The World Challenge

The BBC and Newsweek are sponsoring The World Challenge, a competition "aimed at finding individuals or groups from around the world who have shown enterprise and innovation at a grassroots level. This competition is all about finding entrepreneurs whose projects are making a difference to communities." Here are the 12 finalists:

1. "A Chilli Reception," Zambia
2. "Weaving Magic, " Kenya
3. "Bugs Money," Kenya
4. "Coconets," Philippines
5. "Dye-ing for Change," United Kingdom
6. "Fat Chance," Malta
7. "Lucky Birds," Spain
8. "Men at Work," South Africa
9. "My Big Fat Ethical Wedding," United States
10. "Reef Rehab," Vanuatu
11. "Rooftop Revolution," Ukraine
12. "Snakes Alive,"India

The public is invited to go to their website and vote for who they think should win. The winner receives a $20,000 US grant from Shell for the continuation of their project. I'm going to vote for the "Coconets" project in the Philippines, because it's good to see people in my ancestral country making the move to better the lives of citizens and to also help the environment by recycling coconut byproducts. My dad's hometown in the Philippines was pretty much devastated by the "lahar," a rapidly flowing mix of debris, rock, and water that happened as a result of the Mt. Pinatubo volcanic eruption, causing my grandparents, and the rest of our extended family to evacuate their long-time home and move to a nearby city. Perhaps the proliferation of these "coconets" will help prevent more of this erosion from taking place.

Anyway, check out the short profiles of each of the finalists. It's very interesting to see how the seemingly tinest of ideas can make such a huge impact.