Continuity Forum

Aboquete recycles agro-industrial organic residues and transforms them into organic fertilizers.  The residues are inoculated with beneficial microorganisms consisting of fungi, which control harmful insects.  The result is an ecological solution that improves the health and quality of life of the agro-entrepreneur, his collaborators and the final consumer by reducing the consumption of agro-chemicals and maximizes productivity up to 30 percent.  From an environmental perspective, Aboquete trains agro-entrepreneurs in the use of organic residues to minimize the pollution of ground waters.

http://www.aboquete.com

The Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM) works to improve the livelihoods of artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) communities through improved social and environmental practices, labor conditions, good governance and the implementation of ecosystem restoration practices.  ARM follows a bottom-up approach, building on local traditional knowledge and seeking to respond to community initiatives that reduce poverty and empower natural resource management.

http://www.communitymining.org

Biotectónica improves the quality of the environment of urban areas in Colombia by transforming building surfaces into green landscapes such as bio-roofs and bio-walls.  In order to create these bio-systems, Biotectónica uses local labor, knowledge, production chains, recycled materials and specialized plants.  More than 30,000 square meters of implementation have positively impacted urban environments and contributed to improving air quality, increasing the sustainable management of rain water, aiding noise absorption, mitigating climate change, increasing energy savings and promoting the conservation of biodiversity.

http://www.biotectonica.com

Build Change works to save lives in developing countries by designing earthquake-resistant houses and creates jobs by training people to construct the houses.  Build Change creates permanent changes in construction practice so that houses built in the absence of external funding and technical support are also resistant to natural disasters.  This is done by forming partnerships with local and national governments, humanitarian agencies and financial institutions.

http://www.buildchange.org

The Center for Nutritional Recovering and Education (CREN) fights against malnutrition by treating undernourished and obese children and adolescents through health, educational and psychosocial intervention programs within communities, day-hospital and outpatient facilities.  The awareness of malnutrition is possible through the action of nutritional recovery centers such as CREN.

http://www.cren.org.br

Colectivo Sol works with LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) and HIV/AIDS populations in Mexico to promote and defend their human rights, dignity and health.  The organization provides capacity building, technical assistance and seed monies to LGBT individuals and those living with HIV/AIDS so that they act as community champions identifying, documenting and denouncing abuse and persecution against them, especially by health service providers and the police.

http://www.colectivosol.org

The 1.2 billion people worldwide living with a catastrophic disease may feel hopeless that an effective treatment will be created in their lifetime through the standard “New Drug Discovery” research and development system in the United States.  Cures Within Reach hopes to transform their lives and reduce healthcare costs through Rediscovery Research that proves an existing drug used for one disease can safely, quickly and affordably become a “new” treatment for entirely different disease.

http://www.4cures.org

From community violence to war, violence at every level impairs the growth and development of business and destroys the lives of millions of people all over the world.  CureViolence treats violence in a new way, as a contagious epidemic.  The organization utilizes the methodology in place to reverse and stop other infectious epidemics, such as detecting and interrupting potentially lethal events and changing community behaviors and norms.

http://www.cureviolence.org

Diagonal Asociación Civil works towards employment reintegration of persons 45 and older who have lost their jobs and are subject to strong labor discrimination due to their age.  In Argentina, there are currently more than 700,000 people in this situation.  Through its holistic approach, Diagonal offers technical and emotional training that widely enhances the employability of people unemployed and 45 and older.  It deals with the psychological aspects of unemployment in this age group.  According to the organization, 57 percent of those who participate in the workshops are employed within less than six months.

http://www.diagonal.org.ar

In Mexico, there are 6 million families living in shacks.  ¡Échale! a tu Casa is a social impact franchise program that provides sustainable community development through the production of housing.  The program aims to restructure the community’s networking outlets and cure the flaws inherent to the self-building process through the implementation of social inclusion, empowerment, technology, training, financial education, social financial trust and innovation.

http://www.echale.com.mx

Enova is a social enterprise dedicated to creating informed digital citizens by providing underserved Mexican communities with access to quality educational opportunities and information technologies.  According to the organization, Mexico’s educational system is failing; for every 100 Mexican children, only 25 graduate from high school and only 13 obtain a college degree.  The digital divide is also significant; 69 percent of the population does not have access to computers or the Internet.  Enova’s solution to this problem is the RIA (The Learning and Innovation Network), a group of 70 educational centers located throughout Mexico.  The RIA provides access to computers in a safe and pleasant environment, develops a blended learning model supported by excellently trained facilitators and offers a range of courses specialized to the needs of Mexican students.

http://www.enova.mx

Espavé Foundation seeks to sustainably manage the resources derived from tropical forests and to develop revenue generation alternatives that responsibly utilize these resources.  To achieve this, the foundation promotes the creation of new local economies that establish processes and identify products that are innovative and unique to the industry and the market, developing strategic alliances between the communities, the state and the private sector.

