News from Pioneers of Change - SEPTEMBER 2007
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I know great earth changes have been predicted for the future,
so if you're looking to avoid earthquakes my advice is simple:
When you find a fault don't dwell on it.
- Swami Beyondananda
Hello and welcome to September 2007. We're trying to keep up with sprouting cycle.
This month we celebrate the Brasilian network, opening its circle to welcome
a new generation of Pioneers. Thomas Ufer reports on the process.
Also in this issue is an interview with Henrique Bussacos, a social entrepreneur
and co-founder of the Hub São Paulo.
The São Paulo megacity - which this year banned outdoor advertising -
is about 400 km from Rio, the site of the Pioneers' Global Journey.
Airplanes shuttle between the cities; you can also travel by bus, or train.
Pioneers in São Paulo will welcome you if you come through the city en route
to the Global Journey in December, so contact Henrique and Thomas (below)
if you are interested.
- Rabea
in this issue
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pioneer venture
global journey invitation
bubblings: brasil
pioneer hosted events
community events
pioneers community news
notes from the field
job postings
prizes
in fact...
pioneer venture: Henrique
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AIESEC alumnus Henrique Bussacos was a mergers-and-acquisitions investment banker.
However, a side-project with Amana-Key helped bring him into alignment and radically
reshaped his career.
Amana-Key, Oscar Motomura’s company for corporate innovation, was Henrique's focus
for four years before he turned his attention to his present sources of rapture.
These, currently, are The Hub São Paulo, a sustainable creation chain called Tekoha,
and a newly-reinvented family business. We asked Henrique a bunch of questions, and
share his responses with you.
Links in this article:
AIESEC
Amana-Key
Oscar Motomura
The Hub
Tekoha
Thanks for chatting with us Henrique. How do you see your Amana-Key learnings applied
in Brasil today? What do they have to offer people working at grassroots social levels?
First, I think there are two main ways to work as a change agent:
working to change organizations that already exist and starting new ones.
Both ways can be effective and helpful; choosing one or the other
depends on where your passions are.
Amana-Key have developed a methodology to … talk in executives' language
without losing identity and purpose. This is the knowledge I use the most
to start social companies. I need to be able to make bridges between grassroots
organisations and companies.
For example, at Tekoha, we have to make the bridge between local communities
and our consumers and most of them understand the corporate language.
When we propose partnerships with companies,
we have to speak their language and yet keep our principles and purpose.
Consciousness in the management process can be relevant to any organization -
a big corporation or a grass root one.
Tell us about the café you run. You were able to take a family business and recreate it
so as to align with your deeper values?
My parents started the Café 18 years ago… My sister and me used to help them,
working there during vacation and weekends. Last year, when my parents started
thinking about continuity, my sister and me thought that selling coffees and snacks
was not meaningful for us. At the same time, we had a strong connection with
the people there. Some of the employees are there for 18, 15, 12 years...
Which is not common in a coffee shop.
We decided to reinvent the business to make it meaningful and think about
the expansion of a company with purpose. So we changed the brand to
Ekoa Café (Ekoa means home, a place where meaningful dialogues take place…),
introduced organic and more healthy food, stimulated the dialogue
about sustainability and consciousness in the coffee shops and rebuilt the stores
with sustainable materials.
How do we visit?
Ekoa Cafe is in Campinas, a hundred km far from São Paulo, so everybody that will pass through São Paulo
before or after Rio de Janeiro should get in touch with me and then I can arrange a visit!
With Tekoha, your artisans make a lot of simple and traditional handcrafts using materials
that are both sustainable and customary, which preserves a cultural diversity. Who is your market?
This is a big challenge in Brazil, the fair trade market is not very developed.
So, we have a lot of work on education for conscious consumption. We created a
newsletter talking not only about Tekoha, but also about the communities that
are part of the network, and how conscious consumption can help change the market dynamics.
We focus on the market of gifts. Our value is to offer a meaningful hand-made gift -
telling the story of it and guaranteeing social and environmental sustainability.
How do you reconcile artisan cultures with market pressures to sell “sustainable industry”
to conforming capitalist classes?
I don’t have an answer to it… It’s a challenge that I believe has to be faced with transparency
and creativity to start new ways to establish relationships and commerce.
