Be the Change

Changing the world seems to be the fulltime occupation of many of the world’s inhabitants.

Think about it: Nicholas Kristoff and Sheryl Wu Dunn, who started the Half The Sky Foundation, want to change the world by improving the education, health and safety of women. The organization Global Partners for Afghanistan wants to change the world by teaching Afghanis better agricultural and horticultural techniques so that they have sustainable incomes. We all know individuals who have started nonprofits for the purposes of helping some disadvantaged or at-risk group. Like my friend Oraia, who started Right Rides for Women’s Safety, which late at night when public transport has stopped, gives women free rides to their front doors in 35 neighborhoods of New York.

Last night, here in Warsaw, I met an entrepreneur who has turned his talent for making money toward creating a sustainable philanthropic model, a venture capital fund that reinvests a portion of its profits in a foundation that supports LGBT causes. And I talked with a corporate leader who wants to adapt a micro-credit model to support gay and lesbian entrepreneurs in South Africa. Or consider the now famous Nathalie, with whom I am working in Senegal, whose goal it is to build small and sustainable hospitals in areas where there are very limited health services.

When I was growing up, Dad often said to me: “If you don’t like it, change it.” There are many parts of my own life I haven’t liked, and I’ve worked to change them. There are many things about the world that I don’t like.

Isn’t it great that there is an army of change agents working to make it better?