Facebook, the world’s largest social network connecting over 2 billion people monthly, is driven by its mission to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together. With over 70 million businesses on Facebook, the platform not only helps businesses get discovered and find customers, but it also helps people develop connections to products and causes.
To better support cause-driven businesses, Facebook partnered with One Young World to launch the Facebook Social Entrepreneurship Award which offers advertising credits and executive Facebook mentorship to 4 social entrepreneurs who are leveraging the platform to deliver impact across Facebook's main operating regions: North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific and EMEA.
The winners were announced on Facebook Live earlier today by Carolyn Everson, VP of Global Marketing Solutions at Facebook, and OYW Co-Founders Kate Robertson and David Jones.
Congratulations to the winners!
Grand Prize, LATAM: Abhinav Khanal
Co-Founder, Bean Voyage - $55,000 ad credits & executive mentorship from Carolyn Everson
"Bean Voyage is a venture that supports female coffee farmers in communities around the world. The enterprise was inspired by the intersectionality of two key issues within traditional coffee trade: inequitable distribution of revenue and gender inequality. The high price of specialty coffee in the market is not reflected in the income earned by smallholder farmers as they earn less than 10% of final retail price even though they do 80% of the work in producing the coffee cherries. In addition, women farmers do 70-80% of the work in coffee production but earn 39% less income than their male counterparts which then restricts them from further expanding their farms or spending towards the educational, healthcare and sanitary needs of their families. Even the alternative, fair trade, has proven to be unreliable as research has confirmed that farmers earn only 15% more revenue than their previous earnings. The problem is not about creating fair payment systems but addressing the larger issue of agency.
Our goal is to provide greater agency for women coffee producers in the trade of coffee. We achieve this goal through a three step process. First, we form regional collectives of women coffee producers, currently based in Los Santos Region of Costa Rica. Second, we train them on the technical skills of processing, roasting and cupping their own coffee so they can understand the quality of their coffee. Third, we connect these producers to the end consumers through an e-commerce platform.
Farmers enroll into our program for a one year period during which they receive regular interval training on four specific themes: organic coffee production, coffee processing methods, roasting of coffee, and cupping of coffee. At the end of the year, farmers graduate and start selling their coffee through the e-commerce platform that we facilitate. Thus far, we have been able to guarantee a 300% increase in the revenue of women coffee producers through the execution of this model."
Discover Bean Voyage on his website, Facebook & Twitter.
Regional Prize, North America: Kaleigh Killoran
Co-Founder, We Are Allies (WAA) - $5,000 ad credits & regional executive mentorship
“Last year, over 2,000 people in Massachusetts died from an opioid overdose – nearly one death every 4 hours. Incredibly, that is up 4-fold from the number of overdose deaths in 2010, making it the 6th consecutive year opioid-related deaths have risen in the state. This is why We Are Allies was born.
We Are Allies is a nonprofit founded by a group of medical experts, pharmacists, military veterans, designers, and people in long-term recovery addressing the opioid crisis by fighting the stigma of addiction and deploying the lifesaving overdose reversal drug naloxone into communities.
As Allies, we can immediately start saving lives by carrying naloxone in our highly-visible and beautifully-designed naloxone carrying cases. We also equip Allies, through our website and social media campaign, to teach others to think about addiction as a chronic disease rather than a personal failing. Over time we hope that Allies, recognizable by our externally-worn purple cases, will erase the stigma associated with substance use disorders by catalysing conversations among friends, families and communities to show that those suffering from opioid use disorder are not alone. We Are Allies is here for them.”
Learn more on their website & Twitter.
Regional Prize, Asia Pacific: Vincent Loka
Co-Founder, WaterROAM - $5,000 ad credits & regional executive mentorship
"WateROAM is a water innovation enterprise founded in Singapore in 2014 to develop water filtration solutions that bring about the quickest access to clean drinking water at disaster-hit locations, and help to promote social change in rural development areas. These water filters are designed to be simple, portable, durable, and affordable, thereby improving the access to clean drinking water significantly.
WateROAM targets contaminated drinking water - a major cause of poor health in rural and peri-urban communities in less developed nations. Waterborne illnesses are largely attributed to biologically contaminated surface water. A large percentage of the world’s rural peri-urban populations rely on natural sources of water like ponds, lakes and rivers for their daily drinking water. Unfortunately, a large part of these water bodies harbour bacteria and virus which cause illnesses such as Cholera and Ghardia. Traditional water treatment and pumped water systems are often beyond the means of these populations. Natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes and landslides can also leave people without access to clean drinking water. Individuals are thus forced to drink polluted water contaminated with potentially life-threatening bacteria and viruses.
By providing affordable, portable and easy to use water filters to these rural communities, and those affected by natural disasters, we aim to reduce the occurrences of these life threatening illnesses. By improving the water quality, one can improve their quality of life."
Discover more on his website.
Regional Prize, EMEA: Alain Nteff
Co-Founder, GiftedMom - $5,000 ad credits & regional executive mentorship
"Today, there's still no easy way for 1.5 billion people in emerging markets to access health services. An exploding population growth, over-burdened and underfunded health systems and huge doctor to patient gap is making it worse. Maternal mortality remains high in most parts of Africa with 800 pregnant women dying per day while giving life from causes that can be preventable.
At GiftedMom, we are building a modern digital health infrastructure to leapfrog access, enabling people to get health information and connect to a doctor from their mobile phone and Facebook Messenger. We’re democratising healthcare access in emerging markets with primary focus on Africa. Our mobile and chat-bot based remote health support service gives life-saving information to pregnant women and mothers and enable patients to text, find and book a doctor."
Learn more on their website and Facebook.
