Social EntrepreneursTEAM MEMBERS: KUMAR CHANDRU, IZHAR DIVENDRA, TAN JIE SHIE

John Wood’s Story

John Wood was overworked at his job at Microsoft. So he took a vacation at Nepal to relieve stress. As he was trekking, he came across a small school. Talking to the teacher he realized that there were barely any books which students there could use. After promising to return to with more books, Mr Wood started collecting book donations from his family and friends. He managed to collect around a thousand books for the school.

John Wood’s Story

He later wrote a book, ’leaving Microsoft to change the World’,about his experience of collecting books for the school. The book became well-known and he earned 3 million dollars with which he started ‘Room To Read’, a global non-profit organization which focuses on literacy and gender equality in education. ‘Room to Read’ has reached to around 10 million children, opened over 12 000 libraries and 1500 schools

Scott Harrison’s Story

Mr Harrison used to work as a party promoter but quit as he felt like he was living selfishly . He decided to sign up for volunteer service aboard a floating hospital with a group called Mercy Ships, the people living in poverty he met and his fellow colleagues caused him to have a change in his perspective of the world.

Scott Harrison’s Story

During his experience at Mercy Ships, Mr Harrison realized that 60% of the diseases that were faced by people were due to lack of clean water. Hence, he returned to New York to start ‘Charity:Water’ to provide people with clean water. ‘Charity: water’ has raised over $100 million and funded over 8,000 water projects in 20 countries. When completed, those projects will provide over three million people with clean, safe drinking water.

References

http://www.forbes.com/sites/danschawbel/2013/07/22/scott-harrison-how-he-started-charity-water-and-what-he-learned-in-the-process/#fd5aaeb7c5e3

http://www.charitywater.org/about/scotts_story.php https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wood_(activist) http://www.leavingmicrosoftbook.com/author.html