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BWB / IISE NEWS – 2011

Braille Without Borders – International Institute for Social Entrepreneurs.

Dear supporters and friends,

We would like to share the share the latest BWB / IISE news with you.
We are happy to inform you that the BWB projects in Tibet as well as the IISE in Kerala are moving forward in full speed.

TIBET:
LHASA:
The projects in Tibet are running well. Over the past few months several construction/renovation work was initiated. In Lhasa we have renovated the basement which now is split in three parts; a library, a TV room and a music room. Also we have split the Braille Book Printing room in two parts. The newly created part now functions as the teacher’s room. Furthermore we have created new toilets. New showers will replace the old toilets. A Chinese company who makes Solar Hot Water systems is planning to donate several solar systems to the school in Lhasa and also to the farm in Shigatse. This will mean a great opportunity for the students to enjoy hot showers and all that in an eco-friendly way J

The integration process is running well too. Several students have entered Highschool. Sonam Bungso, one of them received 5 awards for being the best student in 5 different subjects. The next big step will be to open up the doors of the University for blind and partially sighted students. Please keep your fingers crossed.

FARM:
In the beginning of this year, a five star Hotel opened its doors in Lhasa; the St Regis. Since then they have been purchasing “Tibet Mountain Cheese” and the different kinds of “Tibetino cheeses” that are produced in our cheese farm. At the moment we are looking at ways how to further market the cheeses in order to create more sustainable income generation. This summer a Chinese marketing specialist will come to the farm to help us with this process. She will also look at how to best market the other products that are being produced at the farm: bread, vegetables, knitted items and carpets.

Over the past few months six new students have joined the training at the Pelshong facility. The last 80 km long stretch of the main road from Lhasa to Shigatse was completely renovated. It nearly became twice it’s width. Going into Shigatse now only takes about 15 to 20 minutes instead of app 45 minutes before the reconstruction. This means that it will be a lot easier to market any kind of products that are made at the farm in Shigatse itself.

KIKI’s Kindergarten:

At the end of June 2011 Kyila moved the students of her Kindergarten class to the Pelshong Training farm. There she has established "KIKI’s Kindergarten". Her initial dream has now materialized! Over the past few months renovation and construction activities have been going on in full speed. The courtyard, buildings etc was completely renovated. At present new toilets, showers and water towers are being built while at the same time several trees are being planted. It is going to be a real nice place where many kids will have all the space they need to explore life to the fullest!

IISE KERALA:

1. The big bang of act one

Act one, "the adventure of Nabulai," is the first phase of our 11 months curriculum called "a journey in five acts". We always start in an imaginative country in which participants are asked to create theoretical social projects and parallel real internal business projects. This year we chose the Kingdom of “Nabulai” as our imaginative country. “Nabulai” is a developing country which resembles Swasiland.

Every act ends with a big bang. An external jury tests the participant's first business/project plans and critically observe their business pitches. In the end of April act one came to a successful ending. The four groups of Nabulai (Babu, Labinia, Munguun and Abassa) pitched their social plans and their supporting business projects. For the first time we video-live-streamed the final of act one and a group of experts from different countries around the world participated as jury members. They interacted in real time by asking questions.  The international jury was very impressed and has handed out 6 awards:

A) Best Innovation Award went to Munguun

- Munguun has created a mobile drama and music program against child abuse in Nabulai. 80 highschool students should be trained in stage craft and street theatre to promote the fight against child abuse. As their business they started a much liked snack-bar and organized Karaoke parties.

B) Best Business Plan Award

- This award went to Babu, a group that created the plan for a children's farm for HIV orphans in the north-eastern babu-lake region of Nabulai. On the IISE campus they started a very popular coffee business. "Babu-coffee-shop", advertised with "Babulution," and "activate your senses!" Since Italian coffee is rather rare in Kerala the IISE-babu-terrace was often visited by catalysts and volunteers which boosted their business. When the coffee machine broke down, Babu decided to focus on a new business: "Voices of IISE" a CD with folk songs from around the world sang by former and present IISE participants. This CD can be downloaded from the www.bwb-iise.org website and donations to value the CD can be made there and then as well. The proceeds will go to future projects of IISE participants.

