The Anti-Child-Prostitution Campaign has galvanized a spectrum of citizen and opinion groups to first separately – and then jointly – support each of their main action items:
awareness building, lobbying, and activism. Enlisting a deliberate and far-reaching cross section of society has enabled the campaign to spread its reach deep and wide.
The first objective of spreading awareness of the state of, and issues around, child prostitution in Taiwan was realized by signing up a cadre of thought leaders from
educational and community groups like churches, educational institutions, and clubs. This grassroots band volunteered its talents in holding public events that ranged from
street plays to signature campaigns to fundraising. To meet the other goals, a law banning child prostitution was seen through to enactment by the lobbying efforts of power
groups – law enforcement bodies like the police and the judiciary, citizen sector organizations, professionals, academia, businesses, and the media. The role of the media was
a key actor at all stages of the campaign in drawing attention to the problem and in ensuring that voices were heard. Without spending even a cent, the campaign's media
strategy generated extensive coverage through carefully strategized public events, including high-profile debates in the legislature. Read more...
School to School is forging long-term strategic relationships between rich urban schools and rural schools where the former make an investment in their rural,
disadvantaged counterparts by donating year-end school notebooks, pencils, shoes, uniforms, and school bags. This recycling and distribution effort mobilizes educators,
children, and parents – stakeholders in the educational system – to invest goods that will ensure a better schooling for poor children, and also sensitizes the well-off to the
underprivileged state of their peers. In a country where rural schools are deficient in every basic amenity, children lack the incentive to attend school. The project is more
than about mobilizing school supplies; it also acts as the carrot to get children to school and enhance the learning experience. The model is highly cost-effective and enjoys
a wealth of citizen support: volunteers approach schools and collect materials; partnerships with rural governing bodies, the Indian army, local citizen sector organizations,
and others facilitate implementation; children and families donate their discards and help with sorting and collection; transport contractors offer huge discounts on
transportation; corporations are motivated to make in-kind and monetary donations; grain merchants donate jute bags for packaging, and so on. Read more...
The model generates employment for local youth and creates a tourist market for a region that has potential but is not currently exploited.
Mazury Stations are envisaged as comprehensive eco-tourism centers that will be managed by erstwhile-unemployed youth. These young people will be provided with
intensive training in the tourist trade, and will then be expected to give back to the project by helping in the extension and rebuilding of Stations, free of cost,
thus generating a multiplier effect. Trained youths have the option of working for the organization or independently, and also the chance to lease a station as independent
entrepreneurs. The model leverages government facilities by entering into strategic partnerships with them, such as getting the forest department to open up underdeveloped
parts of the national forest, or getting councils to pledge the granting of plots. Read more...
Although migrant remittances are an important source of revenue in many developing countries, it is an unstable source of livelihood. This project aims to create
sustainable sources of incomes for migrants by harnessing their remittances into productive enterprises in their place of origin. The project identifies viable
microenterprises through rigorous technical, market, and financial analysis in the home country and offers migrants a portfolio of investment opportunities. The migrant
has the option of deciding on the persons who will manage this enterprise, thus providing opportunities for gainful employment to friends and relatives. Alternatively,
a migrant has the option of returning and running the business directly. Several critical objectives are thus met in the process. The migrant is not at the mercy of
uncertain international labor markets but has a steady source of income through return on capital employed. Remittances that earlier would have gone into consumption are
now deployed productively. And, people in the home country have access to employment. In order to make all this happen, the project enlisted the support of community
partnerships that offered a range of services – from capital investment to in-kind contributions to technical and research inputs. Partnering organizations included local
and national government bodies, community-based organizations, the private sector, educational institutions, and migrant communities from all over the world. Read more...
The Second-Hand Tools Project uses multiple resource-generation techniques in reaching its goal of opening up work avenues for unemployed South Africans. In-kind
donations of old tools are mobilized from individuals, wholesalers, retailers, international donors, and citizen sector organizations – tools that are then lent or sold at
discounted rates to the unemployed who pay membership fees to the organization for such privileges. Training of unemployed members in how to fix and work with tools at
"tools depots" is leased out to corporate partners; a skills program initiates them into how they can use tools either to get jobs or to start-up their own businesses;
and Tools Shacks run by volunteers retail the second-hand tools in poor townships. The project uses media outlets to mobilize citizens, an activity that serves the dual
function of advertising the project itself. Read more...