Tharani Jegatheeswaran: Intrapraneurship, Career Changes and Social Impact Consulting at Deloitte

February 04, 2018 by Amra Naidoo in Podcast

Why does a Big Four accounting firm like Deloitte do social impact consulting? Is this for CSR purposes? is this for publicity because being involved in impact is 'cool'? Are there business reasons behind this decision and if so, what were they? Do they charge clients for the consulting they do or is this pro bono? In this episode we hear from Tharani how she made a successful career change into social impact and built Deloitte's social impact consultancy from nothing.

Rochelle Courtenay: Sharing the Dignity in Australia

August 20, 2017 by Amra Naidoo in Podcast

In this episode I chat with Rochelle Courtenay, Founder of Share the Dignity. Rochelle has a great story of seeing a problem and doing something about it and just getting shit done. Now a national organisation, Share the Dignity is fast becoming what I think is one of the most impacftul and disruptive nonprofits players in Australia.

Kon Karapanagiotidis – Fighting for Refugees, Asylum Seekers, Compassion, Decency & Kindness

May 28, 2017 by Amra Naidoo in Podcast

I’m sure you’ve been hearing a lot about asylum seekers and refugees in the news. As a human rights advocate for the past 25 years, a lawyer, social worker, and teacher, Kon Karapanagiotidis, - CEO & Founder of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre - is the go-to man for everything you want to know about people seeking asylum.

Jon Feinman– Using Weight Training to Reduce Youth & Gun Violence in the United States

May 14, 2017 by Amra Naidoo in Podcast

I had a really great interview with Jon Feinman, who is the Executive Director and CEO of Innercity Weightlifting, a non-profit based in Boston. They own and operate a few gyms around the city and work with young people who have been identified as a high risk for violence. Their programs focus on social inclusion and reducing youth violence by working with these guys (mainly guys) in the gym. They connect these young people with new networks and opportunities, including meaningful career tracks in and beyond personal training. According to them, they use the gym to replace segregation and isolation with economic mobility and social inclusion, disrupting the system that leads to urban street violence.

This interview was recorded while Jon was in one of the gyms so you’ll probably hear a few weights and grunts in the background, don’t mind them, it’s all part of creating the atmosphere! I absolutely love the work that Jon and Innercity Weightlifting are doing. They are completely flipping the typical non-profit model on its head with the way that they are running their programs but not only are they changing the lives of the students they are working with, they are changing the lives of the clients who choose to train at the gym with the students. Jon mentions in this episode that most of the clients that come to the gym have never met someone who has been in jail before. Making this introduction and fostering a connection promotes social inclusion not just for the students, but for the clients too. Excited for you to listen to this episode!

Mark Ruiz – Women Micro-Entrepreneurs Using Business and Technology to Create Economic Impact in the Philippines

April 30, 2017 by Amra Naidoo in Podcast

As you may know, I spent a few months in the Philippines last year. And it was amazing. There’s a special place in my heart for that country and the incredible people there. During my time there, I met up with Mark Ruiz. Mark is one of the co-founders of Hapinoy - a social enterprise that work with women or nanays, who run small convenience stores, otherwise known as sari-sari stores in the Philippines. Sari-sari stores typically sell canned goods, rice, noodles, coffee, shampoo and toothpaste. Products are sold to locals from the neighbourhood in small packets or numbers, with very small profit margins. The stores are run informally, within the family and financial mismanagement is common. Hapinoy trains the women running these stores how to improve their business practices, get loans and earn more income

Cristi Hegranes – Journalism for Development: The Woman Disrupting Global News & Traditional Media for Social Impact

April 17, 2017 by Amra Naidoo in Podcast

I’m sure you’re aware that most of the world’s news coverage from developing countries centres around 4 topics: war, poverty, disaster, & disease. That’s where Global Press comes in.

Global Press exists to pave a new way forward for international journalism. Acknowledging the flaws and limitations in both foreign correspondence and citizen journalism, Global Press offers a powerful third way. Global Press Institute (GPI) trains women in developing media markets around the world to be ethical, investigative, feature journalists. After completing the Institute’s 24-module training program, trainees are employed as professional reporters at Global Press Journal. At the Journal, reporters cover the topics of their choice, supported by a sophisticated editorial structure that offers deep insight, extraordinary context and complete accuracy. Once complete, local language and English versions of stories are published on the Journal and distributed via Global Press News Service, the syndication division of Global Press.

Global Press Journal’s coverage takes a much fuller picture of the developing world

Marica Ristic - Domestic & Family Violence: The Cost & Causes

April 02, 2017 by Amra Naidoo in Podcast

When I first started thinking about this podcast and the topics that I’d like to cover, domestic violence was one that was top of mind for me. Domestic violence is an issue that has always stirred something in me. It’s something that is so pervasive in our societies. It crosses all cultures, races, countries, income and education levels. 1 in 3 women aged 15 and over will be abused at some point in their lives. How is this acceptable? But it happens every day. When I first started thinking about this podcast and the topics that I’d like to cover, domestic violence was one that was always top of mind for me. Domestic violence is an issue that has always stirred something in me. It’s something that is so pervasive in our societies. It crosses all cultures, races, countries, income and education levels. 1 in 3 women aged 15 and over will be abused at some point in their lives. How is this acceptable? But it happens every day

The scale of the issue is huge. In Australia alone, police deal with an estimated 657 domestic violence matters on average every day of the year. That’s one every 2 minutes. Every 2 minutes! So, by the time you’ve finished listening to one of the Doing Good Podcast episodes, around 30 women would have been affected. And these are just the women that get through to police. Because the likelihood of women calling for help is extremely low and domestic violence often goes unreported.

