Meaningful: Recent Episodes
Sofya Bourne
Meaningful is about people who give a damn and do something about it. Hosted by Sofya Bourne, this podcast explores the lives and work of people who tackle some of the most pressing social challenges around the world - and offers practical advice on how to build meaningful life and career on your own terms.
This episode of Meaningful was recorded and produced in collaboration with FieldWorks. FieldWorks is a cooperative information platform that helps funders and local NGOs to connect, build trust and form strong partnerships for sustainable social change. They are the first platform that helps local NGOs develop an online profile to grow their credentials and legitimacy so that they can achieve their missions faster by building the right partnerships more easily. To learn more about FieldWorks, visit fieldworks.info
Amina Evangelista Swanepoel is the Founding Executive Director of Roots of Health. Roots of Health is a non-governmental organisation that works to empower women, young people and families in the Philippines to lead healthy reproductive lives by providing rights- and results-based educational and clinical services. Ami started Roots of Health with her mother and husband in 2009 and over the past ten years grew it into a successful venture that positively impacts the lives of hundreds of people in the Philippines.
In this episode we talk about:
- Sexual and reproductive rights and health in the Philippines;
- Adapting the services you offer to the needs of your target population;
- Dealing with financial mismanagement as a startup;
- Aha! moments;
- Being selected as an Ashoka Fellow; and
- What it takes to take an NGO start up to scale.
To learn more about Ami and her work, visit Roots of Health website and Ami’s Ashoka Fellow page.
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Music used in this episode is by Lee Rosevere and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License.
Demiladé Falola-Apooyin works as an International Trade and Development Policy Advisor at the UK Department of International Trade. In her spare time, however, Demi is the founder and chief executive of the Women in International Affairs Network (WIAN), an online community that seeks to empower young women around the world to break into different career paths within the broader international affairs field.
In this episode we talk about:
- Challenges that young women face when seeking to start a career in international affairs;
- How WIAN supports young women in overcoming these challenges;
- Non-linear career trajectories;
- Demi's own career path from a law graduate to her current role;
- Good and bad career advice;
- Time management strategies for ambitious women; and
- Going after scary opportunities.
Join hundreds of WIAN members on LinkedIn or follow Demi on Twitter to keep up with her work.
Alyssa Chassman is the founder of the ID House, a social entreprise she set up in 2016 to empower young people around the world to advance positive social change in their communities. Having adopted the model of hackathons to solve social problems, Alyssa has since worked with over 2000 young people to help them bring their world-changing ideas to live.
In this episode we talk about:
- Origins and mission of the ID House;
- Finding your feed after university;
- How international institutions alienate younger generations;
- Challenging the status quo in the development sector;
- The benefits and challenges of the social enterprise model; and
- The first three things everyone who wants to start a business should do.
Find out more about Alyssa and her work in the show notes to this episode.
TW: depression, suicide, mental health stigma
Nadia Khan is a researcher, mental health activist and community organiser from the United Kingdom. She is a co-founder of The Delicate Mind, a social enterprise that works to engage faith leaders and other members in the Muslim community in nuanced, science-based discussions about mental health, masculinity and identity.
In this episode we talk about:
- How mental health stigma harms young people in the South-Asian community in the UK;
- The root causes of this stigma and how it is exacerbated by factors such as economic deprivation and social exclusion;
- Working with different community stakeholders;
- Interfaith organising;
- Benefits of setting up a social enterprise; and
- Success as inner peace.
Find out more about Nadia and her work in the show notes to this episode.
Barbara Cvenić is a Data Scientist at DonorsChoose.org, a non-profit organisation that provides a platform for public school teachers to raise funds for materials and supplies for their classrooms from ordinary citizens across the United States.
In this episode we talk about:
- Finding purpose;
- The impact of volunteering overseas;
- Getting the first job after graduation;
- Commitment and determination;
- Following your curiosity;
- The day-to-day work of a data scientist;
- The value of data science for the nonprofit sector;
- Learning new skills from scratch;
- Going through a career change;
- Satisfaction and feeling enough; and
- What it takes to make even the wildest dreams a reality.
Find out more about Barbara and her work in the show notes to this episode.
Mohsin Mohi Ud Din is the founder and CEO of #MeWe International, an organisation that is most well-known for its initiative #MeWeSyria.
In this episode we talk about:
- Growing up between two different countries;
- Storytelling as a tool for psychosocial support, for social and emotional education, and for activating young community leaders;
- MeWe International model and its evolution;
- Facing up to your fears and uncertainty; and
- Acting on your idea for social innovation.
