We noticed that you got your inspiration from your travels to India. What happened in India that inspired you? Did you see another example similar to OUWA?
No, it was being confronted with two realities; one, that extreme poverty exists on a large scale, and two, that there are many people trying to do something about it. It made me want to do something about it. The idea for OUWA didn’t start forming until a couple of years later, and didn’t full come into focus until a solid 5+ years later. We did a lot of research. The model isn’t completely original in that the parts stem from other models; open educational resources, microfinance, cooperatives, etc. But it is a beautiful piece of recombinant innovation. 

What has been your motivation for your projects and who is your role model in the entrepreneurial world?
I don’t like problems. I see poverty as a problem. One that needs to be solved. I didn’t feel like people were truly stepping up and doing so in a way that would actually achieve 100% eradication. So I wanted to see what would happen if I put my soul, heart and brain to it. Think we are making progress. Pretty excited at this point. As far as a role model, I have had a few. The most poignant is Antonio Meloto, founder of Gawad Kaligna – the Philippines’ largest grassroots social business. 

Why did you choose Ghana for this project? Do you have any personal connection to this place?
Ghana was strategically the right environment to incubate this idea. It is stable, Anglophone, etc. 

What was your greatest achievement and biggest disappointment in your entrepreneurial career?
My greatest achievement to date has been mentoring a team that was the highest ranked startup (Global Startup Battle) in West Africa. Amazing idea, amazing team. My biggest disappointment has been the friends I have lost along the way. Building things is complicated. Egos get in the way. Disagreements about money get in the way. Being a social entrepreneur can really take its toll on your friendships. 

Your project is doing great and is very ambitious. However, if there was anything you could have done differently when starting up what would that have been?
I think we should have found a local co-founder from day one. 

How did you manage to make your project financially sustainable when you first started? And how do you intend to make it financial sustainable in the future as well? 
We are reinventing the model of the university. We focus on long-term revenue streams, not tuition. In the short term, we stay afloat by sharing the burden of aspects of our operating cost via the co-working/hub model. 

How do you think the entrepreneurial world has changed since you started? 
It seems like there is an emergence in the “cluster”, “hub”, etc. world. I think this collaborative, streamlining, trend is super positive. 

What are your next big steps with OUWA and what is your vision?
My vision is to see 1,000,000+++ students enrolled in nearly free higher education. To see 10,000,000 families find employment in our ecosystem. To end poverty. Our next big steps to do this will be to add faculties. Medicine (the PA program) is the first in line. Working with some amazing people on that. 

What advice would you give to up coming entrepreneurs? Both from getting an idea to making it happen and financial advice?  
Start. Pivot. 

Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? 
I didn’t. It just happened. 

Interviewee: Sebastian Lindstrom (Sweden)
Region: Africa
Category: Filmmaking

I, Sebastian Per David Lindstrom, hail from Sweden where I served in the Swedish Military Special Forces, learning, among other things, how to survive in -30 degree Celsius weather. After the chilly winters of Sweden, I thawed, graduating from the University of Hong Kong's International Business and Global Management program. I have also consumed knowledge at educational institutions in Singapore, China and Korea. I’m the co-founder of non profit organizations and have become an integral part of several more globally-focused groups, including the Sandbox-Network. One such organization, Light for Children I co-founded with two Ghanian partners in 2005.  The organization works with HIV-infected children and mobilizes volunteers from around the world every year to volunteer in Ghana on a variety of child-centered projects. I maintain links with The University of Hong Kong as part of this growing network that supports the region’s affected children.

Prompted by the question 'What took you so long?’, I bought the domain whattookyousolong.org (WTYSL) and subsequently launched a film expedition across Africa in search of the unsung heroes in the international aid community. In 2008, using only public transportation, we traveled from Morocco to South Africa. A new and highly formative string was added to my bow when the filmmaker Alicia Sully joined the crew of volunteers, later becoming an integral part of WTYSL. Upon completion of the documentary expedition, WTYSL co-created a screening tour which brought the film to 20 cities and universities across the US and eight European countries. 

WTYSL works in collaborations with NGOs and is contracted for freelance work. Some clients and partners include: USAID, TED, PBS, EDC (Education Development Center), Agora Partnerships, Makeshift Magazine, and PSI (Population Services International).

