"Most people go through life just trying to survive." "And the rest of them gets lost in distractions," "Bombarded by information disconnected of sense." "And many times we believe that the world is like that." "That the problems are too big." "Impossible to solve." "Are we still able to care?" "You may need to be a special kind of person." "To cause a major change that spreads throughout society." "And affects millions of lives." "But we can all bring some positive change." "To some corner of the planet." "Everyone can change the world." "When an ordinary citizen says:" ""Enough!"" ""I don't want to live on this planet!"" "And this "enough" is not:" "Enough and I'll have to live with it, it's:" ""Enough, I'm going to start something"." ""Enough, I'm going to do something about it"." "It doesn't matter whether he can help four people or a thousand." "What's important is the feeling of wanting to do something." "I started acting, and then I became a clown." "And then I became an NGO manager, producer..." "As I never really identified with anything, I'd put architect." "Spiderman, Superman, gardener, anything." "When I check into a hotel I write with great pride:" "Social entrepreneur." "But I didn't used to." "When I was identified as a social entrepreneur I thought: "Finally!"" "Now I always write on forms:" "Social Entrepreneur." "Anybody can be a Social Entrepreneur." "It's not some divine blessing." "You don't take a pill to become a social entrepreneur." "You simply become aware of your own power of transformation." "This idea that everyone can change the world." "Is a very genuine one." "Because really, from any sector," "From any portion of the planet." "There may be." "Potential initiatives." "That can change the course of the planet." "The recognition that it does not take a PhD." "That of an indigenous knowledge." "That knowledge of a woman in a traditional community." "Is as important or as critical to the world." "As that which is produced by a great scientist in a great laboratory." "I think it's a state of consciousness that we lacked." "The concepts are new and still mixed." "After all, what is the name given to a wealthy businessman." "Who decides to donate his entire fortune to develop the social sector?" "Or for an activist who protests so much." "That he initiates a movement that ends up changing everything?" "After all, what is a social entrepreneur?" "If I could point out one moment where I said:" "Now this is it, this is going to be my life!" "It would be those 8 to 10 months." "When I lived in the Rampa do Janguruçu, in Fortaleza." "Along with the trash collectors, living with the vultures." "With the animals, with the trash." "The mud mixed with the food." "There's only one way to look at it, as the rock bottom of human misery." "From then on I thought:" "I can't help it!" "From now on I will spend my whole life in defense of the poor." "Fighting this human flagellation we know as poverty and misery." "Yunus created the Grameen Bank." "The world's first specialized in microcredit." "With such a simple idea as to lend money to the poorest." "This man has inspired several institutions around the world." "In the history of humanity." "I believe that this is the first time that we, as a species." "Have felt globally threatened." "We don't have any more time left." "Consumerism is already too much." "The production of trash, of waste is too much." "Global warming is a fact." "And there is a very simple equation that doesn't add up." "Earth, if we don't change, will clean out the human race." "Just as a housewife would clean her house." "With hot water, steam jets, or the swish of a broom." "Today the Earth is a car, travelling at high speed towards the abyss." "We do not live in a sustainable world." "We need to slow down and completely change direction." "If we humans." "Do not relearn the ethics of care." "We will very soon find ourselves." "Walking head-on towards our own destruction." "Oscar Rivas is an expert on the subject of Water." "And believes that we can completely recover degraded areas," "And turn them into paradises." "That's what he's been doing in Paraguay." "I arrived once at a community of fishermen in the Amazon River." "I arrived at this community and they asked:" ""What are you here for, Doctor?"" "I said, we've come here to do a project." "We're not here to give you fish." "We're here to teach you how to fish." "They all looked at me, they're all fishermen:" "And here's a doctor from São Paulo here to teach us how to fish." "We thought you had come to treat us, doctor." "So from then on I never again used this expression." "I was the only doctor for 800 rural communities." "And there I saw a situation that I had never seen before." "They were communities that had never seen a doctor." "An incredibly high mortality rate." "Diarrhea, diarrhea, diarrhea." "Anemia, anemia, worms, worms." "And then I arrived in a community and had 150 people to treat in 1, 2 days." "Then I started to separate people by type of disease, saying:" ""Those with diarrhea over here, those who have the flu over there ..."