Be Your Change

Women own less than 20% of all the land on the planet but produce most of the world’s food supply. Juliette Roy, founder of Be Your Change media, talks to Vava Angwenyi about the importance of empowering women coffee growers. By being aware of where the coffee we drink comes from, we can critically impact women’s financial independence in Africa and Columbia.  Learn how we can make a difference in women's lives by educating ourselves about our favorite morning drink.

About Vava  Angwenyi

Vava was born and raised in Kenya. In 2009, she founded the social enterprise Vava Coffee. Vava saw smiles where others only saw poverty, corruption and fears. She noticed the voices of coffee farmers and their need to be heard.

Learn more about this episode on our website

To learn more on  how fair trade participates in building a fair and equitable society, listen to:

• Episode 13 "How AKS is Promoting Gender Equality in Pakistan with Drakshan Khan"
• Episode 10 "How Fair Trade Empowers Women To Be In Charge" with Karrie Pukstas"
• Episode 07 "What Is Fair Trade And How It Can Help End Poverty" with Elisha Chan"

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In this episode of Be Your Change podcast, you will learn how Alice Bosley, co-founder of 51 Labs Labs  decided to move to Iraq to launch the first social impact incubator. So I'm very excited for her to speak about what is and her mission. 

Read our full blog post. 

"These are incredible people, right? I mean these are people with college educations and professional experiences and hopes and dreams and talents. And, when we think about displacement, we think about these people as either kind of poor and helpless or as burdens on society. And I think five one labs wanted to flip that on its head, right? These are assets. This is human capital that has been displaced into a place. often entrepreneurship is an incredible way for people to overcome some of the challenges in accessing jobs at their level. You may not have  connections, you might not have kind the opportunities to break into the job space, but if you have these skills, then you're able to launch a business. And so we provide training and office space and mentorship and connections, to help these amazing people to launch, amazing businesses"

We just hosted an investor trip and an investor from Bahrain called us and he was like, you've gotta be kidding me. Right? Like Iraq. There's no entrepreneurship in Iraq. And so I think it's just, it's so challenging and, and no one believes it. And yet, despite all of that, like the evidence is that there are incredible young people that are doing this without any support. Right? And that's even, you know, here in the Bay area there are tons of entrepreneurs, but it's also a lot easier to be an entrepreneur and there are role models and there are people saying like, yeah, you can do this. And they're literally, everything is against you. And yet there are still successful people doing it. And so I think that that is pretty addictive. So part of it might be the adventure that it was just a fun place to go to at the beginning.

Women empowerment

So we now run something called the incubate women's initiative, which is not the most creative name in the world, but, um, where we bring in women leaders from the community every other week to talk to our women entrepreneurs and their very intimate conversations where they share, um, they share kind of tips and challenges and, and create this supportive community, which is really important because often their families are saying like, you are crazy.

Learn More

• Estimates of the total number of deaths in the Syrian Civil War, by opposition activist groups, vary between 384,000 and about 586,100 as of March 2020
• 51 Labs
• Be Your Change
• Instagram

My guest today on Be Your Change podcast is Wingee Sampaio. She is the global director of the Cartier Women's Initiative. In February, they organized a breakfast in Boston to discuss how to design an ecosystem that empowers women as a force for good. The event brought together a panel of powerful women and attendees who are changing the funding narrative for women. Wingee Sampaio's role is to coach women social entrepreneurs in the early stages of their business to make sure they are driving social change and reaching their full potential. Cartier is one of the most successful luxury brands in the world, but it also happens to be one of the pioneers in supporting women's social entrepreneurs. Cartier Women's Initiatives is an international entrepreneurship program. It focuses on driving change in the world by empowering women social entrepreneurs. Listen to the episode

Wingee Sampaio, Head of Cartier Women’s Initiative

"A lot of accelerators are mainly focused on the business, accelerating a business idea. And for us, we're just trying to support women who are creating social change via leveraging business as a force for good."

In this episode, we are discussing: 

• How Unique Is Cartier's Women Initiative's Program To Help Women Social Entrepreneurs? The Cartier Women Initiative is an international program with four main key pillars to support women's social entrepreneurs.
• The International Program's Four Pillars
• What makes Cartier Women Initiative different than an accelerator?

"I would call us more of an international program. And the reason why is how a lot of accelerators are mainly focused on the business, accelerating a business idea. And for us, we're just trying to support women social entrepreneurs who are creating social change via leveraging business as a force for good."

• How Is Cartier Looking Into Changing The Culture?

The United Nations created 17 sustainable goals to achieve by the year 2030, and goal number five is achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls with disabilities.

• How To Design An Ecosystem To Empower Women Social Entrepreneurs In Creating Social Change?
• How Can We Bring Men Into The Discussion?
• How Do You Support Women's Social Entrepreneurs With Mental Health?

