CAIRO: Individuals with transformative solutions who are willing to take the next step are the type of social entrepreneurs sought by international non-profit organization Ashoka, selected after having displayed enough commitment and dedication to their ideas. “Ashoka is a platform for social innovation … for individuals who are always trying to think of ways for local solutions to local problems,” said Regional Director Iman Bibars at the Ashoka Innovation Network (AIN) seminar, a monthly gathering conducted by the organization for entrepreneurs to mingle. Among the presented cases that were adopted by Ashoka were Sany Kozman's “Friends of Life” NGO, which primarily strengthens care and support for HIV/AIDS carriers. “HIV is a phenomenon, not a disease,” said Kozman in his presentation, demonstrating that HIV sufferers in Egypt (whom he estimates to be at least 30,000) experience a trilogy of S's: shame, stigma, and silence. He warned of an impending catastrophe if no steps were made to increase awareness about STD's and take proper measures to handle HIV spread. Explaining the role played by Ashoka, Kozman said the organization taught him how to address the community, run an NGO, and particularly deal with the media and television. The lattermost was extremely important. His NGO was “among the most attacked NGOs in Egypt … even more than those recently shutdown that advocated human rights,” especially when it came to revealing medical corruption and unjust treatment of HIV carriers. Pregnant HIV carriers who went into labour, he continued, were referred to fever hospitals rather than ordinary delivery ones. Carriers were also rejected for treatment by ordinary doctors who feared the associated social stigma. Being part of Ashoka's network, exposed Kozman to the experiences of others, including their successes and failures, which he said acted as a social gauge for his progress. Another showcase was that of Essam Ghoneim and his El Mabarra Association, who pioneered a nutrition program for improving the health of schoolchildren, especially those who suffered from obesity and overweight, underweight, and anaemia. About 40-45 percent of Egyptian schoolchildren suffer from anaemia (4 million), 21 percent are overweight (1.89 million), 9 percent underweight (810,000), and 5.3 percent obese (495,000), Ghoneim said. “Our objectives were to assess and improve the nutritional health status of children,” he said. The association's progam includes establishing a kitchen in the participating school and committing to a special daily diet schedule. The program aimed to provide a mean daily intake of 687 Kcal per child, especially 92 percent of the required protein, 72 percent of iron, and 143 percent of Vitamin C. At the cost of an added LE 2 per child, the program's most important feature is sustainability. Ghoneim's results showed that the lowest average for blood haemoglobin increased from 8 percent prior to the program to 10 percent, a significant increase in a short duration. The global minimum for developing countries is 11 percent. When it came to weight loss, he showed that 46 percent of the overweight children in the participating schools lost 5.7 percent of their weight (3 kilograms) within 4 months. Ghoneim wants to integrate his program with the government's and the Egyptian Food Bank, which he said would be of tremendous value. He has hopes that it would replace the current nutrition program, which consists of providing children with biscuits daily, and which ran up costs that amounted to over LE 350 million. “Bring health through for the world” was the company philosophy presented by Danone's Amir Nadeem who focused on integrating the social and the corporate worlds. They company, he said, engages with communities and develops sustainable infrastructure through its global “initial endowment for ecosystem fund”, which consisted of €100 million and a contribution of up to 1 percent of net profits for at least 5 years. In Egypt, the company provided dairy farmers with necessary technical assistance and bought their produce in a bid to improve their quality of life. “[The company wanted] people to consume healthy products to avoid deficiency [altogether],” Nadeem said. This, he added, would bring about a “triple win,” as an improved social gain would lead to better life and in turn higher business growth, which rather than a charity, was a model that generated money that was reinvested in the group, effectively creating an ecosystem. Nadeem cited a quote from the company CEO, Franck Riboud, who described his vision for Danone as “a company that creates economic value while creating social value,” summing up the entire matter. Ashoka's role, he said, came in similar to the other two initiatives, by providing the necessary connections and particularly the technical support in the social aspect to the company's corporate methodology and business model. Bibars noted that Ashoka also benefited from the Danone's emphasis on sustainability, saying that the experience taught them efficiency.
