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Business is an unlikely hero: a force for good working to solve society's most pressing challenges, while boosting bottom line. This is social purpose at work. And it's a dynamic journey. Purpose 360 is a masterclass in unlocking the power of social purpose to ignite business and social impact. Host Carol Cone brings decades of social impact expertise and a 360-degree view of integrating social purpose into an organization into unfiltered conversations that illuminate today's big challenges and bigger ideas.
Carol Cone:
I'm Carol Cone and welcome to Purpose 360, the podcast that unlocks the power of purpose to ignite business and social impact.
The next series of Purpose 360 episodes were taped in person on site at the One Young World Summit that was held in Montreal this year. For those of you who are not familiar with One Young World, I hope that these conversations will get you very, very excited to follow them online because they are making terrific impact around the globe. At the conference, there were nearly 2,000 changemakers. And you have to apply to get accepted to this amazing event. And some leaders at the conference say, "You know, it's harder to get into this conference than it is to get into Harvard." Wow. The young ambassadors represented 190 countries, and you should think of this like the Olympics for changemaking. Also in attendance were leaders across the board, around the world. Think older individuals like myself, who have worked in the field for so many years helping to make change.
Today's episode I have three delegates from the One Young World Summit with me. I am so excited about the conversation. Each individual is going to talk about what their social impact involvement is about, and then we're going to have a really interesting conversation about the power, or not, of AI as they advance their vision. So let's get started. Introduce yourself, please, and talk a little bit about what you're focusing on in social impact.
Gitanjali Rao:
Yeah, absolutely. Well, first of all, thank you for having me. My name is Gitanjali Rao. I'm 18 years old. I'm currently a sophomore in college. I'm studying at MIT and I'm double majoring in Bioengineering and Management. But along with that, I spend a lot of my time working with students across the globe, and I run innovation workshops for students who don't really know what education or innovation truly looks like. And so far I've impacted about 90,000 students across 47 countries and counting.
Lilian Olivia Orero:
Thank you so much for having me. My name is Lillian Olivia Orero. I am the founder of a non-profit organization called Safe Online Women Kenya. And I'm so glad to be attending the One Young World Summit in Montreal, Canada, courtesy of the Zed Zurich Scholarship. What I do is, one, try to sensitize young women and girls on what online safety and security is about. The lack of access of the technology and the internet has been a challenge in Kenya. And so what my organization is trying to do is bridge that digital divide and ensure that young women and girls also take part in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics courses.
Carol Cone:
And you're a lawyer by training?
Lilian Olivia Orero:
Yes, I am a gender and technology lawyer, and also I practice as an advocate of the high court of Kenya. So what that has done is based off my personal story of having gone through cyberbullying, I realized that a young generation of women and girls, since they use the phone most of the time, since they're always online, they go through online harassment, cyberbullying, cyberstalking. And so in my work, which is on gender and technology law, I noticed that when people would experience online violence, they did not have any recourse mechanisms. For example, where would I report if someone decides to call me a negative word, for instance, on Facebook? And that translates to a lot of mental health issues that makes most of them move away from the online space.
So for me, trying to see are there legal frameworks or legislation that, for instance, addressed terminologies such as cyberbullying in Kenya, I would say that does not exist. And that is why in the work that I do, I try to also sensitize policymakers to think about the world of technology and include it in our laws.
Carol Cone:
That's super. Okay, we'll get back to more of that. Okay. Abideen?
Abideen Olasupo:
Yeah. Thank you very much. Abideen Olasupo is my name. I am from Nigeria and of course I'm 30 years old. So I co-founded an organization called Fact Check Africa. The rationale behind Fact Check Africa was as a result of a research that we conducted around voter apathy in Nigeria. We dove into it and data shows us that misinformation and disinformation contributes in no small manor to reason why people are not going to vote in elections. So through Fact Check Africa, we train journalists, students, technology practitioners, and as well as political office holders as well on which to which they could fact check information in their own time.
This organization is so dear to me because I have a personal story of misinformation and disinformation. I was campaigning for the [inaudible 00:03:26] campaign in Nigeria and fake news spread like wildfire about my personality, saying I was trying to do that because I needed favor from politicians. So this really affected my mental health then. So I was now thinking of, what are the practical way or sustainable way to which you could solve problem of fake news misinformation that is not just associated with elections. Believe you me, today, some people still do not believe that COVID-19 is real. Today, some people still do not believe that climate change is real.
