger impact in your work."

He also tells Global X what happened when he left Mexico at age 22 to meet the Pope in Italy. His mentor being Mother Theresa of Calcutta, he thought that this was the next logical step. But how do you get a one-on-one meeting with the Pope when you have no connections?

He also tells Global X what happened when he left Mexico at age 22 to meet the Pope in Italy. His mentor being Mother Theresa of Calcutta, he thought that this was the next logical step. But how do you get a one-on-one meeting with the Pope when you have no connections?

"They have only one asset --a small plot of land. And one basic skills: farming. So let's think big, and let's tackle the biggest problems!" says Martin Fisher in this short interview.

Listen to his take on poverty: "The number one need of a poor person anywhere in the world is to have a way to make more money. It's not about education, heath care, or clean water, because if you find the way to make more money, you can afford to buy all these things."

Listen to her as she tells the moving story of a young woman who used to be a recycling girl, as they sat down in a Cairo restaurant while waiting for a visa to go to France and speak at UNESCO. The young woman told Laila Iskandar: "I know this place. When I was four, I used to collect garbage with my dad." Laila Iskandar adds: "I almost cried."

Her advice to fellow social entrepreneurs: "Challenge the definition of entrepreneurship and look at the well being of people around us. Social entrepreneurship is a transition phase. Examine the whole concept of business and profit: if it's not social, then it's bad business."

A business entrepreneur turned social entrepreneur (he launched a web company, worked in biotechnology and was part of a translation agency), Geoff Davis discovered "the power of microfinance to harness market principles and apply them to social issues."

The Unitus portfolio of microfinance institutions now serves three million families, 140% more than last year. Geoff Davis explains his success: "It starts with a vision for a better future, and a strong culture based on values and principles."

And it takes talent: "It's a people business! The Unitus team left corporate positions at National Geographic, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft and McKinsey, and they now apply their business skills to solve social problems."

His advice: "Think big! Think grand! Be audacious! Be bold, and powerful forces will come to support you. You will be able to attract top notch talent."

Yes, it's all about the talent: "Do anything you can to get the best people you can. There is nothing more expensive than a quick, medium hire. And there is nothing better or more powerful than an amazingly talented hire even if you have to take time and leave the position open to get it."

Edgardo Salomón's secret to success? Hiring both NGO social workers and commercial bankers to work together in his management team.

"The most important challenge is access to managerial talent. The reason we launched new operations in Brazil is not only because there is high demand there, but also because there is access to very good talent." He adds: "Capital is always available for good projects. The main problem is talent."

Another priority: "There is no success without scale, and that's why networking is so important and that's where Unitus can help us."

A final piece of advice: don't rely on consultants! Edgardo Salomón initially hired a team of expensive international advisors. "Then we decided to do just the contrary to what they advised us to do!" Instead, Edgardo Salomón simply asked a lady working on a street corner what kind of financial services would help her, and that's how he found out what FINSOL had to do.

Edgardo Salomón's secret to success? Hiring both NGO social workers and commercial bankers to work together in his management team.

"The most important challenge is access to managerial talent. The reason we launched new operations in Brazil is not only because there is high demand there, but also because there is access to very good talent." He adds: "Capital is always available for good projects. The main problem is talent."

Another priority: "There is no success without scale, and that's why networking is so important and that's where Unitus can help us."

A final piece of advice: don't rely on consultants! Edgardo Salomón initially hired a team of expensive international advisors. "Then we decided to do just the contrary to what they advised us to do!" Instead, Edgardo Salomón simply asked a lady working on a street corner what kind of financial services would help her, and that's how he found out what FINSOL had to do.

Launched in 2002, FIS now has 4,000 clients and is the second largest MFI in Argentina. In addition to loans, it provides solar panels to families living in zones where there is no commercial electricity. "Yes, there are people in 2007 who have never had access to electricity," explains Julian Costabile.