I am a passionate and energetic speaker who talks about what I know best, namely Guerrilla film-making and camel milk. The guerrilla ethos developed over the four years of WTYSL's existence filming non-profits and social businesses in more than 60 countries. In guerrilla filmmaking you embrace the unknown, never getting permits, working with semi-professionals and volunteers, and moving around with local people on public transport.

The most ambitious project thus far has involved a year-long journey, covering 20 countries, filming camel milk entrepreneurship and cultures. Due to this expedition I have become a huge Camel Milk promoter and consumer. To test out the Bedouin tradition of camel milk detoxification I stopped eating food and water in Nairobi and instead started consuming only unpasteurized Kenyan camel milk. Each day I drank five liters of the milk and after nine days my mind and body were clear. At the conclusion of my camel milk detox I was invited to Swedish TV’s biggest morning show to share camel milk and camel cheese with the host.

In April 2012 WTYSL was the official documentary team for the first ever TEDxSummit in Doha, Qatar, where 700 TEDx organizers from around the world joined forces to coordinate the 'ideas worth spreading' movement. A month later, taking the ‘ideas worth spreading’ further, WTYSL helped organize TEDxMogadishu "Re-birth" in a city that some still call "the most dangerous city on earth." The Somali Diaspora joined the event from abroad via live stream and Twitter to take part of the first sign of normalcy after 21 years of war in a stateless environment. In May the WTYSL team was in Rwanda filming the Rwanda Open Summit; a collaborative innovative space with education professionals from around the world who came together to discuss the future of education in the developing world. In June I was invited to collaborate on the education committee for Create32; an Austrian governmental initiative organized by the Austrian entrepreneurship organization to develop a vision of how the country should look 20 years from now. In July, I was a speaker and facilitator at the International Baccalaureate World Student Conference on Social Entrepreneurship in Segovia, Spain. 

Currently I’m in the Center for International Education’s Master’s Program where I’m focusing on open education solutions in complex regions. I will very likely remain an enthusiastic generalist due to my healthy obsession connecting people to co-create progress. Traditional education is not dead, it is just realigning itself in the world of crowd-everything and I would like to be part of this process. 

Goals
After over four years of filming, producing, editing and coordinating over 100 videos for non-profits and social businesses in over 60 countries, I have decided to dedicate two years of my life studying and working at CIE. 

The conversations I have had with CIE staff in the last month triggered me to venture out deep into the sea of alternative educational methods. I have decided that I would like to focus on the educational possibilities linked to the Open Knowledge movement.

My goal is to develop new open education solutions for children and youth, particularly in complex and fragile environments, that help eliminate barriers of entry into quality learning experiences. I want to assist in the creation of an ecosystem where knowledge is not pre-determined but can emerge through study and empower learners to feel curiosity of inquiry.

Rationale
Education systems, for some, have been a vehicle of division and the accumulation of power for a ruling elite. There are also massive challenges in delivering quality education to the approximately 39 million out-of-school children around the world who live in situations affected by vicious conflict.

I envision a future where Open Educational Resources (OER), a sub-product of Open Knowledge that promotes the idea of free sharing and peer collaboration, could potentially alleviate the digital divide between the global North and the global South. OERs will also contribute to decreasing the resource divide between rural and urban learning environments.

Such open education initiatives can widen access to quality education, especially when distributed and shared amongst many countries and higher education institutions. 

The primary region of intervention will be the Middle East and Africa. To enable a deeper understanding of the Arab context, I will undertake a program of language study. My chosen dialect is Egyptian Arabic, as it is most widely spoken and understood in the Arab world. To further build upon my filmmaking background, I will obtain a Graduate Film Certificate.

Flash. Right now a lot of my passion to film comes from my fellow team member Nate Mook ; he just told me to watch On the Road. This morning when I woke up I realized that my friend’s other restaurant in Mogadishu had been bombed and I felt no hunger to read or write. I wanted to sit down and run away so I started to watch Nate’s movie suggestion. One quote in the movie especially captured my imagination. “We were leaving confusion and nonsense behind, performing our one noble function of the time, move”. It resonates with me. In the end of the day my only quest is to move.

