Hand in Hand creates 3 millionth job
Fourteen years ago, Percy Barnevik and Dr Kalpana Sankar joined forces to expand a small charity in southern India that provided free schooling to children working in the local silk trade. It was called Hand in Hand.
They soon realised the real problem wasn’t a lack of schools; it was the desperation that forced parents to send their children to the factories in the first place. “We had to attack the root cause of the problem: poverty,” says Barnevik.
Fast-forward to today and that’s exactly what Hand in Hand has done, fighting poverty with business and skills training from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe and in eight countries in between. Today, we’re proud to announce a major milestone in our story: the creation of Hand in Hand’s 3 millionth job.
“Even when they’re undernourished, downtrodden and illiterate, Hand in Hand’s entrepreneurs have an enormous will,” says Barnevik, now Hand in Hand’s honorary chair. “When they get a chance they’re not letting it go by. These women can move mountains.”
Here’s to fourteen more years, millions more jobs and more moved mountains.
Final countdown to Social Entrepreneurship Programme 2013
Hand In Hand Social Entrepreneurship Programme
Only seven weeks to go to the start of the international Social Entrepreneurship Programme (SEP) in Rustenburg, South Africa. Led by inspirational Harvard Business School Professor Kasturi Rangan, the course attracts participants from all over the world and from a variety of organisations.
“Kash Rangan is an outstanding lecturer and is brilliant at leading classroom discussions of fascinating and practical case studies. Be careful if you take the Social Entrepreneurship Programme, it just might change your life!” said Christie Peacock, Founder and Chairman of Sidai Africa, a social enterprise owned by Farm Africa.
SEP is a five-day interactive course showcasing the role of social entrepreneurs in reducing poverty. The course combines world-class teaching with field visits and expert Q&As to explore how social entrepreneurs can empower people to work their way out of poverty, create jobs and drive economic growth.
Entrepreneurs are at the heart of Hand in Hand’s model. The Social Entrepreneurship Program – now in its third year – grew from our desire to share in leading academic research and learn from the experience of others advancing the role of entrepreneurs in development.