Listen to his advice to fellow social entrepreneurs: "Find a couple of mentors or advisors compatible with your mission who have 20 or 30 years more of experience and who can help you go through the entrepreneurial phase in a better way."

Launched in 2002, FIS now has 4,000 clients and is the second largest MFI in Argentina. In addition to loans, it provides solar panels to families living in zones where there is no commercial electricity. "Yes, there are people in 2007 who have never had access to electricity," explains Julian Costabile.

Listen to his advice to fellow social entrepreneurs: "Find a couple of mentors or advisors compatible with your mission who have 20 or 30 years more of experience and who can help you go through the entrepreneurial phase in a better way."

Global X recommends that you watch Mechai Viravaidya as he gives a piece of advice to young social entrepreneurs (at 2'32 in this three-minute interview): "Young man, young woman, go out and change the world! The world is yours. Help people to become philanthropists. Make 10 million junior Jeff Skolls. We will have so much more money to give than Jeff Skoll!"

Martin Burt describes a key concept that explains his success: model replication, "the same principles that apply to microfinance: if you treat poor people with dignity, they will get out of poverty. We are trying to apply that to education."

As Martin Burt explains at 3'37" in this five-minute interview: "With dignity, with appropriate finances and the appropriate curriculum, you can turn a poor, 15-year old rural adolescent girl into a rural entrepreneur by the time she is 18, a person who can get a good job in the private sector or make her own job."

Martin Burt's goals at Fundación Paraguaya: to move "from poverty alleviation to poverty elimination."

To conclude the interview, Global X asks Martin Burt to share a piece of advice: "Concentrate very methodically on sustainability. All the doors open when you have operational, thematic and financial sustainability." Otherwise, it's not social entrepreneurship, but charity.

Martin Burt describes a key concept that explains his success: model replication, "the same principles that apply to microfinance: if you treat poor people with dignity, they will get out of poverty. We are trying to apply that to education."

As Martin Burt explains at 3'37" in this five-minute interview: "With dignity, with appropriate finances and the appropriate curriculum, you can turn a poor, 15-year old rural adolescent girl into a rural entrepreneur by the time she is 18, a person who can get a good job in the private sector or make her own job."

Martin Burt's goals at Fundación Paraguaya: to move "from poverty alleviation to poverty elimination."

To conclude the interview, Global X asks Martin Burt to share a piece of advice: "Concentrate very methodically on sustainability. All the doors open when you have operational, thematic and financial sustainability." Otherwise, it's not social entrepreneurship, but charity.

He remembers noticing that poor women usually don't have a place at the table because they don't bring food, "but microfinance creates a perceptible shift in the power balance" when women start bringing revenues.

Microfinance helped P. N. Vasudevan open his eyes. As he tells Global X, he now realizes that he never noticed women cooking on the sidewalk by his house and young children defecating on the street without any supervision, then going back to eating without being cleaned up.

"I never saw it in the past, even though it happened every day, but I just never noticed."

You may want to pay attention to Urmee at 2'27" into this interview, when she recommends to "get out into the field and learn about the market reality." Before launching Swadhaar, Urmee and her CEO spent a year in several slums in Mumbai to find out what Swadhaar's potential customers really needed.

To their own surprise, they found out that women were willing to pay higher interest rates but didn't want to work in groups and be held responsible for other's financial situations. Her advice: "Go out and understand the market!"

Urmee then tells Global X a very moving story, one that involves a 12-year old boy who was selling tissue paper boxes at a Mumbai intersection. Urmee was fascinated by his sense of pride when he told her: "I am not begging, I am doing my job!"

She concludes: "This is typical of the spirit of the people that we are trying to help. He has become my mascot!"

He also describes his success metrics: "Our team members, who work day and night for the organization."

MYA goes beyond microlending. Harsha Moily's philosophy is that microfinance should always include a wide range of financial services and other offerings for the poor. His advice: "Focus on the needs of the customer!"