I loved that you’ve pointed out the assumption of heroism in the male framework of entrepreneurialism. Earlier in my career, at least a century ago, that was the only model. If you wanted to figure out how to do it, you had to do as a hero. That was a solo journey, you go up, you climb the mountain. That’s really hard to begin with. Emily Green, All Raise

• Why Women Are More Inclined Or Interested In Making The World A Better Place?

Women social entrepreneurs want to make a difference. They go into their ventures with the intention to do more than just fill the bottom line. At Babson College, we’re educating the next generation of founders to think of economic and social impact simultaneously, so that any business you build already build in this ability to go beyond profits and think about planet, people and everything. So it’s really the way the founders of the future will approach business, we can hope. Susan Duffy Center for Women's Entrepreneurial Leadership

Key Takeaways

Stop Trying To Fix Women

A lot of what we are experiencing today in the world, from the COVID-19; to climate change is a result of an old paradigm of entrepreneurship that has created unprecedented inequality. We have the rare opportunity to not go back to business as usual and design a new society that is led by women inclusive of everyone.

Please stop trying to fix women, please stop trying to telling us to be more bullish about our projections, defending more our business against critics, I’m sorry but the best way to grow is to hear the critics and discard what is shit and input what’s good. So we have to fix the system. I think it’s time for investors to make smarter business decisions Hala Hanna, managing director MIT SOLVE

Hala Hanna took part in the panel organized by Cartier Women's Initiative. She credited Michelle King for the phrase stop trying to fix women.

Women Are Figuring Out

Despite the fact, women don't have much access to capital; they are figuring out.

Women are figuring it out. They are saying that, OK, if that slice of funding isn’t for me, I’m gonna find other ways to go. And from SheEO to Pipeline Angels to Golden Seeds to Victorius capital to Portfolia to whatever it might be across the continuum of funding opportunities, women are finding their way and they are also growing organically, very strategically, very smart, and they are using all the resources they can. Susan Duffy, executive director of CWEL

Go Deeper

• Mit Solve Global
• All Raise
• Babson College
• Cartier Women's initiative website
• Resources for Women Social Entrepreneurs
• Read The Fix: Overcome the Invisible Barriers That Are Holding Women Back at Work

On this episode of Be Your Change podcast, I sit down with the host and co-producer of the One in Four podcast Beatrice Spadaccini. One in Four podcast looks to educate, humanize and elevate the conversations about previously the incarcerated population re-entering society (This interview has been edited for the purpose of this article).

“We…give voice and give the microphone to people who are coming out of the prison system. Men and women who share with us and gift us with their stories of re-entry and the challenges they face, the stigma they face.”

We talk about

1. The US Criminal Justice: A money making machine
2. The Incarceration of Women in the U.S has increased by 700%
3. One In Four Podcast: A voice for people coming out of prison
4. An unfair and inhuman system
5. The Story of Khadija Clifton, a woman in jail

"To give an idea of what we are dealing with, 1 in 3 black men and 1 in 6 Latino men are incarcerated in the U.S…compared to 1 in 17 white men."

"The Number Of Women In The Incarcerated Population Has Increased By More Than 700% Over The Last 25 Years"

Since 1980, the rate of growth for females has been twice as high. 60% of women in state prisons have a child under the age of 18. Most of them are primary caretakers.

What Does The U.S. Incarceration System Reveal About American Society?

Bea Spadacini lives in Washington D.C. and the first season of One in Four Podcast covers Maryland, the District of Columbia and Virginia. In the District of Columbia, there used to be a federal prison called Lorton.

There’s no more federal prison. There’s only jail. But that means that people who are sentenced to periods longer than 18 months are sent all over the United States to federal prisons. That could be as far as 500 miles away, could be Kentucky, Oklahoma, all the way to Oregon, California, which makes it extremely hard for them to stay in touch with their families, not to mention extremely expensive.

What is clear is that we are reaching the end of a system; the health system is broken; our criminal justice system is broken; education system is broken so what’s next?

Being aware of these issues is key; because it is going to help to implement new solutions; we can not fix what we don’t know. And with awareness, we can assist our previously incarcerated population better.

Go Deeper

• One In Four Podcast
• Incarceration rates worldwide and in the U.S.
• Following the Money of Mass Incarceration
• https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2020/country-chapters/united-states
• The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, talks about mass incarceration as a new form of slavery.

In this week’s episode, we are celebrating International Women’s Day by talking with women from an organization named RefuShe. It’s an organization that works with refugee girls in East Africa. We sit down with Jailan Adly who is the president of Refushe and Esperance Gikundiro who is a refugee herself and now a board member of the organization.