." "And began to lecture explaining the educational part." "Because if I would try to explain one by one the hygienic basics." ""Hand wash, treat the water, wear slippers..."" "I would not be able to see everybody." "And then I began to use fun methods." "Actually the circus and "Health and Happiness" were born." "Out of the simple need to educate people." "Every little problem in the community is the result of all factors." "Involved in that community from the cultural, social, economic." "Historical, social organization." "So for you to develop a community, you have to deal with everything." "The organization has a hospital boat." "That can get to the most remote areas of the forest." "The boat takes a team capable of working not only in healthcare." "But also in community organizing, forest economy, education." "Culture and communication." "The first strategy was to be together with the community." "Being together with the community is not what many people think." "To arrive there as a doctor who says:" ""Oh, I don't know anything." "I'm here to learn with you"." "Or another one that arrives and says:" ""Alright look, you got to do this, that and the other"." "They're both wrong." "We each have things to collaborate on." "We have counterparts and mutual obligations to perform." "So, first off, it's a partnership." "Create the awareness that we all can be change makers." "That's what some social organizations are managing to do." "Involve the community in all activities." "So that people can take hold of their lives." "And can guide their own development." "If you want to do something for social inclusion, for poverty." "The first thing is to think of the poor as citizens and capable ones." "And give them the tools they need to develop themselves." "Respecting them as brothers, as partners on a joint project." "When I saw the Amazon communities." "It was the most beautiful thing in the world to me." "Because the communities are beautiful." "They have a kind of mental, spiritual, and cultural health." "An internal and external natural environment that's just enormous." "One day the mayor asked me:" ""What's the name of your project?" "Doesn't it have a name?"" "I said, "Health and Happiness."" "Who knows where it came from?" "Just "Health and Happiness."" "But now I know why it's called so." "A woman in the community said, when a journalist asked her:" ""It's because health is the happiness of the body."" "And happiness is the health of the soul." "But I learned this later." "Who is the government?" "It is a group that stays there for 4, 8 years?" "We entrepreneurs are there in the "Health and Happiness"..." "I've been in this region already for 20 years." "Lots of councilmen and mayors passed by, but who is there every day?" "The NGOs, the entrepreneurs who have been there..." "For years and years, learning every day." "The private companies that are creating jobs." "Governments come and go." "They are the result of pressures." "Either from society or capital, or the economy." "The third sector has in its hands low cost solutions with high impact." "The companies have the capacity to sponsor and bolster this." "So this convergence has to be done with strategic vision to scale." "And all this to push, to change, to be absorbed by the government." "To adopt it as public policy." "I think this is the way." "Tennis and Beach Tennis are the same game." "Except that in Tennis I play for you to loose, your pain is my pleasure." "In Beach Tennis is the opposite, I can only hit if you hit." "Then I lift the ball the best possible way for you to catch the ball." "And return it to me." "In other words, your pleasure is my pleasure." "I can only hit when you hit it, I'll only win when you win." "That is the logic of world we are trying to build." "We've inherited problems from a compartmentalized world." "From a world divided in sectors." "I can't understand why, these days, exactly to respond to past errors." "Companies are talking about corporate social responsibility." "I can't imagine why there is such a thing as an area." "Of corporate social responsibility." "Instead of a company that is already born socially responsible." "What can a company learn from an NGO, what can an NGO learn from a company?" "Could there be convergence in this process." "And thereby the creation of a new model of management." "A new model for a company that is born socially responsible." "And that is only successful because..." "Everyone around it is also successful?" "Today the governments in their GDPs don't take joy into account." "Nor the volunteer power of a people." "And the great challenge today for us entrepreneurs." "As our organizations grow." "Is to begin to influence these indicators." "People are already studying the "Gross National Happiness"." "That exists in Bhutan, while GDP is reductionist." "When you see the indicators of a country's development." "The main indicator of how a citizen contributes to the well-being." "Is through the "EAP", Economically Active Population." "The economically active population recognizes the population." "Aged 15 to 64 years of age." "But I do not know of a single indicator that someone comes along." "And tells to a girl or a boy of 4, 8 or 12 years of age." "Whether urban or rural, poor rich, never mind." "That with what they are doing today." "They are contributing to the well-being of their country." "So we have proposed to work to create a new indicator." "Called Environmentally Active Population." "And who