Which is why MYA offers goat, cow and buffalo insurance: the death of an animal can have catastrophic consequences, as a source of income disappears and farmers can't pay back their loan. MYA needs to provide risk mitigation.

Why is Harsha Moily doing what he is doing, asked Global X? His response: "I can't be a spectator to what's happening India. I need to be a player."

Watch this three-minute interview then read the Unitus case study on SocialEdge.org.

Vincent Perlas, a medical doctor by training, was quite dissatisfied with medical practice and entered the field of microfinance to "use the power of finance to move lives of people, to be of service to them. And I knew that traditional banking would not have helped those who really needed help."

The visits in the field keeps him moving, especially the stories of lives that have been changed. He remembers a woman with physical disability (she can't easily express herself) who received a first loan of 4,000 pesos/US$80 to open a convenience store. She has done so well that she has extended her operations in the pig meat industry, transportation business and ready to wear garments. She now owns a huge house with all the appliances, send her children to school. She even asked her husband to quit his job to work for her!

Vincent Perlas hasthree ingredients to success:

1. Spirit
As a social entrepreneur, you have to be persistent, even (or especially) when things don't work well: "When you are in hell, you go on. We had the will to move forward."

2. Methodology
Vincent Perlas learned from another institution based in Bangladesh, but adapted the business model to the local context. Lifebank grew quickly "thanks to the right methodology, the proper approach, and simplified, cost-effective standardized model."

3. Gas to grow
Unitus opened many doors for Lifebank by helping them get international rating, which in turn helped them get funding very quickly.

Vincent Perlas has a piece of advice for fellow social entrepreneurs: "Face the challenges! There is light at the end of the tunnel."

Global X even met his daughter Monica Yunus, a soprano with the Metropolitan Opera in New York who sang in French just for him (and a few thousand other people): a piece from Gounod's Romé et Juliette. Her French was very good, thought Global X at that time.

At last, a few weeks ago, Global X had a chance to sit down with the Professor to have a little chat. Just the two of them (and a movie crew).

Global X, for once, was mesmerized and actually became speechless. Listen to Professor Yunus as he tells the story of the first US$27 loan in a village of Bangladesh, the loan that launched the microfinance movement. Watch him as he recalls how surprised he was that it took so little money to free village women from modern-day slavery, humiliation and torture.

In this short (four minutes) interview, CS Ghosh tells Global X why he launched a social venture to help the poor in India and gives advice to fellow social entrepreneurs.

Three words: “Focus, focus, focus!”

She has a background in physical therapy and industrial engineering, in addition to a PhD in public health. This allows her to conceive practical solutions that improve productivity and product quality, potentially increasing earning potential while preventing serious damage to the artisans' health.

Karen tells Global X how she was able to build an ergonomic bench that helped artisans achieve in two days what used to take them three. More importantly, she noticed that for these women, "pain was not the limiting factor anymore. They just stopped working because they had other things to do, not because they were in such a pain."

LED lights replace kerosene lamps, which are so expensive to use that they need to be subsidized by the Indian Government. They are also dangerous and do not produce much light compared to the energy they use.

Thrive's lamps are safe, consume very low power, provide clean and powerful lighting, and do not emit any smoke.

So says Satish Somepalli to Global X!

CFM creates a global market for handmade products made by artisan communities, thus creating employment opportunities for those who are dependent on handicrafts for their livelihood.

Rahul Barkataky describes a project they launched in Gujarat, an area that was devastated by earthquake in 2001. CFM was able to provide US$10,000 to a group of 375 women --a very significant impact.

Much more remains to be done, but Rahul Barkataky is optimistic: "Poverty may not be completely eradicated ten years from now, but there will be more positive stories with real impact. It will be a better place than now."

She looked for a solution and launched Build Change to build earthquake-resistant houses in developing countries and change construction practices permanently so that homeowners in seismically active developing countries can sleep at night.

He tells Global X why his simple technology, which better preserves local crops, is breaking the vicious cycle of poverty.