C) The Best Presentation went to Labinia,

- Labinia convinced the jury with a lot of energy, multi-media, music, songs and a good stage performance. This group planned a foster-program for orphans and street children. As a business Labinia created a Telephone service for their fellow participants. Unfortunately they haven't calculated Indian timing and therefore their telephone connection only came a couple of days after act one came to an end.

D) The Best Overall Plan went to Abbasa.

- Abbasa created a special agricultural concept for country wide organic farming. As their IISE business they operated a juice bar with fresh vegetable and fruit juices.

E) The Best Q and A went to Babu.

- Again Babu convinced the jury with very precise and knowledgeable answers.

F) The Best Individual Presenter went to Marguerite from the United States.

- Marguerite, an African American, presented with a lot of style, charm and charisma.

2. Start of act two

Act one gave the participants the opportunity to gain skills in the areas of Public speech, Entrepreneurship, Finance, Market research, Project planning, Creative/innovative thinking, organizing events, writing grant proposals, finding donors, and convincing them why they should invest in their project ideas.

Act two will give the participants a great chance to deepen their skills by implementing all they have learned. Additionally they will understand the challenges and opportunities of working in an NGO in India, how to create effective and divergent campaigns and experience the power of passion while creating positive social change in our local community in Trivandrum Kerala.mKerala is one of the most developed states of India. It is called `God's own country` but it is still far from heaven. Poverty, discrimination, injustice is visible everywhere. Due to overly complicated bureaucracy and due to a fairly

conservative society, progress is developing slowly. NGO’s and single visionaries are struggling to create positive social change.

With motivation and skills our IISE participants can help to exhilarate social change through innovation. Participants become consultants and ambassadors for local NGOs, assisting them to get harmful social taboos publically acknowledged.

In teams of two or three they either act as consultants for an NGO of their choice or they create their own activist group with a topic which needs to be addressed.

Act two will be divided into three major parts/phases: analysis of the NGO/problem, creating innovative solutions and going public. In the end we will organize, together with the participants and their local partners, a public exhibition with local and national media, innovative stalls, speeches and performances.

Participants have built teams, created names for their teams and according to their passion chose the following local NGOs:

·         Nosisa created “Positive Connection” and works together with CPK+ `counsil of people living with HIV aids in Kerala`

·         Alieu and Beatriz have created Sangamam and are working for "Chilla" (Home for children of sex worker's )

·         Shihab and Femi named themselves "Wings" and are assisting "Disabled care" (a cooperative movement of blind and disabled who produce Ginga Juice and other items.)

·         Keith and Vygas formed a team with the name "Focus". They help to create a platform for Lesbiens in Kerala.

·         Raja and Nicholas call themselves Harambee and continue last year's "Better Bag campaign” together with Zero waste center Kovalam

·         Anja and Taffi are engaged in “Action Council”, an environmental activist group that fights against the destroying of a mountain close to Trivandrum.

·         Marcus, Tahreer and Nelson formed the team "Beyond the Ocean" helping the Coastal Higher Education Society (CHES) of fishermen’s children, an organization that offers alternative education

·         Marguerite, Lukette and Drolma formed “Beaming” and continued last year's "you are you" campaign, a fight against whitening creams

3. OTHER IISE NEWS

- FIRST INDIAN AWARD

A recognition was given to the IISE in the form of an award from INCITE, (International Centre for Intellectual Training & Empowerment). It was the "Incite Excellence Award in Social Entrepreneurship 2011". One of the board members of this organisation is Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam, former president of India.

PUBLICATIONS:

The Spectacle – IISE’s Audio Newsletter

You can listen to the latest Audio newsletter at:

http://bwb-iise.org/uncategorized/the-spectacle-the-iise-audio-newsletter/

- Website: www.bwb-iise.org

- The latest news and articles can be viewed at the BWB-IISE Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/bwbiise

- Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/IISEConnect

For those who want to brush up their Chinese language skills, please have a look at the following article which waspublished in “China Today” last week:

http://www.chinatoday.com.cn/ctchinese/second/2011-06/21/content_370658.htm

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