are they?" "All of us, but the emphasis is on the population under 18 years." "And in over 60 years old." "With the environmental crisis we live in, we wonder why this is happening." "Why, since we know that our habits are killing us." "Society is telling us that the consumption habits." "Are harming the planet in order to sustain human life." "What is happening to us internally?" "And we are realizing that the cause is the incoherence." "Lack of coherence." "Coherence is the ability to think, feel, say." "And act in alignment with time." "Why is it so hard for adults to be coherent?" "We are thinking and feeling one thing, saying another." "So we have to go back to our childhood to see why." "When I was a child, the phone would ring." "I knew how to cheat." ""Mom, Mr. Rodriguez for you"." ""Tell him I'm not home"." "At school, the teacher talked about the environment." "And when he went outside to smoke a cigarette." "He'd throw the butt on the ground." "Or talking about recycling, he throws his Coke bottle out there." "With the organic trash." "And in the media, let's not even talk about it." "You turn on the TV." "The most morbid news, the cruelest, most violent." "Is the one that catches our attention." "So when there is no coherence in society." "Indifference grows, deceit and violence." "Then we must create spaces for children to develop that coherence." "What we want is that, even in a vase." "Individually, or in a square meter of land, collectively." "In that small space the child may think, feel, say." "And do things in alignment and time." "And boys and girls will understand that a healthy self-esteem." "Has nothing to do with your face, your possessions or your name." "If it has to do with your ability to create well-being." "For other living beings." "At total in Peru, at the moment, we total about 200 hectares." "That have been delivered to over 5,000 children." "And is ready to multiply." "Hope is:" "Thinking, doing and achieving, that 1% of the land." "Is managed by the population younger than 18." "That in some countries represents some 40% or more." "And for skeptics, do not worry." "The remaining 99% of the planet." "You still can keep doing whatever you've being doing!" "The obstacles were constantly arising." "It was like a marathon with hurdles where you jump and make it over." "But you look ahead and see another, and another." "And among all these obstacles." "There's the obstacle of staying alive." "There have been many threats." "I had a gun pointed at my face, my house was shot at." "Dener was threatened because he is fighting Animal Trafficking." "Which is the third largest in the world." "Second only to drug and arms trafficking." "And moving billions of dollars." "Only 10% of stolen animals survive until their final destination." "It is important that we break the spine of trafficking." "Exactly where it's most sensitive, at the consumer level." "So the trafficker has no one to sell to." "In Africa, a man turned rats into heroes who save lives." "Bart Weetjens." "Is a Belgian Buddhist Monk who trains rats in Tanzania." "To detect landmines and tuberculosis." "The rats can detect tuberculosis in samples of human saliva." "And are faster and more efficient than conventional laboratories." "They are also trained to detect landmines." "Releasing vast areas of land that had previously been destroyed by war." "Bill Drayton was the founder of Ashoka." "The first organization in the world." "To identify and support social entrepreneurs." "Bill was largely responsible for the spread of the term." "Social Entrepreneur." "His organization supports thousands of social leaders." "In over 60 countries." "There's a vicious cycle in public health in the world." "The public health system for people who live below the poverty line." "It's like digging a hole in the sand." "It's a never-ending job in which we never see the result." "Because the cure does not stay put." "When I began to think, I wasn't thinking about an institution." "The idea didn't arrive fully formed as to how it would be." "How it would be to combat misery." "As a doctor in a hospital I noticed that." "Mothers suffered a lot with their children's illnesses." "And more than with their children's illnesses." "They were afraid of when they would be released." "They weren't afraid of the illness itself." "They were afraid of the conditions in which they would have to deal." "With the illness after being released." "They had to deal with leukemia in a house where it rained inside." "They didn't have the money to pay for transportation to the hospital." "To take chemotherapy." "And I was working with mothers who would say: "Dr. Vera."" "Take my child and raise it for me, because I don't have the money." "To go on raising it." "You do it..." "This couldn't go on." "Back then I remember I'd do one heart check up on myself per week." "Because I thought I was going to have a heart attack, I was going to die." "I started selling things." "My girls used to lock their closets." "Because I started to sell their tennis shoes." "And objects around the house I started selling too." "So my husband, who used to travel a lot, would come back home and say:" ""Where's that clock?" And I'd say, "It became chemotherapy"." "And my good friends started to disappear because they