How did you establish relationships with the Tekoha artisans?
The first community I visited when I was dreaming about Tekoha, so they were the
first community to be part of Tekoha. The others we started to evolve, checking
the organization of the community, the role of the handcraft in the community, and
the quality of the products. Now, we are working with four communities around Brasil
and two others will be part of the network this month.
You've made Tekoha a local network. Do you plan to take it international? Why or why not?
We’ll operate abroad to balance our work in an undeveloped fair trade market, Brasil
and in a developed fair trade market. This is important, because in Brasil we have
to work on education of conscious consumption, while in other markets fair trade
is much stronger and we can generate revenues to more quickly reach the break-even.
Even though we are a non-profit organization, we consider economic sustainability
a strong point in our strategy. We will start our strategy abroad working in partnership
with AIESEC and Artemisia Foundation in 2008.
Are other Pioneers involved with your projects?
There are many levels of involvement... people that are directly involved
(as Pablo Handl and my sister), people that I exchange ideas with about the projects
(many), getting help with contacts at companies (Patrícia Sogayar, a Pioneer, helps
a lot, and others), starting partnerships with their projects or companies.
How are you and Pablo doing with The Hub?
Actually, I just came from the Hub! It’s going well. We have rented a space close
to Paulista Avenue (the main road in São Paulo) and now we’re rebuilding the space.
September 15 - 16 we’ll have the Design Workshop with architects and future
members of The Hub São Paulo.
Would you ever go back to working for a corporation?
Well, I kind of found my path on entrepreneurship of social companies.
So, I find very hard to imagine myself in a big corporation again right now. It’s not
that I have prejudices about it, but my passion is closer to the creation of new organizations.
What are you reading these days?
I’m reading Satish Kumar’s You are, therefore I am. He was a Jain monk
and left the religion to find his own path. His story is quite interesting and brings
many reflections on the meaning of life, the presence and many teachings that he got from his masters.
Oh - lovely book. Spiritual, but also just taking culture seriously.
Great read - not necessarily light. How do you relax?
First, I’ve to tell that I’ve a lot to learn on relaxation. I relax at Aikido, enjoying a chat with friends
in a café, laying down in my “Brasilian net,” and spending a day close to the sea…
Henrique Bussacos can be reached at henrique dot bussacos at tekoha dot org
global journey invitation
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The Pioneers of Change Global Journey 2007 is taking place soon in Mury, Rio de Janeiro,
Brasil. Join us for the annual meeting of the network: a time to meet with one another,
renew ourselves, and reaffirm our commitment to our work and our plans.
In this Global Journey we'll focus specifically on sustainable communities -
exploring their principles and the practice of applying them in our lives and work,
and we'll be doing this in the context of a deep connection with the rainforest of Rio,
a wonderful teacher about community and sustainability.
"The 'Help Wanted' signs are everywhere. All people and institutions, including commerce,
governments, schools, churches and cities, need to learn from life and reimagine the world
from the bottom up, based first on principles of justice and ecology." Paul Hawken
Every day will present us with a wide variety of activities: time for being and for doing, for silence
and for talking, for hard work and for relaxation, for deep thoughts and for just fun…
Each day, a pair of Pioneers will host our reflections on a different guiding theme. At week's end,
we - in small groups and individually - will present outcomes and follow-up proposals inviting people
to experience/build sustainable communities, counting on the Pioneers of Change global network
for ongoing support.
If you feel called to participate, we invite you to think about what you want to offer and come
prepared to engage fully. For particulars, and to apply, please go to http://www.pioneersofchange.net
bubblings: brasil
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The original Pioneers in São Paulo - a group of amazing people - had become a closed group of friends,
and there was little space and openness left for new people to join. Also the majority is
entering a different life phase, getting married, having children, and refocusing on their
meaningful works. We were lacking the time and energy to give life to the Pioneers network!
Having all this in mind, we decided to try to gather one burst of energy for new participants.
The original group saw that it was time for its role to be that of hosts and guides.
We organized a big public Pioneers of Change meeting on July 21st at the Free University
of the Environment and Peace Culture (UMAPAZ), which I would like to thank a lot for the space.
