Meet The Women Behind These Social Enterprises

In my opinion, social entrepreneurs are the ones who serve society and their nation without being a politician. They lead to bring the change they want to see in society. While these amazing humans dream of achieving something big in life, they also care deeply about resolving social inequalities that hold the country back. The basis of humanity is to look after each other, and social entrepreneurs are among those who do this best and most.

Social entrepreneurship is generating business for social causes in simple terms. Meet the women behind these flourishing social enterprises.

1. Frontier Markets

Frontier Markets is a rural sales, marketing, and service distribution organization that helps low-income families get access to high-quality consumer and durable goods. In India, Frontier Markets has sold over 25,000 renewable energy items, primarily in Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan. Frontier Markets' CEO and Founder, as well as the President of Frontier Innovation, is Ajaita Shah.

For the past ten years, Ajaita has worked in India in the fields of microfinance and clean energy distribution. She was a Clinton Service Corps Fellow in 2006, an Echoing Green Fellow in 2012, and a Cordes Fellow in 2013. She has received the most influential award in microfinance for people under 30, Business Week's 30 Under 30, and, most recently, Forbes Magazine's Top 30 Under 30's Social Entrepreneur of the Year.

After spending several years working in rural India and living in darkness, witnessing kerosene fires and the loss of life, Ajaita vowed to find a long-term solution. She was furious and hurt by how people lived, and she believed there had to be a more practical and efficient solution. She wished for every Indian household to be free of basic energy concerns and to be a part of a bigger global social transformation picture and so began working for the same.

She wants people to believe that women  can be long-term agents for good in the world. She aspires to reach at least 10 million families throughout the globe. She wants to be remembered as the young woman who encouraged other young women to think outside the box, take risks, and change the world for the better.

2. Chatterbox

Chatterbox is on a mission to alter the labour market by linking the world's most talented yet marginalized people with digital economy possibilities. At Chatterbox, they understand that while talent is distributed evenly, the opportunity is not.

People who are detained as refugees spend precious years of their lives begging to be released. Mursal Hedayat, a 27-year-old Kabul native, was herself a refugee. She established Chatterbox, an online language organization that employs and teaches all refugees as teachers.

After witnessing first-hand the immense untapped talent in the refugee community, Mursal was inspired to build avenues into professional careers for refugees. Chatterbox has been funded by British and Silicon Valley investors since its inception in August 2016, and its clients include the Red Cross and five UK colleges.

Mursal's program not only develops positive student-teacher relationships, but it also provides opportunities for individuals interested in learning a second language to engage with refugees and learn more about their stories. Chatterbox's product includes this as a significant feature. Mursal was compelled to depart Afghanistan and seek safety in the United Kingdom with her mother, a multilingual engineer who had to find work in a new country. Chatterbox's mission is to prepare refugees to teach in their native language while also connecting them with potential students.

Watch this short video to dive deep into what Mursal do and why does she do

3. Digital Citizen Fund

The objective of the Digital Citizen Fund (DCF) is to help women and girls acquire access to technology and education so that they can gain the skills they need to become financially independent. They teach women innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship to help them become independent. DCF was founded by Roya Mahboob with the goal of developing future female entrepreneurs in her home country of Afghanistan. DCF has been delivering excellent digital and financial literacy training programmes for more than a decade.

Elaha Mahboob and her sister, Roya, are co-founders of DCF. They assist women in underdeveloped nations in gaining access to technology and virtually connecting with people and resources in order to build the skills needed to participate in a global economy. Both sisters are experts in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education as well as policy infrastructure.

Tens of thousands of Afghan girls have benefited from their classes, which have helped to foster a culture of optimism and aspiration. These young women are changing the culture and expectations in their communities, where long-held traditional beliefs prevent women from working outside the home. 

4. Rangsutra

Rangsutra is a company owned by a community of over two thousand artisans across rural India. Their artisans come from small towns and villages all around the country, including Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Kashmir, and Manipur. In order to build sustainable lives and revive India's rich handmade heritage, they serve as a link between rural artisans and worldwide consumers. Sumita Ghose is the founder and MD of FabIndia's 'Rangasutra' retail chain, which is a massive hit.

Rangsutra provides the creative, marketing, technical, and organisational support needed to turn crafts and related rural industries into successful businesses that employ rural craftsmen on a regular basis. Sumita lived and worked in rural India for nearly ten years, particularly in Western Rajasthan with the URMUL Trust in Loonkaransar Bikaner, engaging with rural communities for social reform and economic development before founding Rangsutra in 2006.

Sumita holds a master's degree in economics as well as a diploma in conflict resolution. She has received numerous fellowships and honours, the most prominent of which was the Nari Shakti Puraskar, given by the President of India on March 8, 2016.

Conclusion:

Social Entrepreneurship is a great innovation of a profession in itself. Social entrepreneurs create an impact, make a difference, serve the needful, and generate revenue. Unlike other entrepreneurs, they not only fill the gap but also bring optimism and betterment to the world. They make you believe that humanity in today's time still persists.