knew." "I didn't want to go to the movies, or go out for fun." "I wanted money." "Until I understood that it was impossible to go on like that." "Asking for money to put out one fire after another." "That's when I wrote up a project." "And I showed it to a social worker and she said: "Vera you've gone nuts."" "This is a government project." "You want to improve housing," "You want to put kids in school." "You want to promote self-sustainment of families." ""Grant citizenship and healthcare?" "!" "That's a government plan!"" "I said:" ""I'm a little tired of governments."" "This is going to be the government of civil society..." "Obviously throughout the world there are proper governments." "But without a pulsing civil society there's no way out." "We learned our methodology by listening to those we served." "It's nothing more than helping a family to think about their lives." "And, over 2 years and organize themselves in 5 areas:" "Health, education, housing, citizenship, and self-sustainment." "If you help a family in these 5 areas, in an integrated way." "You change the level, the living conditions of this family." "And you allow them to have minimum conditions for survival." "When I have to quickly say what the organization is about." "What our know-how is, I say:" "It is to transform misery into poverty." "When we think of changing the world, we always think of great miracles." "Large amounts of resources and new technologies." "We do not need it." "With what is already known through technologies of social entrepreneurs," "Business entrepreneurs." "With what is already available and the power of the internet." "This world can change in no time." "I remember when I was thinking about the future of the organization," "I was already thinking about it as a school, as a place of learning." "And then a consultant, with all of his experience anchored in the past," "Turned to me and said:" ""But you're going to teach your competition your most valuable asset?"" ""And then, you're going to compete for the same funding?"" "And I thought, that's an interesting question." "Who is my competition?" "Am I competing." "With a guy from the countryside, trying to do this work." "For the kids in that region." "Or is my competition with his lack of training, and doing a better job?" "And so I saw that my competition." "Wasn't with anyone wanting to do the same work, but with ignorance." "With the lack of knowledge and opportunity to gain access to it." "When Wellington Nogueira first saw the work of clowns in hospitals." "He had a deep understanding about the social role of art." "You open the door, and you go through it." "Believing in the transformative power of joy." "He created an organization that was largely responsible." "For the hospital humanization in Brazil." "It became clear that I didn't want to be the "owner of hospital clowning"," "But the modem to download good clowns." "Into the 21st century in proximity with people." "The important thing is to clean up the world of these processes." "Absolutely unnatural of privatization of ideas..." "Thoughts and solutions." "So we should feel part of a movement that generates ideas." "And what better tribute to these great ideas." "That we simply be the channel to let them be established in the world." "There in the Palmeiras Community." "We put a huge banner in the office that reads:" "God created the world and we built the Palmeiras Community." "Our biggest honor is to say that this neighborhood was built by us." "Do you know what the most beautiful corner in the world is?" "It's called Conjunto Palmeiras." "If I think that it is Paris, New York or any other city, I am in trouble." "That's where I live, where I got married, where my kids are." "Where I cry, where I sing." "It should be the most beautiful corner of the world." "Something happened in Palmeiras that is very common for favelas." "That get urbanized and where the income doesn't increase:" "The people started to sell their shanties and move to other slums." "Why did this happen?" "Because they weren't able to pay their bills." "Water bill, electricity bill, telephone bill." "How absurd can that be?" "It takes 20 years to build a neighborhood." "And suddenly we couldn't afford to live in the neighborhood." "We built for ourselves." "And we said, if we could create this neighborhood." "Then we'll be able to generate work, income." "Right here in this neighborhood with our power and our own people." "We invented at the time a game called the "leaky bucket"." ""What is the money that comes here into this community?"" ""Are there retired people making money?" "Yes!"" "So I threw a ball into the bucket called "money from the retirees."" ""Are there people working?" "Yes, There are people working!"" ""Are there people who earn aims?" "Yes!"" "Then, the bucket was full of balls." "We had lots of money coming in." "The truth is that people in Palmeiras spent 1.200,000 reais." "Back then, ten years ago, in monthly expenses!" "But when we asked:" ""Where do you buy these products and what is the brand?"