Ajaita Shah of Frontier Markets is one of the world’s best examples of a successful female social entrepreneur. Her company is a leading provider of solar powered products in rural areas of India where reliable electricity is hard to come by. One of the company’s most popular items is their solar lamps, which are helping to improve the quality of life for many of India’s poorest inhabitants.
Tackling the Refugee Crisis
The problem of poverty and homelessness has led to a migratory crisis that is straining the global economic system. Economic refugees are seeking better opportunities in the world’s most developed economies, challenging these governments to find a place for them. It’s a problem that presents a good opportunity for the social entrepreneur.
In 2015, Anne Kjaer Riechert of Berlin Germany, launched a coding school for refugees designed to help them integrate into German society and address a need for computer programmers at the same time. It was a way for these refugees to become productive members of German society and help with a real problem at the same time. This type of creative approach to a social problem can be adopted in other industrialized countries to help integrate refugees in those societies as well.
Entrepreneurship Can Have a Social Conscience
It’s clear that entrepreneurship and a social conscience can go together. These are just a few ideas of how it can work, but there are many other opportunities out there. Small company’s like Bay Area Energy are leading the way in California and as more companies follow their lead, there’s a good chance we can solve some of the more difficult problems our society faces including youth unemployment.