So that's why organization like Fact Check Africa as well is using storytelling, explainer, and video as well to explain fact checking processes, as well, and fact checking information as well. We are not just doing it alone as well. Inclusion is at the core of what we do, because we know that not everybody who are literate might want to fact check. So that's why our fact check has been translated into local languages in Nigeria and most spoken three languages in Africa, which is Swahili, Arabic, and French as well.
Carol Cone:
That's fantastic. Now this is your second time or third time?
Abideen Olasupo:
Second time.
Carol Cone:
And so what do you want to get out of this summit this time?
Abideen Olasupo:
Thank you very much. I've been attending a whole lot of summits, since I think 2010, but I must confess to you that I've never attended a summit like One Young World. It's extremely distinct. It gives you a global platform to share ideas, meet and connect with new people as well. It also activates the stop talking, start acting, to inspire generation of doers and no generation of talkers as well. So it's a great opportunity.
Carol Cone:
That's fantastic. Now Lillian, this is your first time here, so what do you want to gain from the summit?
Lilian Olivia Orero:
So being my first time, and the theme on artificial intelligence is one of the areas that really drew me to this summit. So the global nature of its scope is another platform for organizations such as myself, which are grassroot based. To be held, to be listened to, to get an opportunity to speak in global platforms is what One Young World provides for me. So I would say it's my first time in Canada, it's my first time attending the summit, and so far I've been able to interact with young minds, people as young as 16, 18, who are also doing amazing work in other parts of the world. So for me, I take this as a learning opportunity, trying to see what can I do back at home in Kenya that is different from what I'm already doing.
Carol Cone:
That's fantastic. I want to get into audiences and what are the ones that are most open to your messages and what are the ones that are hardest to get through?
Gitanjali Rao:
Yeah, that's a fantastic question. I feel like a lot of this starts with being super young and trying to reach out to people who are sometimes two times, three times older than me to ask for things like funding, ask for things like support, mentorship, things that ideally should come fairly easily, because what I'm working towards is a textbook good cause, are things that end up being some of the hardest things in the world. And so the biggest audiences that are hardest for me to reach out to are those who know what the right thing is to do, but don't necessarily believe the goal and the mission of someone who is so young, to see what she's able to do to create a difference. We talk about accessibility and education, we talk about all these massive problems, but we don't realize how doable it actually is and the steps that we need to take to get to it.
And the easiest age group for me to connect to is obviously students my age and even younger. And so when I run these workshops, I run them from preschool to right out of college. I've worked with students from every different age group, every different background, every different walk of life. And the biggest thing that I've learned is that everyone learns differently, right? A boy in a private school in New York is going to learn differently than one of my friends in the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, who learns differently than a girl who's in Afghanistan who has to join the Zoom call that I set up in the middle of the night because she can't learn during the day.
But the biggest overarching idea that I've realized is that everybody wants to change the world, and everyone wants to take that next step towards doing it. We just need to talk about fostering it. And so that's kind of the message that I'm trying to get across, is reaching out to these underprivileged communities whose perspectives we haven't even taken into account over these past 10, 15 years because what we focused on is the people that we have, and the rich, where we should be focusing on the places we haven't even looked at yet.
Carol Cone:
That's amazing. How about other barriers to audiences you're trying to reach, but also opportunities? Abideen.
Abideen Olasupo:
Yeah, thank you very much. Major barriers that we are facing is reaching out to older generation as well, because there's a belief that fake news could not be spread on maybe a radio platform, or some trusted newspaper platform as well. So trying to counter this as well has been a major challenges and barrier for us. So what we do is, beyond the fact that we are doing an explainer on our website, we do what we call a community approach where we go to visit community through traditional rulers and religious leaders to get their buy-in, do a community mapping analysis of those who are critical in the community to convince, then do a town hall meeting too, do the campaign and teach them which to which in near real time as well at the corner of their room, with their Android phone as well, they could fact check.
