eParachute - Chart a path to work you love

eParachute - What Color is Your Parachute? - eParachute.com

The Hoop Fund - Fund Greater Goods

The Hoop Fund www.hoopfund.com

Every Toy Tells a Story

Children's toys from the developing world appear in a special exhibit of toys created by Christian Children's Fund children around the world. The collection, currently in the lobby of CCF's Richmond headquarters, features about 250 toys, each with its own story. Plans are underway to exhibit the toys in children's museums around the U.S. A doll made of rolled-up white material has a special meaning in Belarus. Some 40 years ago, the country experienced an epidemic of scarlet fever. In one of the villages, almost all the children died.

India - Innovation Central

India comes into its own as a hub for innovation as companies and organizations respond to problems with new innovations. The Economic Times and Wired Magazine report on new inventions coming out of India: a water-riding bicyle, electronic sticks for the blind, handwriting emails and more.Different problems require new innovations in India.

The Economic Times of India reports a number of "Bond-like" innovations:

Geppetto's Dilemma - the Decline of Traditional Toy Making in Viet Nam

Tet Trung Thu, the Mid-Autmun Children's Festival, is Viet Nam's festival for children. However, even during this old and beloved Vietnamese tradition, Viet Nam's industry of traditional toys and crafts is on the decline.

What is the most popular holiday in Viet Nam?

Building a Better ATM


Who: PRODEM FFP

Where: Bolivia

What: For half the cost of a traditional ATM, a network free, multilingual, voice-driven system for delivering banking services, and with no chance of forgetting your PIN!

Playing on Empty - Toys from the Developing World

An exhibit of toys and photographs from the developing world taken by New Zealand Volunteer Services Abroad. The exhibit ran at the PATAKA Museum in Porirua City, New Zealand from July – November 2004. Text and photos courtesy of PATAKA.

Keeping it Cool - Clay Pot Refrigeration



Who: Mohammed Bah Abba
Where: Nigeria
What: For less than $2 for a clay pot system to refrigerate up to 12 kg of produce.

What is Disruptive Innovation?

The disruptive-innovation theory explains why new firms armed with relatively simple, straightforward technological solutions can beat powerful incumbents, often creating entirely new markets and business models. The disruptive innovation theory was popularized in Harvard professor Clayton Christensen's "The Innovator's Dilemma".

Fiction: Rain Dance (the importance of joy and play)

"Who is Rain?" asked the little girl in the lantern light.

"Rain is a dancer," I replied.

"A dancer?" she said, prompting for more.

"Yes, a dancer," I repeated, pausing for a moment to glance at our slumbering fields and up to the empty sky. The night was full and people were starting to arrive.

I raised my hand and gestured toward the stars, "Rain dances on the veil above, his feet tapping and bouncing on the cushion of the sky. Sometimes his feet will sink into the pillow of a cloud and water shakes loose and falls below to wash the earth and feed our crops. Some days he dances lightly, others with tumbles and leaps, the sound of his landing shaking the earth as his smile flashes and lights up the world."

"But he doesn't like to dance here," the little girl said, sandals removed and toes bunching on the dry earth beneath her feet.

"No," I replied, "not for a long time."

"But why?"

The truck with the speakers rumbled by. I waited until it had stopped at the improvised floor, where the circle would form, and then I leaned forward in my chair and said, "Let me tell you a story."

BRINQ's Best of the Web - Sustainability and BOP Blogs and Links

In our research and discussions we've come across a number of wonderful websites and blogs on sustainability and the Base of the Pyramid (BOP). We'd like to share them with you. We'll keep updating this list as we continue to discover more of this fantastic work!In our research and discussions we've come across a number of wonderful websites and blogs on sustainability and the Base of the Pyramid (BOP). We'd like to share them with you. We'll keep updating this list as we continue to discover more of this fantastic work!

Do the poor dream brighter sheep?

Why is so much entrepreneurial spirit found among our immigrants and our poor? Do they dream more vividly, brighter and bigger than we do? Perhaps it is just we who dream dreams less bright, dimmed by the glare of so many TVs, movies, and neon signs, from the clutter of so . . . much . . . stuff, sleeping too deeply among our existing history of achievements, our licenses to be lazy.

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