By: Miracle Nwankwo Vasantha Kumari hails from Kanyakumari; the Southern-most tip of India. She lost her mother at a very early stage of her life. At the age of nineteen, her father married her off to a widower who had four daughters, in Chennai. She gave birth to two daughters and so she had six children to cater for. Her husband worked as a construction labourer but is salary was not enough to cater for the family. At the time Vasantha was the secretary at the Mahalir Mandram; a socio-economic empowerment programme for women implemented by Tamil Nadu Corporation for Development of Women Ltd. Mahalir Thittam is based on Self Help Group (SHG) approach and is implemented in partnership with Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Community based organizations. Finding it hard to survive, Vasantha took a driving job since she had always loved driving. When she approached the transport ministry in…

Ajaita Shah became the black sheep of the family when she diverted her interest from corporate law to micro finance. Her parent had left India for New York in search of a better life for their children. But Shah chose to find joy in responding to the need of people in rural India. She loved travelling and she has had many experiences being in different places. One of those places is India her place of origin. Lost in her passion, she relocated to India and started working with some microfinance organization. While working in India, she discovered that the basic need of the people in most rural India revolved around access to electricity. In India, one-fourth of people suffer electricity access deficit. Shah’s purpose was to help reduce the increased use of kerosene lamps in rural areas of India by introducing solar lanterns, street lights, and home lighting kits. Driven…

Latifa Nabizada is the daughter of an Afghanistan Islamist from Uzbeks who spent six years in jail after being accused of being a member of the Mujahedeen (Mujahedeen is the term for one engaged in Jihad). Uzbeks is Turkic largest ethnic group in Central Asia. Nabizada and her sister were the first female graduates of the Afghan Air Force Academy. They both wanted to become pilots but many times they were denied admission into the Afghan military school based on medical grounds. But eventually a civilian doctor certified them fit. Prior to that time, when they mentioned their desires of becoming professional pilots to their parent, they were amazed at the big dreams the ladies had. The impossibilities were so high but Nabizada and her sister chose to ignore all of it and they convinced their parent to believe in their dreams. Their father, on seeing their determinations gave them…

With the theme “empowering children enabling wellbeing”, the Buds of Christ; an Indian organization catering for orphan children and striving to make these children educated people who will contribute to the growth of their community has made significant impact in India. Orphan children are often perceived as a burden to society but with the activities of this charity organization, there is a ray of hope that orphan children in India will turn out to be more of a blessing than a curse to society. Buds of Christ charitable trust is an organization that believes in educating and protecting rural orphan girls until they become of age (21 years), such that the girl child will not be neglected and exploited physically or abused sexually. This action on the long run helps the girls to enjoy education like their peers, and make right choices while setting future goals.

Shannon May is an anthropologist, she Co-Founded Bridge International Academies, an innovative company launching a franchise of low-cost schools to serve impoverished families and informal settlements, across developing nations. While conducting research in rural China, Shannon saw close-up how primary education was failing already impoverished families. The experience prompted her to research how children could be taught the skills they need to thrive, harnessing data and technology to make a replicable and affordable model of education. The result was Bridge International Academies, the world’s largest private provider of nursery and primary education for families living on $2 a day or less. Bridge International, which charges $6 a month on average, launched its first school in Nairobi in 2009. It has now expanded across Africa, educating over 100,000 pupils, and plans to reach 10 million children across a dozen countries by 2025. If the status quo in education is kept, 2070…

Shantabai is a traditional woman who knew little or nothing about gender stereotype. But she defied the assumption about that fact when she was faced with the problem of a hunger and starvation. Shantanbai Shrapati Yadav is the first female barber in India, her late father was a barber and so was her late husband. She got married at the age of 12 to late Mr. Shripati Yadav. Barbing was a part time job for Mr. Shripati who was a farmer. He worked as a barber to add to his income but when there was a rift between him and his brothers, they split the farm land between themselves and Shripati had less than an acre of land to farm on. He decided to concentrate on his barbing business in order to feed is family. Mr. Shripati and his family moved to Hasursasgiri village to start a new life. Fortunately,…