Opportunity that this presents to us is a fact that we have been a part of different policy in Nigeria that talks about how we could counter fake news, how we could counter misinformation and disinformation. And of recent, as well, we've been working with tech giants like Google and Meta as well to see which to which, even if fake news is spread on their platform, and we are fact-checking in our own platform as well. It's brought down. And of recent as well, we had a partnership with Stanford University's Center for Deliberated Democracy to train teachers on how they could pass on the knowledge to students in Nigeria on fact-checking education via video and gamification, because from our researchers at the core of our organization, we try to use data to troubleshoot issues so that of course when we're providing solution to it's going to be sustainable.
So we discovered that for us to catch student young, there's a need for us to engage teachers and there's also a need for us to teach fact checking in the form way that they could relate with, in form of developing a gamification platform that while playing that game, while watching the cartoon as well, one way or another, they're learning fact check. And we are really using an army of fact checkers who will disrupt the ecosystem very well, not only in Nigeria but Africa and across the globe as well. So it'll be something exciting starting this in Nigeria and spreading this across African country, because recently we did what we call the first AHAI journalism workshop and fellowship, which give us the opportunity to train 41 newsroom across Africa on how they could integrate AHAI into the way they do their works and use AHAI for fact checking.
Carol Cone:
My gosh. Okay, so a lot of things you just mentioned there. So one, you're creating an army of fact-checkers. Has anybody done this yet?
Abideen Olasupo:
No one is going to the grassroots. Majority of the fact-checking organizations feel, of course, going to the grassroots is a waste of time. But because we want to activate the last goal of the SDGs, which has to do with leaving no one behind and partnership for the goals, collaboration is at the core of our own work, and that's why we feel we need to go to the grassroots community to engage them. And that's why we are the first organization to do that.
Secondly as well, fact-checking education is not a part of our curriculum in Nigeria. And I've never heard of any institution in Africa as well, based on our research, that has done that. So that's why we are piloting this with Stanford University to see how we could test the model as well. If it work, then how we could scale to other places and ensure that we built an army of fact-checkers.
Carol Cone:
I'm curious, who is harder to convince the journalists in Nigeria or the grassroots? Who's harder to convince?
Abideen Olasupo:
To be honest, it is the older generation grassroots that are harder to convince, because they have a predisposed knowledge, again, that it's difficult. For example, there was a fake news that spread during COVID-19 that people need to bath with salt and water. And my grandpa, my grandma, whole lot of older generations sent that messages to me. So it took a whole lot of effort, a whole lot of analysis and schooling to convince them and let them see that of course this could not solve it. So the way through which we do that is to engage them and not come to them as an expert on the subject matter. We interact with them in a co-learning and peer learning environment, and give them case study analysis, give them reasons why they need to believe in some of those information and trust our platform.
So over the last five years that we have been doing this as well, from our needs assessment and impact report that was conducted last year, we have seen nothing less than 33.4% adoption from the older generation.
Carol Cone:
Oh, that's, okay. So there's hope for us yet.
Abideen Olasupo:
Yeah, definitely.
Carol Cone:
There is. Okay. So Lillian, let's talk about, again, who have you been able to engage with your vision and mission, and who are the barriers? The ones that are like the naysayers?
Lilian Olivia Orero:
I'd first start by saying, when we compare generations, generation Z and generation X are my main audience because these are the people who use the internet a lot. However, when we look at the baby boomers and the older generation, I'm really finding it difficult to speak to them in terms of, how do you, for instance, engage in the cyber hygiene practices when you are using Facebook? Because the older generation really likes certain types of social media platforms. But the comments I receive would be like, not really. I'm just on this platform maybe once in a week. So it's not really a big deal. However, the challenge has always been, now with generative AI, we are trying to reach beyond the urban areas and to go to the semi-urban, peri-urban, and the rural areas.
So the challenge that is there is we have young girls between the ages of 15 to 18 who could be in high school, so when they go back home during the holidays, they have access to the phones. And some of these young girls sometimes are found themselves in websites that are not appropriate. And before they know it, because they're sharing a lot of their information online, the same information is being data mined and is used to generate other content. So we have held workshops and trainings with rural women in parts of Kenya where we try to explain to them what is AI.
