22lightbulbs: Humanitarian Entrepreneur Stories

The 2018 hurricane season starts today. Puerto Rico is still battling lack of access to electricity and light post Hurricane Maria in 2017. Mpowerd co-founder John Salzinger went to Puerto Rico recently and is committed to providing light and safety after the sun goes down. Listen to the story and help get solar lights to Puerto Rico! 

Every 2 minutes 60 women die giving birth due to lack of access to safe birth supplies. Birthing Project USA has helped ensure the safe delivery of over 10,000 babies born in the US and 13 countries. Listen to the story and help get clean birth kits to women in Malawi.

Puerto Rico still needs help as they battle the longest blackout in U.S. history, and a life-threatening lack of clean water nearly eight months after Hurricane Maria. World Hope International (WHI) has been on the ground in Puerto Rico since day one, relying on local networks and local partners to distribute water, water filters, generators, and medical and solar power supplies where they are needed most.  World Hope is working with crowdfunding site Level Giving to encourage donors to buy solar lights and water filters to send to Puerto Rico. 

Hear the story behind Level Giving from cofounders Faseeha Khan Jensen and Stephanie Cox and why they hustled to bring a new crowdfunding platform to life post Hurricane Maria. Aid needs are growing. You can help meet them with our new crowd funding platform designed specifically for transparent charitable giving. By purchasing supplies for a nonprofit, you'll now exactly how your donation dollars are being put to work. Learn more by listening now! 

This Shark Tank company designed a light to help with aid efforts during the Haiti earthquake. Since then, the lights have been used in more than 100 countries.

Named of of the fastest growing companies in 2015 by INC, Ecozoom cookstoves are now in more than 30 percent of all homes in Rwanda.

Using their engineering prowess, this social enterprise figured out how to put a water treatment plant in a bag.

More than 1 billion people in the world don't have access to a light switch. WakaWaka is on a mission to share the sun.

This revolutionary drop fits in the palm of your hand and cleans 2,000 liters of water over 6 months. 

We discuss some hurdles that entrepreneurs face in the areas of clarity, people and money. Teju also provides some useful advice for scaling solutions, such as prototyping and being unafraid to ask for help.

We talk birth control and female empowerment with Denise R. van Dijk, president of the Global Public Health Sector Division of The Female Health Company. (Don't be shy - this is super important stuff and not G-rated!)

Through his social ventures, Paul has inspired a revolution in how companies design, price, market and distribute products. This prolific humanitarian entrepreneur and 2-time author discusses business solutions to poverty. 

This humanitarian entrepreneur discusses how a simple oxygen device can save lives and reduce infant mortality by 35%. He shares his three principles for medical device design and humanitarian supplies.

Andrew discusses personal wireless electricity and the nexus between design for the humanitarian aid market and the outdoor industry. One is about survival and one is about privilege, but some of the design principles are the same. 

Feeding the hungry with nutritious ready to use food isn't a cake walk. Trucks full of food stuck in Turkey and a need so great, these two women navigate unknown obstacles daily.

Ivan discusses how robots that don't sleep take humans out of harms way.

Megan discusses how lending libraries for solar lights helps improve education in Africa. 

Scott discusses his insulated modular flooring that's easy enough for kids to install and is changing the quality of life for refugees in Lebanon. 

Beth describes how designing a product so good helped to open up markets she didn't expect. 

Trine Sig of Real Relief discusses her work creating intelligent sanitary pads to help women and girls around the world.