In today’s episode, we travel to one of the Parisian neighborhoods named Montreuil to talk with Rebecca Dry, founder of the media platform Love Montreuil.Montreuil is to Paris what Oakland is to San Francisco, a vibrant multicultural young dynamic and creative suburb of Paris. (This interview has been edited for the purpose of this blog post)

One of the most secrets of Parisian neighborhoods, Montreuil is well-known for its left-wing politics and its diverse immigrants population.The city has been led by a succession of Mayors affiliated with the French communist but also the Green party.

We talked to Rebecca Dry about:

• Montreuil: One Of The Most Diverse Parisian Neighborhoods: An Incredible Melting Pot Right At The Door Of Paris.

“So it's almost like a hidden jewel and lots more people from Paris are coming to live here now, which is good. They wouldn't have touched it 10 years ago and now it's kind of trendy to live here, you know, so they call it the Brooklyn of Paris…and it tends to be where people maybe dare to be a bit different.

• Rebecca’s Parisian’s Neighborhoods Life

It is an amazing place there's nowhere like it in France. There's nowhere like it here. 1,500 artists live here. There's something like eight to 900 artists workshops. There's tens of fab labs. There is a punk and rock music culture but also a gypsy culture.

• Montreuil’s Commitment To Nature: The ‘Mur De Pêches’

Culture in Montreuil is everywhere and along with culture, there is the environment with many public vegetable gardens and the famous ‘Mur de pêche’, which means the wall of peach.

People from Montreuil are different. They are rebellious.

• The Inspiration Behind Love Montreuil

I thought to myself, there isn't a website about this town that I myself would love to read and fall upon. You know, I would love to know about what's going on in this town. So there was nothing. I thought, why don't I create one? So I decided to do it and I decided to create it myself from scratch, like the website, everything, the photos, everything, the content, with a view to valorizing and valorizing my town and also the people who make it move and shake.

• The Paradoxe Of Diversity And Gentrification 

If we loose diversity, that wouldn't be Montreuil anymore.

• The Need To Give Back

In this episode, you'll learn how we can help homeless people with the innovative approach of Casa Milagro in New Mexico. Co-founder, Meryl Lieberman, discusses how her model could be an example to follow to help homeless people. About 2 percent of the global population or 150 million people are homeless. In the United States alone in 2019, more than 500,000 people reported being homeless…and the number of people experiencing homelessness in New Mexico is on the rise. From 2018 to 2019, the number of people living on the streets in New Mexico rose by 27%, one of the largest increases in the country.

Poverty is one of the leading causes to mental health issues.

The United Nations number 3 goals of the 17 goals for a more sustainable world, is about well-being and health. To understand what it means in action to tackle the goal number 3, we are traveling to Sante Fe, New Mexico, to meet with Meryl Lieberman. She is the co-founder of the non-profit Casa Milagro or House of Miracles. We are talking to Meryl today about her commitment and innovative approach to end homelessness and address mental health for homeless people in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

I had a grandma who was a Holocaust survivor who spent some time in mental hospitals. And when I used to act out, my mom would sometimes threaten to send me to one of those places. And so early on I made a decision that that's my life's work is to keep people out of those places. Meryl Lieberman

In this episode, you’ll learn about

• Mental Health And Homeless People
• The story of Casa Milagro: A therapeutic community for formerly homeless people
• Stigma and homeless people
• A unique collaboration with other organizations

"And I do have a bias. I believe that we all are on the spectrum somewhere and that our culture's pretty ill right now in terms of divisiveness. And so, you know, I think we were kind of needing each other more than ever right now has been my experience. So most of the people who come on, I don't think they'd have so much fear. Meryl Lieberman"

Dianne Calvi is the CEO of Village Enterprise. She started with the non-profit in 2010. She has grown the organization from 13 employees to now 200 and overtime she has helped over 1 million people transition out of poverty.

Village Enterprise works towards achieving the United Nations’ first sustainable development goal...to end extreme poverty by 2030. And the UN defines extreme poverty by people living on less than one dollar and 25 cents a day. As of last year, more than half of the world’s population living in extreme poverty is located in sub-Saharan Africa...and that is who Village Enterprise works with.
Juliette Roy talks with Dianne about her work as the Ceo of Village enterprise and how the non-profit has been making strides in lifting people, mostly women, out of poverty in sub-Saharan Africa.

In 2015, the United Nations introduced seventeen sustainable goals to transform the world by 2030. These goals provide a framework to build a conscious world. They cover a lot of ground from poverty to sustainability and education. Today, we are introducing goal number 5 to address gender equality which is also tied up to decent work conditions and economic growth, goal number 8. So what do the goals mean really? To understand them in action, I’m excited to introduce our guest, Drakshan Khan. She has decided to be part of the solutions to transform the reality of women in Pakistan.

Today, we are taking a look at the social impact space. Our guest Neetal Parekh is a long-term advocate and expert in social entrepreneurship. Social entrepreneurship is a new type of business that is growing fast.