For instance, in Swahili, which is a local dialect in Kenya, how can we use the internet in a manner that is appropriate but in a dialect that they are able to understand? And the challenge has always been, I have so many things to do, this is really not a priority when I'm trying to find food on the table. So the other challenge has been, because of the very many images and texts that women and girls, who are exposed online, generative AI uses those images and texts to come up with deep fakes. And we've seen instances where, as a result of maybe a picture that was shared, it's generated to an image, a video that is inappropriate.
And this has affected some of the girls in parts of Nairobi who decided to take a break from school. That would mean they won't continue with their learning curriculum as is. And so what my organization is doing is we have a curriculum called the Tech Secure Literacy Curriculum. This curriculum is very simple in terms of trying to explain to young women and girls, both in the urban areas and rural areas, on how to keep themselves online safe. At the same time, we are still in the development phase of an app called Safeha app. So what Safeha is, it's an app by Africans for Africans, and we noticed in our work that we have a lot of innovative solutions that come from the global north. And most of these solutions are used in Africa. So why not come up with African products that understand our context to deal with cyber bullying?
And so what we do is, in the app, it would guide you on blocking negative comments from different sites. It also has educational materials and resources on ways to keep yourself safe. And the app is still not yet online. And this is where One Young World Summit comes in, because we meet collaborators, support from Zed Zurich foundation that would really enable us to develop the app to completion.
Carol Cone:
Great, thank you. I'd like to know, how did you reach, you talked over 90 thousand, how did you do that? Well, you're a sophomore at MIT. You're 18 years old. I am fascinated, and I'm sure our listeners are too.
Gitanjali Rao:
There's not really a yes or no answer to this question because a lot of it is, I really don't know. Where it all started is I was reached out to by multiple schools, saying, "Hey, we like your work." A lot of this started with my own personal research and work. And so a lot of students would see what I was doing and reach out to me and say, "Hey, we would love to know how you're doing what you're doing." And so it started with one or two students. It started with groups of 10, these students that I would try and work with and respond to emails with. And very quickly I realized that I'm not alone in this, nor did I want to be alone. I'm one of thousands and thousands of kids across the world with good ideas, but who can't really bring them to life.
And so I introduced this idea of innovation workshops and I posted on social media, I said, "Here's my goal, here's my plan. I want to share this five step process with you guys that I built." And it's observe, brainstorm, research, build, and communicate. It's five steps. And it's a process that I go through with every student. And every student leaves the workshop with an idea, as well as a process that they can use to take the idea out into the real world. And so this started with, what, 20 kids, very quickly moved to 100, very quickly moved to 1000. Before I knew it, I hit my goal of 50,000. And now I'm pushing my goal of 100,000, which I think is super exciting.
And I've worked with students everywhere. The biggest group of students that I've worked with is the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. I work with them almost once a month. And in addition to the workshops that I run for them, I've also been able to fundraise over a hundred thousand dollars for them to fund computers, laptops, printers, iPads, furniture, bathrooms, things like that as well. But in addition, I was able to fund a lot of these students computer certification exams so that they're able to take the next step into being a citizen of Kenya as well. Right now my current mission is I'm working with the Kayole school district also in Kenya, and we're working on building a library on the top floor of one of their public schools there for elementary school students. And so we're hopefully going to see that come to life within these next couple of months as well.
But these little things are part of this much bigger mission of building an innovation movement, essentially, of students who have passion, who have drive, but really can't bring that to life and haven't had that opportunity yet. And I think education should be a basic right, and I think it's unfair to kind of see this happen. And so that was my main goal. But I think this is just really where it starts. From here, I want to make my content digitized. I've published two books already about the whole concept of what innovation truly is and how to build ideas.
Carol Cone:
And how are those available?
Gitanjali Rao:
Anywhere.
Carol Cone:
Okay. And when did you write those books?
Gitanjali Rao:
I wrote one during Covid, so 2020. And then one just got published in June, which I think is super exciting. But yeah, at the end of the day I'm very excited that there's 90,000 new budding ideas across the globe, right? Because somebody needed to get those up and going. And I grew up in a household where if you don't like the way something is, fix it.
Carol Cone:
So let's talk about advice to other social entrepreneurs. All three of you are extraordinary, in terms of your passion, your commitment, your desire to scale and such. So what advice would you like to give to people who didn't come as a delegate, but they're listening to the show? So Lillian, can you start?