Around 80 people came together. It was a wonderful gathering, a lot of enthusiastic motivated people,
with interconnected stories and dreams.
| Link to event pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/thomas.ufer/PioneersOfChange21Jul2007 |
... The important part now, is hosting these newcomers into the network, and empowering them
to stand on their own. This will take some more energy, and I hope that some of the original
pioneers can help out...
-Thomas Ufer can be reached at thomas dot ufer at gmail dot com
pioneers hosted events
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Meet Pioneers, Meet Unfolding Cards
Today, 15 September 2007, 9.00 to 21.00
Berlin, Germany, at www.insel-haus.de
40 €
Frauke and Felix
Unfolding Cards Associates Workshop
28-30 September 2007
Fulda, Slovenia
http://www.unfoldingcards.org/home/openworkshop
Art of Hosting integral
October 17-20 2007
The Netherlands
This training will build on the powerful Art of Hosting process by bringing an integral awareness
and practice to enhance the sustainability of impact, enabling practitioners to be better equipped
to put their learning into practice. Arjen, Tatiana, Peter and Tim work together. Invitation:
http://www.engage.nu/interact/DOWNLOADS/AoHi%20Invite.pdf
Women Moving the Edge of Emergent Collective Leadership
26-29 October 2007
Angel’s Rest, Massachusetts, USA
http://www.vitis-tct.be/site/Main/WomenAndLeadership
community events
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Sustainable Finance Summit
18 - 19 September 2007
London, UK
http://www.ethicalcorp.com/climatefinance2007/
Web2forDev 2007: Participatory Web for Development
Sept 25 - 27 2007
Rome, Italy
http://www.web2fordev.net/about.html?no_cache=1
Transcend Peace University
1 October - 21 December 2007 (Register by 21 September)
Online - English, Spanish, Romanian and Russian language support
http://tpu.transcend.org
Anti-Corruption, Ethics & Compliance Summit
3 - 4 October 2007
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
http://www.ethicalcorp.com/anticorruption2007/
Green Festival
6 - 7 October 2007
Washington D.C., USA
9 - 11 November 2007
San Francisco, California, USA
http://www.greenfestivals.org/
Indigenous Peoples Days
5 - 8 October 2007
Nevada City, California, USA
http://www.indigenouspeoplesdays.org/
Bioneers Conference
19 - 21 October 2007
San Rafael, California, USA
http://bioneers.org/conference
PharmFree Medical Schools Week
22 - 27 October 2007
http://www.pharmfree.org
Africa-Europe Youth Summit
4 - 7 December 2007 (Apply by 21 September)
Lisbon, Portugal
Application available in English, French and Portuguese
http://europafrica.org/2007/05/23/africa-europe-youth-summit/
Laboratory on the Art of Facilitation
11 - 19 June 2008
Blossin, Germany
http://www.boscop.org/files/Events/Event_531/Invitation_26_7_07.pdf
pioneers community news
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Arts for Social Change :| New Hosts
Three new hosts have stepped into the Arts for Social Change community.
Amanda, from the Genius Lab in South Africa, has taken her drama therapy work into prisons,
corporations, addiction recovery programs, to name just a few. An independent creator, she enjoys
making new connections across multiple fields for the benefit of better solutions and greater creativity.
Patricia and Gwen come to the community from the Level Green Institute in Ithaca, New York -
a collaborative community arts hosting network growing out of retired farmspace.
Subscribe to the list at http://pioneersofchange.net/communities/arts/
Peacebuilders :| New Hosts
The Peacebuilders community also says Hello to three new young women as hosts.
Nina, based in Munich, works for a university in the field of Organisational Development and Training
as well as Social Entrepreneurship. Her real passion lies in the phenomena of peace and conflict
and in the questions of how conflicts can be used in a productive way, what peace is and why we need it,
as well as in the question of cooperative and confrontative ways of living.
Simone, working on The Hub Brussels, draws much of her peace building experience from family life.
To Simone, peace building means: creating the platform to enable peaceful interactions, dialogue,
and cooperation. She is passionate about co-creating peacefully connected communities
for social innovation in the world. One of her goals is that the Hub will be a place for
ALL people with great ideas on social innovation.
Anne-Claire, in Amsterdam, has joined a consultancy firm with a focus on diversity and multicultural issues.
