The New Heroes

PBS showed an incredible series this summer called The New Heroes. Over the course of four episodes, the show explores the lives of 14 social entrepreneurs. The New Heroes site defines a social entrepreneur as someone who "identifies and solves social problems on a large scale." I was only able to Tivo two of the episodes, but they were amazing. 3 or 4 entrepreneurs are profiled in each episode. The two I saw were about education and technology.

One of the most amazing profiles in the "Technology of Freedom" episode was about these two guys, Nick Moon & Martin Fisher, and their project, KickStart. They created this amazing micro-irrigation technology that allows farmers in Africa to water their crops in what would usually take one day, in one hour.

Another stirring and beautifully shot piece in the "Power of Knowledge" episode was about Inderjit Khurana who creates schools on train platforms for children who spend their day begging at the stations rather than going to school. They believe that if children can't go to school, the schools must go to the children.

I highly recommend the series and you can still order it on DVD at the New Heroes Web site.

Or, you can host a New Heroes house party and the Skoll Foundation will send you a free DVD with 4 stories, and will match any donations that you collect. The cool part is that you can give your money directly to one of the people or organizations profiled on the show.

I am thinking about hosting a New Heroes house party/cupcake tasting party. My cupcake tasting party yesterday was so fun it would be nice to combine it with something like supporting amazing folks.

But first I have to get my table together for The People's Grocery fundraising brunch on September 18th.