Innovate with Purpose

For the past four years, the team at Expo Live has been working closely with 140 Global Innovators from all around the world. At the beginning of this series, Yousuf Caires, the Senior Vice President of Expo Live, introduced what the innovation programme is all about. Over the course of the show, we've spoken to an array of brilliant and bold innovators all over the world. In our final episode, we leave the mic to Yousuf one more time, as he reflects on the impact of this programme and what's next for our Global Innovators. This podcast is by Expo Live, produced by Kerning Cultures Network.

How do you change the design of a device that was invented over one hundred years ago? Back in 2015, a medical entrepreneur in Cameroon named Conrad Tankou started a social venture called GIC Space that develops cutting edge technologies to target the most urgent health challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa. One of them is the smart speculum: a new take on the device invented in the mid-nineteenth century used to screen for cervical cancer. In today's episode, we're exploring Conrad's innovations at GIC Space, and how context is pivotal for the success of any business. This podcast is by Expo Live, produced by Kerning Cultures Network.

When Jurij Dreo read a book entitled, ‘Electric fields of the brain: the neurophysics of EEG’, he was quite happy to see that there are people out there that share his convictions when it comes to how the brain should be studied. It always seemed like a small wonder to Jurij that one is able to pick up a small EEG device and get a recording of what the brain is doing. Today, Jurij is the co-founder and Chief Technical Officer of a company called BrainTrip, based in Malta. BrainTrip is innovating quick and accessible screening tools for early detection of dementia. In today's episode, we're exploring Jurij's disruptive innovation and the challenges of having a startup in the medical sector. This podcast is by Expo Live, produced by Kerning Cultures Network.

In 2015, Kitty Liao attended a humanitarian hackathon. The event brought together people from humanitarian organisations to present some of the most pressing issues they are faced with out in the field. One of these problems was that vaccines become spoiled before they arrive at the destination during transport. Kitty spent two months as a hacker in residence developing a solution and today, she is the founder of Ideabatic. Ideabatic is working to ensure that all children, wherever they are in the world, have a fair chance at life by innovating a vaccine delivery system. This podcast is by Expo Live, produced by Kerning Cultures Network.

Siddharth Hande worked in the development sector for about eight years before starting Kabadiwalla Connect. The idea came about in college when he used to organise beach cleanups every week through a youth group called Reclaim Our Beaches. Today, Siddharth is the founder and CEO of Kabadiwalla Connect: they provide decentralised waste management solutions for cities in the developing world that's really powered by the informal sector. This podcast is by Expo Live, produced by Kerning Cultures Network.

Back in 2017, Irina got together with two friends to tackle proper waste management: one of Armenia's big challenges. They started approaching organisations and donors, and setting up recycling bins in several locations in Armenia. Today, Irina is one of the co-founders of Innovative Solutions for Sustainable Development. ISSD is an NGO that is working to solve the issue of waste management in Armenia. What initially started as an initiative to introduce recycling bins and environmental awareness has grown to be a much bigger operation. This podcast is by Expo Live, produced by Kerning Cultures Network.

Suzanne Shian is one of three co-founders behind PichaEats, a social enterprise in Malaysia that aims to empower lives among the refugee community through a food business. The business model behind PichaEats is a 50-50 partnership with chefs. Each chef will source and buy ingredients, and PichaEats will pay them double, meaning 100% profit for the chef. PichaEats then sells the food at double the cost, building in profit each step of the way. While PichaEats is serving a very practical need for refugee communities to earn income, it's also become a form of cultural exchange. Today, they have 16 chefs who are from Palestine, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq. This podcast is by Expo Live, produced by Kerning Cultures Network.

Back in 2015, Shaun Vorster, a strategist and advisor, was responsible for incubating the Expo Live programme. After incubating the programme, Shaun was part of the selection committee that was tasked with choosing the Global Innovators from all the applications. What makes the Expo Live programme stand out? Shaun shares the journey, challenges, and aspirations of Expo Live. This podcast is by Expo Live, produced by Kerning Cultures Network.

Several years ago, Renat Anpilogov was teaching at a musical college for the visually impaired - part of his role was organizing concerts in different cities for the students, which included helping them explore their surroundings. When Renat's wife's grandfather became ill and bound to a wheelchair, he and his partner became convinced that travelling should be accessible for all. Today Renat is the head and co-owner of Globe4All, one of the pioneering enterprises that's creating barrier-free travel and tourism. Globe4All now has partners in different countries who are working to make travelling and tourism more accessible. This podcast is by Expo Live, produced by Kerning Cultures Network.

