2011 Ashoka Globalizer Stockholm Fellows


Marta Arango

Organization: CINDE

Country: Colombia

Marta’s organization CINDE – International Center for Education and Human Development - has revolutionized early childhood care, education and development in Colombia and other countries by including families, communities, and childcare professionals.  She is looking at using the latest in digital media to prepare a new cadre of professionals to spread her model throughout Latin America and beyond.

Al Etmanski & Vickie Cammack

Organization: Tyze

Country: Canada

Vickie and Al have created Tyze (tyze.com), a web strategy to create personalized social networks for groups vulnerable to social isolation. Within 5 years they plan to scale beyond Canada, the US, and the UK to support the elderly, family caregivers and people with disabilities worldwide.

Gilda Henriquez Darlas

Organization: CIDEL

Country: Mexico

Gilda’s universal primary-school education program has equipped children in Mexico, Guatemala and India with the tools to become self-aware moral actors.  The first ambitious step in her plan to take her model global is working with 1500 schools in 10 countries, piloting an e-learning platform and financing her work by selling her SIMULATOR for “Ethical Development” product to other sectors, such as business, government, and international organizations.

Mike Feerick

Organization: ALISON

Country: Ireland

Mike’s company ALISON is the global source for online education – a free form of online community college offering everything from computer courses to English classes, opening up employment opportunity for its users.  While currently serving nearly half a million registered users around the world, Mike wants to reach multi-millions through what he believes will become the Google of higher education.

Mary Gordon

Organization: Roots of Empathy

Country: Canada

Implemented throughout Canada, Mary’s powerful model to reduce childhood aggression by teaching students emotional literacy and fostering the development of empathy using neighborhood babies as classroom "professors" has launched in Ireland, Scotland, USA and New Zealand and is now beginning in Germany.  Mary’s goal is finding the way to train others in Roots of Empathy’s very specialized methodology and philosophy quickly enough to meet strong worldwide demand, while ensuring quality.

Johann Koss

Organization: Right to Play

Country: Canada

Right to Play targets over 700,000 children and youth worldwide with sport and play to teach life skills, promote health, and develop peaceful communities. “Going deep” and “going broad”, Johann wants replicate his business model to reach one million.

John Mighton

Organization: JUMP

Country: Canada

John’s method of teaching mathematics results in measurable higher scholastic performance, along with major improvements in students’ self-esteem and attitude towards learning. His organization, Junior Undiscovered Mathematical Prodigies (JUMP), spreads this method among public schools that serve low-income students in Canada and the U.S., and he is now ready to take it to the rest of the world.

Kovin Naidoo

Organization: International Centre for Eyecare Education

Country: South Africa

Kovin Naidoo is revolutionizing access to eye care and eyeglasses the rural poor through a new economic model that provides benefits to over 1.5 million people throughout South Africa and other African countries.  Providing ultra low-cost eye services and eyeglasses, it also creates a system of sustainable and replicable training and employment of eye care providers and lens manufacturers. His ambition is to reach 100% of the people in need of eye care, and he is looking to do so by operating clinics or kiosks inside remote government clinics or major hospitals.

Karl-Henrik Robert

Organization: The Natural Step

Country: Sweden

A former cancer researcher and clinician, Karl-Henrik Robert has successfully nurtured a global environmental movement by building a global institutional platform that brings together disparate strands of environmentalism (scientific, social, economic, etc.) to assist institutions, from companies to governments, to create concrete sustainability strategies.  With branches in 11 countries already, he is looking to adjust The Natural Step to scale more quickly.

Albina Ruiz

Organization: Ciudad Saludable

Country: Peru

Albina’s Healthy City Group supports the establishment and operation of community-organized collection, recycling, and waste-disposal enterprises. It regroups recyclers allowing them to formally register as legal businesses and earn status as the official waste-management system for their communities. HCG was first established in Lima, Peru, and expanded to Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Mexico and India. Albina’s aim is to further spread her business in Latin America and Asia.