The results: farmers sell their crops when demand is high, and more girls can go to school.

Modern technologies in rural settings? Yes, despite the lack of electricity and many other complex challenges, AfriAfya is having a positive impact on HIV-AIDS prevention: "The members of our community are changing their behavior. There is hope!"

Watch this three-minute interview in which Angelique Smit tells Global X why she is an optimist: "Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare. I want to stay awake!"

In this short interview (two minutes), he tells Global X the story of a 16-year old girl who was traveling by bus in the Sudan when she was taken by armed militia to a remote place, beaten up and raped.

The accused were acquitted, because the law, based on the sharia, requires four independent, neutral witnesses for this type of crime. "She is now married to a relative," concludes Mossad Mohamed Ali.

Global X found out later that the relative was actually a much older uncle.

Berenice and her team work with affected communities to raise social awareness and promote empowerment. They use civic and legal tools to non-violently defend themselves and assert their human rights.

In this interview with Global X (in Spanish), she talks about forensic anthropology, exhumations related to criminal acts and concludes: "It's better to die for something than live for nothing!"

¡Es mejor morir por algo que vivir por nada!

What he finds confusing is the situation in the Middle East. "Some say that Jews and Palestinians are very smart people. After decades of war, I can say that we are stupid!"

In this interview, Mitri Raheb tells Global X what happened to the Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem in 2002: "What I built over five years was destroyed in 11 hours by the Israeli Army."

Mitri Raheb went through the 1967 war, the 1973 war and the first Gulf War, when Scud missiles were sent by Iraq over Israel and he didn't have a mask to protect his two-months-old daughter. Then the 2002 siege of the Church of the Nativity. "That's 40 years of ongoing conflict. Will my grand-child have to live through another war???"

Mitri Raheb is not optimistic for his daughter. He thinks that 10 years from now, "Palestine will look like a piece of Swiss cheese. Israel gets the cheese and Palestinians get the holes... An apartheid system with two different legal systems."

But there is hope. "Hope is what we do!"

In this short interview (four minutes), she tells Global X the story of a woman who spent over seven years out of an eight-year marriage to try to get a divorce from her violent husband, even though he had already remarried and had children with his new wife.

Zainah Anwar, an optimist, hopes that her current work will become irrelevant in the next 10 years. She knows that the laws that Malaysia has inherited from the British need to be adapted to the new realties that women are now facing. She is convinced that "justice will prevail, because the realities of our lives are totally different from when these laws were first conceptualized."

In this three-minute interview, Jessica Montell highlights the problem of movement, the rights to go from one place to another.

She tells the story of an 11-year old girl who had appendicitis in the middle of the night. Her father tried for two days to take her to the hospital, which was very close, but he wasn't able to receive the permission. She died.

That's when Jessica Montell realized that what should be a 15 minute ride can sometimes take hours or may not even happen.

As for the future... Her two boys will be 18 in 2020, and they will be drafted in the military.

As a result of his activism, he has been imprisoned for months at a time without access to due process of the law.

In this three-minute interview with Global X, Gérard Jean-Juste explains how he made the decision to start "une cantine" (a soup kitchen) in Haiti. A young boy, part of a family of ten children ("the father was dead, the mother was very ill") went to him to complain that he was hungry. "It was like a cry in my heart. I had to perform a miracle."

He did.

Dr. Ibrahim and his associates have faced three trials and three imprisonments by Egyptian Security Courts and were sentenced twice to seven years imprisonment. Egypt’s High Court of Cassation later acquitted the defendants of all charges.

On September 11, he was in a Cairo jail. Listen to him as he describes what happened that day, as he remembered that his wife and daughter were in New York accepting an award on his behalf only a few blocks from the World Trade Center.

And listen to him as he talks about his vision for the Middle East and takes the European unification process as a model.

A former lawyer and judge in her home country of Canada, then chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, she believes “in the law and the legal process.”

