THEY ARE NOT RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT, BUT THEY ARE CHANGING THE WORLD TOO !

By Nicholas D. Kristof
Article Launched: 01/29/2008 01:31:59 AM PST



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DAVOS, Switzerland - With the American presidential campaign in full swing, the obvious way to change the world might seem to be through politics.

But growing numbers of young people are leaping into the fray and doing the job themselves. These are the social entrepreneurs, the 21st-century answer to the student protesters of the 1960s, and they are some of the most interesting people here at the World Economic Forum (not only because they're half the age of everyone else).

Andrew Klaber, a 26-year-old playing hooky from Harvard Business School to come here, is an example of the social entrepreneur. He spent the summer after his sophomore year in college in Thailand and was aghast to see teenage girls being forced into prostitution after their parents had died of AIDS.

So he started Orphans Against AIDS (http://www.orphansagainstaids.org/), which pays school-related expenses for hundreds of children who have been orphaned or otherwise affected by AIDS in poor countries. He and his friends volunteer their time and pay administrative costs out of their own pockets so that every penny goes to the children.

Klaber was able to expand the non-profit organization in Africa through introductions made by Jennifer Staple, who was a year ahead of him when they were in college. When she was a sophomore, Staple founded an organization in her dorm room to collect old reading glasses in the United States and ship them to poor countries. That group, Unite for Sight, has ballooned, and last year it provided eye care to 200,000 people (http://www.uniteforsight.org/).



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In the '60s, perhaps the most remarkable Americans were the civil rights workers and anti-war protesters who started movements that transformed the country. In the 1980s, the most fascinating people were entrepreneurs such as Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, who started companies and ended up revolutionizing the way we use technology.

Today the most remarkable young people are the social entrepreneurs, those who see a problem in society and roll up their sleeves to address it in new ways. Bill Drayton, the chief executive of an organization called Ashoka that supports social entrepreneurs, likes to say that such people neither hand out fish nor teach people to fish; their aim is to revolutionize the fishing industry.
Universities are now offering classes in social entrepreneurship, and there are a growing number of role models.

One of the social entrepreneurs here is Soraya Salti, a 37-year-old Jordanian woman who is trying to transform the Arab world by teaching entrepreneurship in schools. Her organization, Injaz, is now training 100,000 Arab students each year to find a market niche, construct a business plan and then launch and nurture a business.

The program (http://www.injaz.org.jo/) has spread to 12 Arab countries and is aiming to teach 1 million students a year. Salti argues that entrepreneurs can stimulate the economy, give young people a purpose and revitalize the Arab world. Girls in particular have flourished in the program, which has had excellent reviews and is getting support from the U.S. Agency for International Development. My hunch is that Salti will contribute more to stability and peace in the Middle East than any number of tanks in Iraq, U.N. resolutions or summit meetings.

Another young person on a mission is Ariel Zylbersztejn, a 27-year-old Mexican who founded and runs a company called Cinepop, which projects movies onto inflatable screens and shows them free in public parks. Zylbersztejn realized that 90 percent of Mexicans can't afford to go to movies, so he started his own business model: He sells sponsorships to companies to advertise to the thousands of viewers who come to watch the free entertainment.

Zylbersztejn works with micro-credit agencies and social welfare groups to engage the families that come to his movies and help them start businesses or try other strategies to overcome poverty. His goal is to take the model to Brazil, India, China and other countries.

So as we follow the presidential campaign, let's not forget that the winner isn't the only one who will shape the world. Only one person can become president of the United States, but there's no limit to the number of social entrepreneurs who can make this planet a better place.

NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
A New York Times columnist.


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