In this episode, I interview Marica Ristic, the Domestic & Family Violence Client Response Team Leader from the Domestic Violence Prevention Centre on the Gold Coast in Australia. We go back to basics and talk about domestic violence – what it is and why it happens; what is being done about it; and what you can do to help. Let me know what you think about this episode in the comments!

Anne-Marie Bakker – Planting Trees for Peace & Security

March 08, 2017 by Amra Naidoo in Podcast

In this episode I chat with Anne-Marie Bakker, VP Operations & Partnerships at Fostering Education & Environment for Development (FEED) in The Philippines. In this episode we chat about environmental conservation in the Philippines and how it’s being used to create economic opportunites andpromote peace in unstable areas. If you’re looking for an environmental warrior, look no further than Anne-Marie - she takes us in to the life of a grassroots activist and will be showing us what her work is like. Enjoy!

Christine Amour-Levar – Using Adventure, Sport & Travel to End Violence Against Women

February 19, 2017 by Amra Naidoo in Podcast

I am super excited to introduce you to Christine. She is someone who I really admire because of her personal and professional accomplishments. You’ll hear me say it a few times in this episode, but I honestly don’t know how she has the time to do everything that she does. Having said that, I think when you’ve found that sweet spot in your life where you can use the skills that you’re good at while you work at something that you’re passionate about, the time you spend on work, doesn’t seem like work at all. Christine co-founded Women on a Mission - a social enterprise that combines travel, sport and adventure with her passion to end violence against women. Now I’m not talking about leisurely travel here, some of their recent missions have included one to Iran in November 2016 where they trekked 200km of dessert. They also recently went to Jordan for rock climbing, Siberia to live with the nomadic Nenets reindeer herders and even up to Everest Base Camp in 2012. These trips are not for the faint-hearted. We’ll chat about how they do these trips, prepare for them and how these trips contribute to the fight to end violence against women. Let’s get in to the show!

Sabeen Ali – Hackathons creating Social Impact & Technology for Good

February 05, 2017 by Amra Naidoo in Podcast

On the show today we have Sabeen Ali, founder and CEO of San Francisco-based Angelhack - the world’s largest and most diverse hacker community. AngelHack, a female-owned, female-majority company helps drive open innovation of tech products, platforms and brands with extraordinary smarts, scale and speed via tech education, marketing and hackathons. Prior to AngelHack, Sabeen founded (and then sold) her own leadership training and organizational development company, Team Building ROI. She has also consulted for companies like Yahoo!, and Cisco. Sabeen is someone who i very much personally admire. I especially love how she is working to bridge the gap between the tech world and the social world, which have up until quite recently been very seperate. Even today, the social world can be very slow to adapt new technology, much to the sectors disadvantage. Sabeen is also someone who is very much a role model for getting more women in to technology and is also a champion of making this happen quicker. Angelhack is actually one of the case studies that I use quite often when people tell me that it is too difficult to have more women at a tech event or in their organisation. Anyway, I think it’s best we get in to the show so that Sabeen can tell you more about her work!

Esther Nai – Corporate Social Responsibility & Sustainability at Salesforce

January 22, 2017 by Amra Naidoo in Podcast

I promise I've got a great episode for you today. I'm sure a lot of the listeners out there have heard about Salesforce and probably even use it. But I'm pretty sure your imagination would be quite limited in terms of the type of social impact initiatives that they work on that are in line with their business. Well today you're in for a treat. I interviewed Esther Nai, who heads up corporate responsibility and sustainability programmes across Asia for Salesforce about exactly that. I'm quite familiar with their work in creating social impact so I'm excited to share this with you too. We chat about their 1-1-1 model, some case studies on impact that they've created, how they measure impact and most interesting to me, how Salesforce aligns the social impact with their business model. Enjoy!

Elijah Johnston – Fostering Social Innovation & Hackathons for Social Impact

January 08, 2017 by Amra Naidoo in Podcast

I am excited to introduce to you one of my very good friends and someone who I find extremely inspiring. In this episode, I interview Eli Johnston who does a lot of very interesting work bringing together corporations and entrepreneurs to accelerate social innovation. He does this through his work as the head of corporate innovation at the Impact Hub in Singapore which is a co-working space and community for social entrepreneurs. If that’s not enough, he is also the co-founder of Own Your Brilliance that brings students together from around the world and gives them to tools to get started on their journey to becoming social entrepreneurs. In this spare time, for the next 9 months Eli is also teaching a class of 10 women from all over South East Asia. They are house helpers also known as foreign domestic workers in Singapore. And he is going to be running a Venture Club through an organisation called Aidha which teaches financial literacy, business and entrepreneurship to these incredible hardworking women on their days off. Eli will be working with the women to build their business plans for a venture in their home countries and for the first time in Aidha’s history, these businesses will be designed as social enterprises. Honestly don’t know how he does this all! Anyway, I hope you enjoy this episode, it was definitely one of the more fun ones for me to record, especially as I find that Eli is someone who can be a lot of fun but also very deep in his thoughts and motivation to change the world. I’m keen to hear what your thoughts are after you’ve had a listen!