What is the vision for your films? What do you hope they will be contributing in the short- and long-term?
Our vision is to explain the world; other people will watch, take action, and in a perfect world,  improve it.

• Short-term we strive to create movement of thoughts and ideas; potentially through provocation, buzz or inverted hype.
• Long term we want to create measurable positive outputs like increase in funding, changes in the way people think / operate / share / do / live. 

How did you come up with the idea for the WTYSL Foundation? 
The name derives from a conversation with a girl named Lina who used to be very close to my sister. We were in a car driving to a beach somewhere in Los Angeles. 

For some reason Lina says: “What took you so long?” It resonated with my ongoing questioning of everything around me so I decided to buy the domain  whattookyousolong.org right away. What the domain would be used for was at this point still very unclear.

The idea of what we are, what we do and what we want to achieve has been fluid. I would argue that it is a child exploring and evolving throughout the world of development, outputs and impacts. Filming was initially a segment of our quest; it is now our vector of output; our soul to give. 

You seem to have become an expert of Africa, despite the fact that you are originally from Sweden. Tell us more about this and how it happened that you decided to follow this path.
Me nor anyone in the WTYSL team will ever consider ourselves to be an expert in Africa or anything else. The learning theory Connectivism teaches us that some people are good at finding the knowledge, others store it. I would consider myself, at the best, to be in the category of know-where rather than know-how. If a path is needed I’m on a path of diversity. A quote I read sometime ago in a report titled "future work skills 2020" by the institute for the future at the ‘University of Phoenix research Institute’ concludes that "Research now tells us that what makes a group truly intelligent and innovative is the combination of different ages, skills, disciplines, and working and thinking styles that members bring to the table". The What Took You So long team can embrace that diversity of learning and share via peerology and knowmadic epiphanies. 

Who is your role model in the entrepreneurial world? And why? 
I’m inspired by people who can do things that I can’t. Playing the guitar, the drums ; singing properly. Artists ; people who can paint and use their fingers in any direction. Long distance runners who can deliver four marathons in a row. I feel weak but it inspires me to push harder. Steve Jobs makes a great point in this video from 1995 ; 

“Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you”.

What are the greatest challenges you have met in your entrepreneurial career to date?
To see a purpose in everything around you.

How did you make your organization financially sustainable? Do you have any financial advice to give to upcoming entrepreneurs? 
Stay off the radar. Minimize expenses rather than focusing on profits. Flexible budgeting where larger organizations will pay more for your services and smaller org’s will get a sweat subsidized price tag to enjoy. Don’t have kids. Have cheese for dinner. Couchsurf without guilt world wide. Ditch an office. Get unlimited data on your phone and turn it into a hot spot. Make love to the media ; they will add credibility to your story. Don’t feel bad about borrowing stuff. Make people believe in you as a person. Set up boxes with your belongings in friends apartments on all five continents. Make conferences pay for your biggest cost, air fare. 

If you were to start your organization today, what would you do differently?
I wouldn’t try to raise money with an idea to redistribute it to projects that were ‘good’. 

I would have bought a motorbike. I should have learned a new language. Built a stronger advisory board earlier on. Discuss scalability models in a dark room with people I don’t know.

Tell us about something you are exceptionally proud of?
I’m proud of the great friends I have made on the road. Filmmaking is the perfect vector to share your energy with curious souls. 

What was crucial when you founded your organization and what would you advice other entrepreneurs to do when starting up?
Start your vehicle and wait as long as possible until you register the venture into a non, for or hybrid profit / corp. Provoke to gain traction. Disrupt everything. Talk to everyone. Surround yourself with diversity. 

What are you next big goals with the organization and in life generally?

Big goals:

1.     Find a good animator who wants to join the road.
2.     Set up a Guerilla filmmaking school.
3.     Understand what complexity is all about.
4.     Be more humble.
5.     Learn Final Cut Pro 10.
6.     Learn Arabic.
7.     Buy a pair of second hand running shoes.
8.     Read more.
9.     Write more.
10.  Give back more.