She helped organise a global youth peace conference during an internship at UNOY Peacebuilders,
where she saw people changing their worldviews when they realised their enemy was just as passionate
about peace. Recently she has been connecting interests in peace building and intercultural communication.
Subscribe to the list at http://pioneersofchange.net/communities/peacebuilders/
notes from the field
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Communities of Practice |:
A quick Start-up guide for cultivating communities of practice (CoPs).
http://www.ewenger.com/theory/start-up_guide_PDF.pdf
Etienne’s next CoP workshop online starts 10 January 2008
Frauke is hosting an Introduction to CoPs for Pioneers and Stewards.
If you want to help shape the dialogue you can join the 10-week discussion at http://lists.pioneersofchange.net/mailman/listinfo/networkdialogue
Social Entrepreneurs |:
Growing opportunity: Entrepreneurial Solutions to Insoluble problems
http://www.allianz.com/en/allianz_group/press_center/news/markets_und_studies/ markets_und_studies/downloads/skoll_study_social_entrepreneurs.pdf
Subscribe to the list at http://pioneersofchange.net/communities/socialentrepreneurship
Facilitators and Free Agents; Democracy and Politics |:
A study on the use of dialogue
“Managing mobilisation? Participatory processes and dam building in South Africa, the Berg River Project”
from the Institute for Development Studies http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/bookshop/wp/wp254.pdf
Subscribe to the list at http://pioneersofchange.net/communities/ffan/
Arts for Social Change |:
World AIDS Day Guide for Discussion using Peace Tiles
http://www.mixedmedia.us/peacetiles_wad2007_guide.pdf
Peace Tiles work elementally at the individual level, at the community level to promote social
inclusion and education, and at the global level to raise awareness about AIDS. You
are invited to contribute to the discussion guide, and to host or sponsor Peace Tiles workshops
for the December 1 World AIDS Day event. Contact Lars at tagstudio dot net
job postings
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Skoll Foundation
* Marketing Program Manager
* Web Marketing Manager, Social Edge
* Communications Director
http://skollfoundation.org/aboutskoll/job_openings.asp
Grameen Foundation
* Social Performance Group Project Manager to Vice President of Development
http://www.grameenfoundation.org/get_involved/career_opportunities/employment_opportunities/
Ceres
* Conference Fellow and Foundations Development Associate
http://www.ceres.org/ceres/careers.php
Berkshire Encyclopedia of Sustainability
* Call for authors of solution-oriented discussions on numerous topics
Erin Connor at erin at berkshirepublishing dot com
prizes
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Skoll Foundation social entrepreneurship prize
24 September 2007
http://www.skollfoundation.org/skollawards/index.asp
Transparency International anticorruption prize
30 September 2007
One chance for an act of integrity to bring someone a little fame and fortune
http://www.transparency.org/news_room/award/integrity_awards/call_for_entries
in fact
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You Don’t Say…
Organic agriculture can feed the world
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=1091304&fulltextType=RA&fileId=S1742170507001640
distribute | contribute
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If you would like to contribute to the newsletter, please send an email.
Address your correspondence to rabea at pioneersofchange dot net
financial matters
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Pioneers of Change is an independent network that believes it is critical to
retain a free and unbiased position. We also believe that financial barriers
should not be a constraint to learning and engaging. As such we work hard
at ensuring that our learning is available to as wide and diverse an audience as possible.
We invite you to make a donation to support us in our work. We encourage you
to think of this donation as an investment into learning that has the potential of
enriching all of our lives. If you have any ideas of individuals or organizations that
might like to support us, let us know, mark at pioneersofchange dot net
small print
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What is Pioneers of Change?
Pioneers of Change is a global learning network supporting practitioners in their mid-20s
to mid-30s. Founded in 1999, by a group of people from 16 countries and now includes
participants from around the world.
Pioneers are people who questions underlying assumptions and move into new territory
in order to create the change we want to see in the world. We include social entrepreneurs,
member of the business, government and non-profit communities, as well as artists, teachers,
and free agents from a variety of cultural and social backgrounds.
When you join Pioneers of Change you explicitly commit to the following principles:
Be yourself
Do what Matters
Start now
Engage with others
Never stop asking questions
For more information on Pioneers of Change, see http://www.pioneersofchange.net
Thank you! To unsubscribe from this newsletter, send an email to
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