Find out more about Mohsin and his work in the show notes to this episode.
Helen Patuck is a storyteller and the founder of Kitabna, a non-profit social business that publishes and distributes children’s books to refugees worldwide. Since 2014, Kitabna has printed over 17,000 copies of its 7 titles and developed a methodology to train refugee teachers to use its books as a social and educational resource for refugee youth.
In this episode we talk about:
- The origins of Kitabna;
- The power of writing;
- Self-publishing;
- Working with vulnerable communities;
- Creating art and creating social impact;
- The importance of neutrality in humanitarian contexts; and
- How to nurture social change.
Discover more about Helen and her work in the show notes to this episode.
Tola Akindipe is one of those people who easily wear multiple hats. Among his most impressive achievements is the co-founding of Refugees Welcome Portugal and a successful campaign he led at the University of Essex to establish a scholarship programme for refugee students. Today, he works as an Associate Reporting Officer at the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and serves as the international advisor for Refugees Welcome International.
In this episode we talk about:
- Advancing refugee rights and promoting integration;
- The issue of diversity in the non-profit sector;
- Running a volunteer-based organisation;
- Leading a successful social justice campaign;
- Perseverance as an activist; and
- Acting on your idea for social change.
Discover more about Tola and his work in the show notes to this episode.
Dominique Uwase Alonga is a Rwandan entrepreneur who in 2015 founded Imagine We Rwanda, a social enterprise on a mission to develop a vibrant reading culture in Rwanda and across Africa through advocacy and publication of books written about Africans by Africans. Dominique was only 22 when she quit her first post-university job and set out to establish Imagine We. Since then, she has won a $25,000 grant from Tigo, Rwanda’s second largest mobile service provider, published four children’s books, and was recognised by multiple awards, including the Imbuto Foundation’s Celebrating Young Rwandan Achievers award, the World Bank’s #Blog4Dev contest, and the prestigious Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders.
In this episode we talk about:
- Illiteracy and its negative impact on African communities;
- Why representation matters;
- Finding the courage to quit your job;
- What makes a successful entrepreneur; and
- Finding your life’s purpose.
Discover more about Dominique and her work in the show notes to this episode.
Emma Holten is an acclaimed feminist activist who came into the public eye after launching The Consent Project with a Danish photographer Cecilie Bødker in September 2014 . The Consent Project was a direct response to Emma’s personal experience of becoming a victim of revenge porn a few years earlier and to a number of toxic discourses on the subject of non-consensual pornography that Emma saw develop in the public sphere. In addition to being an activist, Emma is also a writer, an educator, a speaker, an editor, and a co-founder of Friktion, an intersectional feminist publication based in Denmark.
In this episode we talk about:
- The phenomenon of revenge porn;
- Online harassment;
- Female sexuality;
- Gender roles;
- The intersection of art and politics;
- The importance of understanding that personal is political;
- Doing activism as work; and
- Making a living as an activist.
Discover more about Emma and her work in the show notes to this episode.
Duro Oye is an activist, filmmaker, and entrepreneur from London, United Kingdom. Over a decade ago Duro walked away from his life on the streets to start everything from scratch . Now, as the co-founder and COO of the 2020 Change Foundation, Duro works with disadvantaged young men and women to help them leave the streets and shape them in becoming tomorrow’s community, business, and political leaders.
In this episode Duro and I talked about:
- factors that push young people to join gangs;
- the importance of a strong mindset;
- transferable skills that street smart youth possess and how to hone these;
- setting up a Community Interest Company;
- developing a business plan; and
- the difference between success and happiness.
Discover more about Duro and his work in the shownotes to this episode.
Katie Carlson is the founder of the Paper Crown Institute, an organisation that engages girls and young women in education and capacity building programmes in Rwanda. Based in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital, Katie has built an impressive career for herself. In five short years she has gone from struggling in an unfulfilling job to becoming an entrepreneur and a well-known expert in the field of gender. I first met Katie in Kigali in 2013, and was excited to learn what she’s been up to since then (hint: it’s A LOT!).
In this episode we talk about:
- finding your passion;
- switching careers after college;
- the value of crappy jobs;
- networking;
- fundraising;
- starting a social business from scratch;
- taking your work seriously; and
- making money in the social sector.
Discover more about Katie and her work in the show notes to this episode.