Nicholas Kristof Profiles Social Entrepreneurs, Including IYF alum, Who Are Leading Change Worldwide
Read All PostsIf you do nothing else this week, read Nicholas Kristof’s article in this Sunday’s New York Times Magazine about extraordinary individuals who are creating their own “Foreign Aid Revolution” around the globe. Read the article and feel inspired—and overwhelmed by the challenges around us. I am particularly pleased that he singled out Jennifer Staple, founder of Unite for Sight, as an example of this “do it yourself” movement to improve people’s lives. Jennifer was recognized by the International Youth Foundation as a YouthActionNet® Fellow in 2004 and was the subject of an in-depth profile of youth social entrepreneurs in Our Time Is Now: Young People Changing the World, published in 2005 by IYF and Pearson.
I remember meeting Jennifer six years ago in a hotel lobby in Washington DC; she was 23 and still struggling to build her global network of volunteers to provide eye care for people in poor communities around the world. She told me she had fallen in love with science in the seventh grade, but it wasn’t until she worked at an eye doctor’s office in the summer of her first year in college that she became outraged that so many people had eye diseases, including blindness, that could have been prevented with proper care and routine checkups. That realization changed her life -- and set her on a remarkable journey that would take her from local clinics in her college town to the far corners of the world. She even deferred medical school for a year to make sure her organization could continue to grow and prosper.
Mr. Kristof’s article sheds light on the growing number of individuals, like Jennifer, who see a real problem and work tirelessly to try to fix it—whether it’s building shelters for orphans in Nepal or figuring out how to produce affordable sanitary napkins so young girls and women don’t feel embarrassed to go to school or to work. I appreciate that he does not make it all look easy, and some heart-felt efforts simply don’t work out. It’s the incredible determination of these individuals who refuse to give up that keeps me glued to his words and the stories he is telling. Mr. Kristof describes these “foreign aid” activists as “fueled by the combustible mix of indignation and vision.” It’s a powerful combination that I’ve seen many times in the eyes of our YouthActionNet® Fellows over the years, and that inspires me every day in my work at the International Youth Foundation.