Is there anything else you would like to add or talk about?
My running shoes were stolen by a taxi driver in Boston so now I can’t exercise.

If you want to learn more about what Sebastian is up to and the camel milk project, then take a look at his TED talk:

"Every society can only be as intelligent, effective and successful as the people it‘s made of. […] It is not an indulgence to cultivate great talent, it is an indulgence, a criminal indulgence not to do so." (Dr. Alfred Herrhausen, former Chairman of Deutsche Bank)

Interviewee: Dr. Florian Kapitza
Focus Region: Africa & Asia
Category: Education support

Education is the most important lever for the development of people and people are the most important lever for the development of any society. But the problem is that 400 million people worldwide don’t have access to secondary education. Their chances to realize their potential and contribute to the economic, political and social development of their countries are consequently extremely limited.

Aiducation International is a for-impact organization, dedicated to giving people access to education. Founded in 2007 by parts of Kenya’s civil society, the organization awards merit-based high school scholarships to bright and needy students in developing countries (current focus is on Kenya). Thereby, donors (AiduMakers) donate in a highly impact-efficient way: They help individuals (AiduFellows) to realize their chances in life, while at the same time pushing the human capital in developing countries closer to their factual potential. The 1-1 principle ensures very high transparency of the investment as the AiduMaker receives regular performance reports during the 4 years of the scholarship. The AiduMaker can participate in selecting the student and each scholarship is named after the AiduMaker (e.g. “Frank-Smith-Scholarship”). Until today, Aiducation has been awarded numerous prices and is run by volunteers (called Aiducators) with chapters in Germany, Kenya, Switzerland, and UK.

Currently Aiducation International awards 150 scholarships per year on merit to high achieving children in Kenya who are identified as potential future leaders. It offers mentorship, networking and job placement opportunities to these young adults.

As the co-founder of Aiducation International, Dr. Florian Kapitza said, “I'm part of Aiducation International because I want to help students realize their potential and I love achieving this together with very inspiring people from all over the world!”

How did you come up with the idea? When and how did Aiducation International get started?
It all started with Jeremiah Kiponda Kambi (Kenya) who had received a scholarship to become a physician. It was then that he understood the importance of complementary funding programs in order to support deserving students in their education and career development, an investment from which the entire community would benefit. At that time (1998/99), I lived in Ivory Coast and was amazed by the diversity of young talents. However, I also understood that they would hardly realize their potential, as many of them did not even have access to basic education – a prerequisite for the development of a person. When we (Kristin and myself) met Jeremiah and heard about the idea to give opportunities to high-potential students with financial need, it immediately appealed to us. Together with several friends, the three of us founded Aiducation International with one part of the team in Kenya to identify deserving applicants and one part of the team in Switzerland to raise funds to finance scholarships and push the idea forward. It was only later that we realized the similar patterns across many if not all developing countries: A large variety of high-potentials but no opportunities to unleash their talent through education and other career possibilities.

How has your project evolved over time and where are you standing today?
Over the past years we have grown from a small idea without any supporters to an organization, which awards 150 scholarships per year to high achieving children in Kenya who were identified as potential future leaders.

This is a remarkable success and I am sure you are very happy about your positioning. Could you tell us about the biggest impacts of your project to the sustainable social development in the African society?
In Kenya, we pay the school fees for our “AiduFellows” (scholars). This has an enormous impact. It gives hope to the AiduFellows and their families, it reduces the number of students out of school who often face brutal alternatives to going to school: working as day laborers, sitting at home, and in some cases even being married off long before their 18th birthday. We have had several such situations already, in one extreme case one of our scholarships led to the cancelling of an arranged marriage of our of our students. So, the impact is often very tangible. And above all our scholarships give our students the chance to excel in school: 2/3 of our AiduFellows belong to the top 30% of their classes in secondary schools, with a good reputation and traditionally academically strong class mates. One of our AiduFellows is for example David Charo Katana who recently graduated from secondary school as the best out of several thousands students in his county.

Apart from that immediate impact our scholarships will also have a long-term impact, as all AiduFellow are part of a network of high potentials that will move their country forward in an economic, political, and social way.