When Tarun Bothra co-founded Saathi, only 16% of women had access to sanitary napkins in India, the world’s sixth largest economy. Saathi is a purpose-driven social enterprise that develops 100% compostable, biodegradable hygiene products for women out of banana and bamboo fiber. Today, Saathi is impacting communities around the world and using innovation to normalise taboo topics. This podcast is by Expo Live, produced by Kerning Cultures Network.

Liter of Light started in 2013 at a very dark time in the Philippines, as an emergency lighting system during one of the first and largest category five storms, typhoon Haiyan. Today, as the founder and global director of Liter of Light, Illac Diaz has built both a grassroots and a global movement. It uses inexpensive, readily available materials to make high-quality solar lighting for people with limited or no access to electricity. But it goes beyond just providing solar lights and into empowering and upskilling local communities to build their own. This podcast is by Expo Live, produced by Kerning Cultures Network.

Someone who has always believed in the power of young people is Emer Beamer, a social designer and educator based in Amsterdam. Emer is the co-founder and programme lead for an organisation called Design-a-thon Works. Design-a-thon Works helps children develop their problem solving skills, empowering them to be changemakers. Schools and communities can run several design-a-thons to tackle a topic or a set of objectives. Today, Design-a-thon Works has grown from its roots in Amsterdam to 55 cities around the world. This podcast is by Expo Live, produced by Kerning Cultures Network.

Back in 2015, Oscar Wood was teaching in London when a friend persuaded him to work with Syrian and Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. They went out to refugee camps and built a show supported by theatre and play-based learning for children. This experience led Oscar to become the co-founder of Seenaryo, with Naqiya Ebrahim as CEO. Seenaryo is an organization that uses play-based learning and theatre to work with marginalised communities. Today they’ve reached more than 2,000 teachers and over 30,000 children and are still growing. This podcast is by Expo Live, produced by Kerning Cultures Network.

Rowan Alawi initially pursued a career in tech, despite her family’s construction business. During her travel between Ramallah and Jerusalem, Rowan spotted a problem: construction workers were sitting on the side road, waiting for someone to pick them up. She decided to solve this problem and founded ‘Amal in 2019. At first, it was a simple Google form connecting construction workers with contractors. Today, ‘Amal has evolved into a construction workforce management platform. This podcast is by Expo Live, produced by Kerning Cultures Network.

In 2017, Iva Gumnishka founded an initiative, Humans in the Loop, to provide work opportunities for refugees coming into Bulgaria. In a world filled with armed conflict, Humans in the Loop provides job opportunities to those affected by violence and forced displacement. Since 2017, Iva has expanded their impact from Bulgaria to Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Lebanon. This podcast is by Expo Live, produced by Kerning Cultures Network.

When Loubna Ksibi’s aunt opened a restaurant, she didn’t know how to navigate the business side of it. Despite her talented cooking, the restaurant ultimately failed. Loubna realized there were no resources for women like her aunt, and became one of the founders of Meet My Mama, a culinary project in France. Today, Meet My Mama enables women from all over the world to make a living with their cooking skills, and has grown to include over 200 chefs. This podcast is by Expo Live, produced by Kerning Cultures Network.

The idea behind Mobility for Africa was born out of frustration. Having worked in the development sector in Africa and Asia for more than two decades, Shantha Bloemen was dismayed by the lack of mobility options available, especially for women. Shantha is the founder and managing director of Mobility for Africa, a social enterprise that is providing electric mobility to rural communities in Zimbabwe. Shantha’s work is proof that investing a little money in sustainable mobility is a long lasting solution. This podcast is by Expo Live, produced by Kerning Cultures Network.

David Davies grew up in a wheat and sheep farming area in South Australia, where he ran wheat silos and got to learn about wheat and sheep farmers. Today, he runs AgUnity, taking low-cost smartphones and adapting them to become essential tools for low-income farmers around the world, from Columbia to Ethiopia to Papua New Guinea. This podcast is by Expo Live, produced by Kerning Cultures Network.

So far, we’ve heard from an array of wonderful, passionate, and determined Global Innovators from around the world. They’re all part of the Expo Live programme that’s funding new and innovative solutions to make our world a better place. But how does this programme work? Who are the people making it happen? Today, we learn about the other side of the coin from the people organising the Expo Live programme.

Today’s story starts in Gaza back in 2009 when a doctor informed Reem Al Franji that her two sons have a developmental disability. Reem and her husband went home that day shocked, googling all of the terms the doctor used, but they couldn’t find any reliable resources in Arabic. Over the years, Reem expanded her own knowledge in parenting children with disabilities and eventually launched Habaybna in 20017 with her husband. Today, Reem is the co-founder and managing partner of Habaybna, an Arabic online resource for families of children with disabilities. This podcast is by Expo Live, produced by Kerning Cultures Network.

