Much of the news from 2018 doesn’t paint a pretty picture of the world. But we won’t dwell on that. Instead, we’d like to wrap up the year by turning our attention to how social entrepreneurs are tackling some of the toughest global challenges and improving people’s lives—by uncovering injustices, opening up access to essential resources, and paving the way for further innovation and impact. We’re proud to support these remarkable social entrepreneurs, and we’re excited to share their successes in our second annual Good News December campaign. Keep an eye out for the good news we’re sharing on our Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, and share your own favorite highlights from the year using #GoodNewsDecember!
For two decades, Global Witness has fearlessly exposed human rights and environmental abuses driven by corruption and exploitation. Years of investigation by the organization revealed one of the biggest corruption scandals in history: That oil giants Shell and Eni paid $1.1 billion in a bribery scheme to acquire an oil block off the coast of Nigeria, depriving the Nigerian people of $6 billion in future revenue. The landmark case was finally brought to trial in 2018 – a wake-up call to the oil industry that even the most powerful corporations can “no longer hide their wrongdoing and avoid justice.”
To increase access to books in Indonesia — where only 25 of every 100 students who enter school will leave meeting minimum standards of literacy and numeracy — Room to Read teamed up with Google.org to create a digital learning platform that promotes literacy, enables the creation of high-quality books, and trains teachers on effective reading strategies. Named a 2018 Goalkeepers Accelerator by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the organization plans to reach 1.1 million children in India, Vietnam, and South Africa over the next three years.
For more than one billion people in the world, proper healthcare isn’t a given. Through their groundbreaking partnership, Living Goods and Last Mile Health are training and deploying digitally empowered community health workers to make lifesaving healthcare available to the hardest-to-reach patients. They reached a staggering number of 7.6 million people in 2018 and hope to bring quality health care to 34 million people in six countries in East and West Africa by 2021.
Despite being legally eligible to clear their criminal records, millions of Americans are still live under this burden—even low-level ones—making getting a job, finding housing, applying for student loans, and countless other achievements a major challenge. Code for America reimagines government services to make them work for those who need it the most. This year, the organization partnered with the San Francisco District Attorney’s office on the “Clear My Record” campaign to automatically reduce all eligible marijuana convictions, with the aim to clear 250,000 convictions by 2019 and apply the model across the country.
This past April marked the opening of the Equal Justice Initiative‘s National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. As America’s first major effort to confront the nation’s history of racial terror and its legacy, it honors the thousands of victims of lynching. “Our nation’s history of racial injustice casts a shadow across the American landscape,” said EJI Director Bryan Stevenson. “This shadow cannot be lifted until we shine the light of truth on the destructive violence that shaped our nation, traumatized people of color, and compromised our commitment to the rule of law and to equal justice.” Plus: hear Stevenson’s opening speech at the 2018 Skoll World Forum.
More than half a billion people could solve their own drinking water and sanitation needs if they just had access to small loans. Water.org and their partners reached a critical milestone in September, attracting and mobilizing $1 billion in capital to support small, easy-to-repay loans for people in need of access to water and sanitation. “What can a $1 billion buy?”asks co-founder Gary White. “It can buy an acceleration to the end of the global water crisis, strengthen our global economy and help bring millions of people the good health, power, and dignity that come with access to a tap and a toilet.”
Case in point: A stunning study of 751 Indian women tea pickers who were provided glasses by VisionSpring showed dramatic boosts in productivity—the largest recorded increase due to a health intervention—demonstrating a clear link between clear vision and productivity. Despite nearly 2.5 billion people in the world currently living with impaired vision, less than 1 percent of global health funding is spent on delivering glasses to people in developing countries. VisionSpring makes it their mission to deliver low-cost, high-quality eyeglasses to everyone (regardless of income) and to shine a light on this overlooked health crisis.
Search for Common Ground was nominated for the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize for having “made a profound impact in our world, inspiring and exciting people to find our shared humanity.” Based on the premise that conflict is inevitable but violence is not, Search works to change the way the world deals with conflict—away from adversarial approaches and towards collaborative problem solving. They launched an exciting, much-needed campaign this year to recognize the extraordinary impact of peacebuilders by working to get the word “peacebuilding” in major dictionaries.
Educate Girls, which envisions a world where every single girl is enrolled in school, far exceeded the goals of the world’s first development impact bond for education. After three years in Rajasthan, India, the organization enrolled 92 percent of out-of-school girls against its target of 79 percent. Further, students exceeded the Hindi, English, and math learning targets by 160 percent. Find out how the DIB process shaped their approach to fundamentally shift gender inequality in education in this blog post—featuring an inspiring audio interview with founder Safeena Husain.
The good news: There’s a growing movement in the health sector to take responsibility for their contribution to the problem and to act as a voice for change. This year, Health Care Without Harm brought together 23 major U.S. health systems—representing 947 hospitals, over 1 million employees, and $212 billion in revenue—to form the health pillar of the #WeAreStillIn campaign, stepping up take bold climate action.