She told Global X about this woman who had lost her husband and two sons in the war, and who was still able to see beyond revenge: “She knew there was another way to settle grievances.”

She is optimistic for the long term, but quite realistic over the immediate future: “We don’t do a very good job at conflict resolution.” She adds, “We need to address the huge disparities in distribution of wealth, both between and within states.”

Global X asked Louise Arbour a surprise question: any advice to Social Edge members? “Don’t walk away because you think you can’t make a difference. Pick a cause! Be a citizen! Vote! Tell your governments what you want them to do and what you will not tolerate that they do on your behalf!”

President Carter tells us what he saw in a small village in Ghana, and why he made the decision to eradicate the Guinea worm from our planet. Results so far: 99.7% accomplished!

He hopes that the US will become again the champion of peace (not of pre-emptive wars), the champion of human rights and preeminent in its dedication to justice. And he thinks that each of us can exemplify peace, justice, truth and humanity: “The most powerful people in a democracy are individuals.”

He found out how much patience and determination it takes to get impact at the bottom of the economic pyramid (a lot!) and tells Global X why he is not convinced about market research.

There, he studied how to launch a chain of affordable and convenient primary care health clinics (the first one will be launched in 2008). He also reviewed Scojo's supply chain management strategy and looked into the shipping of glasses around the world.

His proudest moment: his 18 month-son is now more comfortable in Chinese than in English and Spanish!

Nadaa Taiyab tells Global X how she was able to redesign a service conceived for the elite into a product successful with the urban poor.

Listen to her advice on how to sell a service to the urban poor: do a lot of marketing research (but not too much!) before launching, so that the design, pricing and overall offering are perfectly in sync with what customers who are at the bottom of the economic pyramid.

Adrien Couton proudly tells the story of Ms Patel, who doubled her income thanks to IDE's irrigation device. She was able to send her son to computer science school. And her family is now reunited as her husband doesn't need to work in Bombay six months a year! This is one of 4 million small farmers IDE is serving. The potential? 260 million in India only!

Adrien Couton raconte l’histoire de Madame Patel, qui a réussi à doubler ses revenus grâce au système d’irrigation d’IDE-India, et a donc ainsi pu envoyer son fils dans une école d’informatique. Sa famille est maintenant reconstituée car son mari n’a plus besoin de s’exiler en ville six mois par an ! IDE-India aide quatre millions de petits fermiers comme Madame Patel. Le potentiel ? Au moins 260 millions, rien qu’en Inde !

In this two minute interview, she tells Global X how important it is to communicate the plethora of knowledge she has acquired and to share it with other communities.

This is Ayeleen Ajanee's second interview with Global X.

Global X interviews Matt and Jessica Flannery, co-founders of Kiva, before Oprah can get the chance.

Watch Matt as he explains how he made the decision to quit his Silicon Valley job and work full time for Kiva. And listen to Jessica as she describes her pre-marital problems, which actually led to Kiva’s birth!

Her lessons: for a social venture targeting the bottom of the pyramid, the distribution channel is of the utmost importance. And pricing has to be right, too!

She tells Global X how difficult those decisions were for her: is $6 per net the right price, or $3? Why not $1.50? Should we subsidize the production of mosquito nets, or should we aim at being sustainable and giving the market a voice?

In this three-minute interview, Jocelyn Wyatt, who was based in Nairobi, describes how she improved the corporate culture in the malaria treatment company where she worked.

A returned Peace Corps volunteer in Benin who grew up in Mauritania, Pakistan, Peru, India and Rwanda, he studied biology and environmental studies in Canada and received his MBA from Stanford.

He just launched d.light design, the social venture that received best honors at the recent Global Social Venture Competition held at Berkeley.

Watch Sam as he explains his ambitious goals and describes his ha-ha moment: “My neighbor’s son in Benin was badly burned by a kerosene lamp. I want to provide a source of light that is safe and cheap.”</