Lilian Olivia Orero:
So what I would say is, just do it. So you'll always have lots of thoughts. Is it the right time? How much impact do I make? Do I have the resources? Do I have the funding? But what I would say is just start, the minute you begin the social impact journey you meet people along the way who hold your hands, who work with you, who advise you, who mentor you, and that is what has been happening for my journey. And so I'd say, just start.
Abideen Olasupo:
I'll start by saying, the best time for you to have started was yesterday. The next best time is now. Of course there are going to be a lot of challenges along the way as a social entrepreneur as well, but you are also going to learn along the way. And think of not what only your government can do for you, but what you can do to complement the efforts of your government from anywhere that you are. And like I said, again, if there's any conference that you need to come to, to learn, unlearn, relearn, and network, I think it's One Young World. So be a part of the family as well. Be a part of the ambassador family as well. Then, of course, be open-minded as well. You can't know it all, so use the snowflake concept of leadership with your team members as well. Take suggestions that are awareness as good and implement in your projects.
And there's also a subject of spirituality. That's what I tell people as well. You could do all these and things are not still working as well. So you've got to communicate in best way that you know to communicate with whatever you believe in as well, to pile all the affairs of what you want to do. Then collaborate. I can emphasize the importance of collaboration and partnerships, because, of course, collaboration will take you further and further where you might not have dreamt of being in the next 10 years. So collaborate with others who are in your space as well, and be open-minded to learn, relearn, and unlearn. Thank you.
Gitanjali Rao:
Yeah, I think my biggest piece of advice and what drives me is let empathy drive you. Let empathy drive all your solutions, everything you do. That's my biggest thing. And I think the second biggest thing is this idea of take the risk when it doesn't matter versus when it does, which is kind of going off what everyone said.
Carol Cone:
And that's great. Okay, so I'd love to have each of you ask one of your colleagues here a question that you'd like to ask them. So let's cross question here.
Abideen Olasupo:
Thank you very much. I'm keen on knowing how we could partner, especially with Lillian and Gitanjali. So I want to partner to see which we could improve what we are doing in Nigeria as well. And of course bring you to Nigeria to come and implement projects as well. So what are your conditions for partnerships, and are you open to that? Thank you.
Gitanjali Rao:
That's a loaded question, because there's always 25 things to do. My biggest thing is I work very closely with many places in Africa. I'm expanding right now into Ghana as well. I'm very close to Kenya. I've been to Kenya a few times too. But I think where I could provide my help the most is literally just coming and talking to schools and to students, and really creating that idea of what problem solving looks like within the states, and bringing that to a country where maybe that's not something that they learn in school every single day. I always say education shouldn't have a price to it. And so I always go out of my way to travel for things like this, because I think it is absolutely life-changing. If there's one thing, like a strike of inspiration that hits, I think it could change the way you think, and create, and build, which is kind of what happened to me.
Lilian Olivia Orero:
So I'd say I'm very open to collaborate. And the fact that you mentioned fact checking, my organization also deals with gendered misinformation, and that would be a very good opportunity for us to link our synergies, because I look at the women politicians, for instance, in Kenya who go through a lot of online violence. And I would like to know what is Nigeria doing and how can we partner? So you see, all this wouldn't have been possible if we were not at the One Young World Summit. And so I'd say, thank you so much.
Carol Cone:
Well, thank you. You're amazing, all of you. I thought I did something, and at your ages, you're having such impact. And you're also trying to harness AI for good. We know that AI's got a lot of bad things to it, but we appreciate all of your commitment and your energy, and I love the fact that maybe we've got some collaboration starting right here. So thank you very much, and enjoy the summit.
Lilian Olivia Orero:
Thank you for having us.
Carol Cone:
This podcast was brought to you by some amazing people, and I'd love to thank them. Anne Hundertmark and Kristen Kenny at Carol Cone On Purpose, Pete Wright, and Andy Nelson, our crack production team at True Story FM. And you, our listener. Please rate and rank us, because we really want to be as high as possible as one of the top business podcasts available so that we can continue exploring together the importance and the activation of authentic purpose. Thanks so much for listening.
This transcript was exported on Oct 03, 2024 - view latest version here.
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