Santa Clara University

Silicon Valley Mentors and Academics Partnering with Social Entrepreneurs
to Address Most Difficult Developing World Challenges 

Twenty socially-minded enterprises from around the world have been chosen to receive full scholarships to participate in the ninth annual Global Social Benefit Incubator (GSBI™). These ventures provide essential goods and services to the poor, and often act as catalysts for economic growth.

The GSBI program empowers socially-minded entrepreneurs to build economically sustainable organizations and to solve problems for people living in poverty around the world. The signature program of the Center for Science, Technology, and Society at Santa Clara University, the experience and capacity-building GSBI program combines online and in-residence exercises with training and mentoring from academic leaders and Silicon Valley executives over an intensive eight-month period. 

Products and services being developed by the 2011 Class include: biogas-powered milk coolers for Ugandan farmers; microfranchise training and employment opportunities for slum youth in Kenya; probiotics to improve health in Mexico; solar-powered chicken and egg production in Haiti; and women-created fashion and furniture from recycled garbage in the Philippines. 

Read  more at http://www.scu.edu/news/releases/release.cfm?b=208&c=9775