." "Everything was purchased from major brands." "And so we said, we're going to create a program that, simply put." "Would be a cork for the bucket." "Each cork we were able to stick in the bucket." "Would keep the money here and generate income." "And so it happened, and then in January 1998." "We created and named in honor of Palmeiras, the Palmas Bank." "We have a social currency, the Palmas." "Families take that money and buy and trade it in the community." "And the trader buys from another community dealer." "So the money circulates in the community." "Keeping the wealth here in the community Palmeiras." "The logic went like this:" "The bank loans for production and loans for consumption." "If I can balance the production and the consumption in the same place." "We generate work and income." "What's the central thesis of the community bank?" "There is no such thing as a poor territory." "Neighborhood, municipality." "There are territories, neighborhoods and municipalities that become poor." "Because they lose their local savings." "Any territory or neighborhood, any place." "Is a carrier of economic development." "Joaquim Melo almost became a priest working for the poor." "And then became a banker." "He had to face the Central Bank of Brazil to create his own currency." "And to found the first community Bank in his country." "Palmas Bank is now in 32 corners of Brazil and will multiply even more." "It did not come from Harvard, USP, or FGV." "Nothing against these institutions or anyone else." "But this came from a favela in the corners of the northeast of Brazil." "Poverty is not a final judgment." "It's not a divine gift nor something you can't do anything about." "So long as we keep producing, spending, trading with each other." "If I can make people believe in this I'll get what I want." "What would it be like a world in which people wake up every day." "To search and live experiences of joy?" "And, consequently." "Can we call these experiences of joy Work?" "This is the history of the fisherman." "Who was fishing with a businessman." "And fishing just to eat that day." "And the businessman told the Indian fisherman:" ""Why don't you build a net so you can catch more fish?"" "And the Indian said, "What for?"" "And he said: "So you can eat."" "And the extra fish you can sell..." "And the Indian: "And what for?"" "And he said:" ""For you to hire more people."" ""So you can catch more fish, with new nets."" "And he said: "And what for?" To produce more fish!"" "And he said: "And what for?" "To sell!"" ""And what for?"" ""So you can have enough money."" ""And what'll I do with so much money?"" ""Nothing!" "You can just stop working."" ""And can go fishing!"" "Albert Einstein hung a sign in his office that read:" ""Not everything that counts can be counted."" ""And not everything that can be counted counts"." "In business." "You can measure the performance of a company by assessing its profit." "But how to measure the impact of an organization." "That teaches children to resolve conflicts in the schoolyard?" "Or an organization that totally changes the lives of communities." "Through technology?" "In 1993, I had a dream." "And this dream changed the course of my life." "In this dream." "I saw young people from poor backgrounds using technology." "To reflect, impact and transform the reality in which they lived." "When everybody still believed that computers." "Were something just for rich people." "Rodrigo Baggio was already talking about Digital Inclusion." "I remember in one of our schools in Rio de Janeiro." "I was visiting and talking with one of our educators." "And this educator, moved by the occasion." "He shared the story of his life." "Then he started saying that, at 12 years of age." "He became addicted to drugs." "And the time came when he had to work..." "In the trade to buy drugs." "And within that process, he was arrested twice." "I remember he said to me:" ""Rodrigo, imagine all the worst things that can happen to a man."" "All this happened to me these two times I was in prison..." "And in a moment of confrontation with the police." "He decided he'd rather die than be arrested again." "And the police took five shots at him." "And none of these shots hit this guy." "For the first time in many weeks." "He returned to his mother's house and spent the night hugging her." "So, he decided to leave the crime, trafficking." "And came to a computer and citizenship school of the CDI." "And he became a teacher of this school." "And he completely changed his life." "So, these examples inspire us greatly." "The work of CDI is much more than just." "Teaching computing to low-income people." "The work of CDI is to empower communities through technology." "Changemakers innovate because they have a fresh look at things." "Free of dogmas." "They look for strengths to build upon." "In doing so, they free the potential of individuals." "Who were once seen as disabled, incapable." "Or irrecoverable." "The organization has reshaped the public defense system." "In several countries." "And through her successful work in Cambodia." "Karen Tse was the first woman permitted to enter China." "To work with the issue of justice." "Karen's goal is to end torture and unjust imprisonment." "Around the world." "A nine year old boy has raised money to bring water to an African village." "From the youngest to the most experienced." "Perhaps the greatest contribution brought by Social Entrepreneurs." "Has been the belief that, yes." "We can indeed end the biggest problems of mankind."