As an entrepreneur, what are you doing in order to remain on top of things and reinvent what you’re doing to ensure your strong position?
I exchange ideas with other entrepreneurs and read relevant literature.

How do you evaluate the competition between NGOs in the charitable educational field in Africa? Which are your major competitors and what are you doing better / different?
I think there is healthy, positive competition just like in any other field of the economy. It propels the different organizations forward.

What is Aiducation doing differently than many others?
There are four things, which characterize us and distinguish us from others. First, it is the use of donations. The 1-1 principle ensures very high transparency of the investment as the AiduMaker receives regular performance reports during the 4 years of the scholarship. The AiduMaker is part of an informal selection committee and decides from a pre-selected pool of AiduSeekers who he/ she wants to support and each scholarship is named after the AiduMaker (e.g. “Frank-Smith-Scholarship”). Regular reports inform AiduMakers on personal progress and impact. Second, we believe that education is the most effective way of realizing potential. Therefore, Aiducation’s activities fully focus on providing access to education and we are proud to say that 90% of all scholarship funds are invested directly into education. Third, we believe in meritocracy. Consequently, each AiduFellow has to go through a rigorous selection process in which financial neediness and brightness are carefully assessed. Therefore, our AiduFellows are high-potentials capable of contributing significantly to the social, economic and political development of their country. Fourth, Aiducation supports AiduFellows financially (Aid to Education Program) and non-financially (Education to Aid Program) by making them become part of an exclusive network of high potentials. The Education to Aid Program, consisting of elements like mentorship academies, group mentoring, career rotations, workshops, project work, seminars, internships, training, startup experiences and others, allow the students to meet and learn from high profile speakers and from other each other. The whole program empowers AiduFellows to live active lives and to use their potential and capabilities for the economic, political, and social development of their country.

Do you collaborate with other educational charities to have a stronger impact? Which and why?
We collaborate loosely with SOS Children’s Villages in Kenya and Shining Hope for Communities. Both organizations help us recruit suitable candidates.

Many people admit that improving governance mechanisms and transparency in Africa could reduce opportunities for corruption. What are your experiences with corruption and how does that affect what you’re trying to do?
Luckily we have never had active contact to corruption. It is an important problem in Kenya and mainly affects dealing with public authorities. Since our funds go directly to Kenya and then directly to the schools, we are hardly affected by it. 

Are there any other barriers that constrain social entrepreneurs like yourself and governments from working more effectively together? How might they be overcome?
We have never applied for any government grants. At one time we approached the Swiss Development Aid organization, the DEZA and asked if they are interested in working together. Their answer was that they prefer working directly together with government agencies, rather than foundations, companies, or for-impact organizations like Aiducation.

Many non-African NGOs have to listen to criticism that they make a living on the poverty and necessity of the people they work with and that their activities are non-transparent and non-sustainable. How do you ensure that Aiducation International does not fall into the range of these NGOs and what do you do in order to transfer knowledge and resources to the local level for a more sustainable development?
We do so based on four principles.

• Sustainability: Is there something more sustainable than empowering the young generation with education to push their own country forward? 
• Transparency: our concept guarantees a very high level of transparency. The AiduMaker selects the student and a very large portion of his/ her money is invested into that specific student. Moreover our yearly report provides a very high degree of transparency on what we do. Last but not least, any donor is highly welcome to attend our Mentorship Academies in Kenya and directly talk to “his/ her” AiduFellow.
• Living on poverty: To say organizations like Aiducation are living on poverty is like saying that hospitals and doctors are living on cancer and diseases. We are not living on poverty but trying to get rid of it with an innovative and promising approach that has been widely neglected in the past.
• Knowledge transfer: In our Mentorship Academies, invited guest speakers – mainly from Kenya but also some from abroad – pass on their knowledge and experience to the high potentials. Apart from that, we also work closely together with our Kenyan chapter and mentor and coach them in our every day dealings. 

What advice would you give to social entrepreneurs in Kenya or other African countries as well as non-African entrepreneurs who want to get started there?
Just do it.

What are your goals for Aiducation International?
We want to activate as much human potential as possible. Next year, we plan to add the Philippines as another Talent Raising Site to our organization and we are looking for more corporate partners, foundations and private people to support our mission.