http://www.espave.org.co

Fairtrasa helps underprivileged, small-scale farmers in Third World countries escape poverty and improve their lives by providing them with technical support and access to international markets.  The comapny helps to ensure that farmers are paid fair prices for their produce, which can often be up to 10 times higher than local market prices, and help them increase their yields to become self-sufficient and grow beyond subsistence level.

http://www.fairtrasa.com

Food Recovery Network (FRN) unites students at colleges and universities to fight food waste and hunger by recovering surplus perishable food from their campuses that would otherwise go to waste and instead donating it to people in need.  The Food Recovery Network brings the food to homeless shelters, food banks and other non-profits in the surrounding communities.

http://www.foodrecoverynetwork.org

Fundación Origen (Proayuda a la Mujer) is a leading organization in Mexico that tackles issues related to female comprehensive development.  Fundación Origen works with women to help them improve their and their familes’ quality life through two programs: Origen Helpline and Origen Home.  Their objective is to provide personalized psychological and legal attention to women and their families, and to follow-up with every case handled through a confidential and free service.  They also offer tools for self-improvement for women in the areas of human development, education, health, occupation, productivity and child programs.

http://www.origenac.org

Fundación de Financiamiento Rural (Fundefir) (Rural Financing Foundation) is an organization that works to promote economic and social development of communities and their inhabitants through the execution of a broad applied finance training program that offers consulting tools for the development of skills in the fields of finance, family business, association and community development.

http://www.fundefir.org.ve

According to Genetic Alliance, the fragmentation of the current healthcare system prevents innovation by impeding public engagement and creating barriers to accessing information and services for more than 7,000 genetic diseases worldwide.  The company develops technology and infrastructure solutions that empower individuals to reclaim their health, activating a network of communities, health professionals and researchers to streamline the healthcare system and refocus it on patients’ needs.

http://www.geneticalliance.org

The GreenShield is an aerodynamic add-on that attaches to the roof of school buses.  It reduces drag force, thereby improving gas mileage.  The goal is simple: equip as many school buses with the GreenShield as possible, at little or no cost to the schools.  The device is a simple, easy to install tool that can provide an immediate financial benefit to schools that already face significant budgetary constraints, as well as an environmental benefit thanks to the reduction in the consumption of fossil fuels.

http://www.greenshieldsproject.com

Green Social Bioethanol aims to help the world’s poorest rural communities living with little or no energy by providing them with an innovative way to produce their own fuel.  This bioethanol can be used to power electric generators and fuel clean cook stoves, farming machinery and flexible fuel vehicles.  The use of this product will enrich these communities’ overall livelihood with autonomy and reliable markets.

http://www.green-social.com

Sierra Gorda is a living laboratory with 42,000 participants in different programs that aims to mitigate global warming and poverty through the conservation and restoration of natural resources and extraordinary local biodiversity.  Founded in 1989, Sierra Gorda has a social and environmental return on investment system that measures the scope and benefits of their actions at a 17.4 percent return for each dollar invested, paving the way for a new “economy of conservation” for the population.  The labratory has a replication strategy in place with tools for sharing the projects’ best practices: ecotourism, forest and soil carbon offsets, a social movement for conservation, strengthening of the civilian population, soil restoration activities, in-person workshops and the operation of a virtual campus.

http://www.sierragorda.net

MABB is the first Latin American start-up to develop the technology to produce metal-free dental implants using a ceramic nanomaterial called Zirconia Ytrria.  This revolutionary dental implant, which offers maximum biocompatibility and aesthetics, is currently produced in Europe and the USA, but is only available to wealthier individuals due to its high price.  MABB will produce and provide this product to public dental hospitals and non-governmental organizations with the goal of providing a better quality of life to the region’s most vulnerable populations, 60 percent of whom are partially toothless.  The organization’s slogan is “1 implant = 1 dollar.”

http://www.mabbiomaterial.com

Mia Senior Living Solutions (Mia) has developed an affordable assisted living model that allows low-income and disabled seniors living in public or subsidized housing to remain in their own homes with services.  Mia’s work has so far been implemented in 23 states within the USA with over 5,000 people served to date and an estimated 50,000 more in the next five years.  The model combines resident social security incomes with government service subsidies and has proven to generate economic activity, new jobs, neighborhood revitalization, drastic savings in Medicaid and Medicare and significant improvements in residents’ health and well-being.

