Social Entrepreneurship Sustainability

A few weeks ago on the roof of a building in Tel Aviv overlooking the entire city skyline a group a dozen former participants in Adam LeAdam's Backpackers program met for a reunion. The Backpacker's program is designed to give Israeli travelers in India a way to contribute to the communities they view primarily as a tourist. They spend a few weeks in Tamil Nadu helping the community through programs they in part design themselves, so that the volunteerism is more personal and meaningful.

 Adam LeAdam program participants

The reunion was a chance for old friends to meet up again, have a drink, watch a slideshow, but there was one other aspect I think was the most important part of the evening. At one point one of the participants asked Uri and Yarden, Adam LeAdam's founders, "what's next!?" One of the tenets of the program is sustainability and it wasn't clear to her what they're supposed to do now, having all returned to Israel, to continue and sustain the work they had done in India. One of the goals of the program is not just to set up program in India that the local communities can continue once the volunteers have left, but rather to have the Israeli participants continue to be social entrepreneurs back in Israel. Yarden and Uri went on to explain that they want the Backpackers participants to continue to meet in Israel and design their own sustainable social entrepreneurship program in Israel.

Tamil Nadu, India

It was a light bulb moment, where the participants realized that it was in fact their own personal growth, and not necessarily the the environment and educational projects they had implemented in India, that was the key to the Backpackers program. It will be interesting to see what the group implements here in Israel and what the LeadEarth participants are able to continue in their home communities upon returning. This social entrepreneurship sustainability is one reason that LeadEarth is really a step above in terms of innovation in the volunteer world.

Finally, John Wooden passed away yesterday. I grew up, and am still, a huge UCLA Bruins basketball fan, and have an enormous respect for the man and his accomplishments. Here's a very good article that touches at the core of who he was.

- LeadEarth

Social Entrepreneurship Sustainability

India-Israel Cooperation

Israel and India have very strong relations today. This blog will explore different aspects of the cooperation and relationship between the different countries in a variety of sectors. As environmental and agricultural awareness and education is a key element of the LeadEarth program we will examine the environmental and agricultural cooperation between the countries in today's post.

While olives are most closely associated with the Mediterranean region, an Israeli initiative is hoping to make India a major player in the olive industry. Israel is credited with making their Negev desert bloom, and now Israelis are trying to "green" the desert region of Rajasthan in Northern India. Through a combination of irrigation, wastewater treatment, and agricultural technologies the aim is to make India an exporter of olive oil by 2011. 

Can Israeli technologies make the desert bloom again?

  

Israel and India recently signed an agreement to promote increased scientific cooperation and development between the two countries. Not surprisingly, renewable energy initiatives was one of the main focuses of the initiative. Israel is now one of the world's leading developers of renewable energy technologies through a large variety of companies, and India is just one of many markets that can benefit from these technologies. 

Although not related to the environment or agriculture, this fun blog posts relates on tourists experience with Israeli cuisine...in India and is worth checking out!

LeadEarth

India-Israel Cooperation