Let’s consider the question of what is the right or best kind of motivation for the rapidly growing class of social entrepreneurs. It’s a hot area, with a lot of new entrants, and not much in the way of rules and guidelines.
Nele Groosman, a graduate of International Affairs from Northeastern University, started a new job position eleven months ago in Kenya as a Market Research and Impact Assessment Coordinator at the Paradigm Project. The Paradigm Project is a social enterprise whose mission is to create sustainable economic, social and environmental value within developing world communities. They achieve this by selling fuel-efficient improved wood cooking stoves, which improve health, save time and money, empower women, help slow the rate of deforestation, and create jobs.
Working at Esperanza as a financial analyst has been an incredible experience with a lot of engaging and fun opportunities. My main responsibility is to do end of the month reports for the organization. These reports are then used to make decisions on the organization’s performance and methods, and they help us to recognize which branches of the organization are under/over performing.
The past two months have flown by here. I originally planned to come here to independently research Kenya’s microfinance landscape—seeking to understand how Kenyans, both in rural areas and in the slums of Nairobi, use rotating savings and credits associations (ROSCAs) and accumulating savings and credit associations (ASCAs) to manage their finances— rather than the MFIs in the country. But then while co-oping in China and thinking about my experiences at Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, I decided I wanted to learn more about approaches to income development beyond increasing access to financial resources.
This past spring semester, I had the great fortune to be on co-op in Cape Town, South Africa working for TSiBA Education at the Ignition Centre. TSiBA Education is a tuition-free higher education provider that focuses on building future business leaders from South Africa’s pool of talented but poor and disadvantaged young people.
“Everyone is hard-working, unbelievably friendly, dedicated and united for a greater purpose — ending global health inequality. When something so meaningful is a common factor in an environment, it’s electrifying. Contagious. Invigorating. Really makes waking up every morning a pleasure rather than a chore,” said Amanda Prifti, a senior at Northeastern finishing her final co-op at Partners in Health.