http://www.miaseniorliving.com

The Movicáncer-Nicaragua Foundation is a non-governmental organization that focuses on creating awareness about cancer prevention through the use of information technologies.  Considered a Latin American pioneer in its approach, Movicáncer developed in 2007 and has since implemented the SIVIPCAN, a highly effective software that enables follow-up of positive pre-cancer cases in women in an effort to prevent the advancement of cervical and breast cancer.  In 2008, the software received an award from the American Cancer Society in “Latin Excellence” and it was a runner-up in the 2011 Latin American Science and Technology category by Innovadores de América (America’s Innovators). 

http://www.movicancer.org.ni

The Museo de las Plantas Sagradas, Mágicas y Medicinales is a private cultural, scientific and educational organization located in Cuzco, Peru, that aims at creating awareness and promoting research on the 10,000 year-old traditional and indigenous herbal medicine of the Andes and Amazon.  It seeks to further disseminate this tradition that is currently used as a primary health resource for the poor to universities, researchers and medical and pharmaceutical establishments.

http://www.museoplantascusco.org

NAYA JEEVAN is a non-profit micro-insurance company dedicated to rejuvenating the lives of the urban poor by providing them with access to quality and affordable healthcare, insurance and socio-economic opportunities.  The company negotiates and buys group health plans from insurance companies at below market rates and leverages corporate distribution networks, supply chains and human resources to distribute, market and co-finance the plans.

http://www.njfk.org

Parents Alliance unlocks online learning opportunities for low-income, limited English-speaking Hispanic parents by offering them language courses and a portal to continuing education in Spanish.  The company trains parents, mostly mothers, to use the Internet so they can become full partners in their children’s education, communicate with their children’s teachers and schools and pursue their own educational goals to achieve upward mobility.

http://www.parentsalliance.org

Planeta Océano is committed to conserving and restoring coastal and marine environments—vital life support systems—that are threatened by overexploitation, pollution, habitat degradation and climate change.  Planeta Océano centers its efforts, which primarily occur in low-income areas in Peru, in three main pillars of action: research, environmental education and awareness, and sustainable development of coastal communities.

http://www.planetaoceano.org

Tourism companies are regularly attracted to indigenous territories because of their rich cultural and natural heritage.  Rarely, however, does this tourism result in a viable source of jobs and sustainable economic development for the communities in the territories themselves.  Red Indígena de Turismo de México, A.C. (RITA, or, the Indian Tourism Network of Mexico A.C.), was founded in 2002 as a response to this challenge by 32 companies of 16 different Mexican indigenous ethnicities.  Ten years later, RITA is now comprised of 189 companies from 16 Mexican states, through which they continue to welcome the rest of the world into its communities while actively participating in the construction of economic and cultural destinies.

http://www.rita.com.mx

Sawa World uses a bold approach to solve extreme poverty for the 1 billion people who live on less than $1 a day.  The organization finds inspiring innovators, known as Sawa Leaders, who live in extreme poverty but have created successful, localized solutions to some of their most dire challenges.  Sawa then empowers local youth reporters to ensure that these successes are shared and replicated by others in need.  Sawa’s motto is “Solutions from Within!”

http://www.sawaworld.org

Buen Manejo del Campo (BMC) produces, distributes and promotes Sistema Biobolsa, a high quality modular bio-digestion system that transforms agricultural waste into potent organic fertilizer and renewable methane-rich biogas fuel.  The company promotes Sistema Biobolsa through education, microfinance, and capacity building.  Their model has the potential to reach tens of millions of small and medium farmers throughout Latin America, improving their efficiency, health and sustainability.

http://www.sistemabiobolsa.com

SER System is an organization that provides high quality health services to low-income persons who are excluded from the traditional health system.  After 20 years of providing health services to impoverished populations, SER is now financially sustainable and able to provide the highest quality of service.  The organization’s commitment is to change the paradigm that poor people cannot have or do not want to have access to health services.

http://www.sistemaser.org.ar

SOURCE is a non-governmental organization that works with communities facing environmental pollution issues and health problems principally caused by heavy industries.  SOURCE provides high-level technological and scientific support completely free of charge to the communities with which it works, helping them to asses the damages to the community’s resources and enabling them to promote restorative actions.  In addition, SOURCE also trains local leaders, called promoters, so that they can develop and promote their own environmental and social monitoring system.  Promoters are responsible for training other promoters in their region, therefore guaranteeing greater efficiency and the sustainability of the model.

http://www.source-international.org

During challenging economic times, many people don’t have access to traditional jobs; but that doesn’t mean their time and talent should go to waste.  TimeBanks USA provides a system that allows members of Time Bank communities to enlist help from one another as a form of currency.  One hour of help of any kind given to another member earns one time credit, exchangeable for one hour of help in return.  This exchange addresses virtually every critical social problem and utilizes a unique tax-exempt currency, creating an economy to which everyone can contribute and ensuring that there will be “No More Throw Away People.”

http://www.timebanks.org