How do you create a reliable source of water to communities in arid areas? The people of Ait Baamrane have lived on the edge of the Sahara Desert for centuries by relying on rain and well-water, but now, they’re facing intense droughts. Fascinated by fog, Jamila founded Dar Si Hmad, a women-led NGO in Morocco, stepped in to create the world’s largest operational fog water harvesting system. This podcast is by Expo Live, produced by Kerning Cultures Network.

As you’re listening to this episode, over 20% of the earth’s fertile land has already degraded. Deserts are spreading so fast that we may have 60 global harvests left. But about 15 years ago, an oil engineer from Norway figured out how to turn desert sand into fertile soil in less than seven hours — a process that until now had taken 7-12 years. Today, we hear from Atle Idland, General Manager of Desert Control, a start-up that came up with a solution that could revolutionise the global war against desertification. This podcast is by Expo Live, produced by Kerning Cultures Network.

In 2013, Ahmed Abu Elhaz had severe depression after an accident and struggled to find a trusted therapist in Egypt to help him through recovery. As a software engineer, Ahmed tackled the problem head-on by developing Shezlong, an online therapy app. After much trial and error, Shezlong now services over 80 countries and continues to tackle barriers around mental health in the region. The social stigma surrounding mental health support is still an ongoing challenge - but things have come a long way since Shezlong started. This podcast is by Expo Live, produced by Kerning Cultures Network.

Maria had been working in the hospitality and tourism industry for over 15 years in her native country, Ecuador, when she spotted a problem. Despite Ecuador’s right cultural heritage, tourists would flock to the same popular destinations. Inspired by her father’s teachings, Maria launched GoRaymi.com alongside her brother, Diego, to promote lesser-known destinations in Ecuador. This podcast is by Expo Live, produced by Kerning Cultures Network.

Sabrina Habib actually wanted to be a neurosurgeon after growing up with epilepsy as a child. But she quite literally stumbled into entrepreneurship after visiting what appeared to be a childcare center in Nairobi in 2011. With only six months of her business partner’s salary and some savings, Sabrina and her partner gave themselves a year to put their idea into motion: improve access to high-quality, affordable childcare in low-income populations. Today, Sabrina is the co-founder and CEO of Kidogo, a nonprofit that reaches over 450 childcare centers. This podcast is by Expo Live, produced by Kerning Cultures Network.

Over a number of years, Hans Jorgen Wiberg had been losing his sight. Anytime he needed visual assistance, he called others on Facetime or Skype. In 2012, Hans met Christian at a startup event in Denmark, where Hans was presenting the idea behind Be My Eyes. Today, Christian is the CEO of Be My Eyes, an app that relies on a heartwarming philosophy of kindness and serves over 300,000 blind and visually impaired users.

When the Syrian War began during Noura’s junior year of undergrad, she witnessed its impact on her family back home in Syria and felt like she needed to do something. Ten years later, Noura Ismail is the Middle East Director of Talent Beyond Boundaries, an organisation that connects skilled refugees with international employment opportunities. With 82 million people displaced throughout the world, Talent Beyond Boundaries is breaking ground by helping refugees build their future. This podcast is by Expo Live, produced by Kerning Cultures Network.

How do you seek mental health support anonymously? In 2016, Basim Albeladi suffered an accident that brought the importance of his well-being into focus. After a month in the ICU, Basim returned home to Medina and two years later he launched the beta version of a mental health telemedicine app, Labyah. Today, Labyah has over 300,000 users and continues to advocate for mental health in Saudi Arabia. This podcast is by Expo Live, produced by Kerning Cultures Network.

How do you begin to tackle nationwide food insecurity? When Charles and his team started Second Harvest in Japan, they didn’t just want to reduce food insecurity, they set out to eliminate food waste as well. Second Harvest is Japan’s only nationwide food bank, helping solve Japan’s food crisis over the past twenty years. This podcast is by Expo Live, produced by Kerning Cultures Network.

What problem are you trying to solve and why do you care about it? Expo Live, a global grant programme, asked this question, and over 11,000 of the world’s brightest social entrepreneurs answered. 140 Global Innovators were selected - from Japan’s first food bank, to an app that connects the visually impaired to sighted volunteers. Yousuf Caires, Expo Live’s Senior Vice President, shares what it takes to empower changemakers across the globe. This podcast is by Expo Live, produced by Kerning Cultures Network.

How can you improve lives within your community? How do you solve real problems around you? Hear from people who took matters into their own hands, to help those around them through innovative initiatives with social purpose. Find out how social entrepreneurs drive impact to make a difference. Episodes are released every Sunday and Wednesday, subscribe on your favorite podcast app so you don’t miss an episode. This podcast is by Expo Live, produced by Kerning Cultures Network.