The BoGo Light

The BoGo Light is a scientific, eco-friendly breakthrough that is making an impact worldwide. From Cairo to Cape Town, from the Caribbean to the Amazon, it is improving the lives of individuals, families, and entire villages by replacing costly kerosene, candles, and disposable battery flashlights with an affordable, long lasting, solar flashlight.

BoGo means Buy one, Give one. We want our lights to benefit the less fortunate; therefore, with each light purchased in the developed world, a second identical light will be donated to an organization that will distribute it in the developing world with our direct financial support. Give the Gift of Light, and Help Us Change the World!

THE ROUGH GUIDE TO A BETTER WORLD is the essential guide to how the world can be a better place for everyone. Poverty in the developing world is well known, but less publicised are the efforts of those who combat hunger, disease and illiteracy. This guide shows how you can get involved.     read it online download e-book   Read the full text of the Rough Guide to a Better World, and find out how to start making a difference today.   Download the Rough Guide to a Better World e-book free for your desktop, laptop, or handheld device. get a free book better world community   Order your free copy of The Rough Guide to a Better World, compliments of DFID and Rough Guides.   Contribute your thoughts and ideas about making the world a better place, and read what others have to say.

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	Starting very small, ask yourself: in a world where "everyone cared," what dream might I begin today?

Name - MONOJIT DUTTA Occupation - HEADMASTER, GUJARPUR   SHIBGANJ BISALAKSHI HIGH   SCHOOL

HERE WE COME: Students of Gujarpur Shibganj Bisalakshi High School exult after a cricket match win

He is the pied piper of Howrah, getting school dropouts back to the classroom from menial jobs they did to help their families

For parents in Shyampur area of Howrah district, educating their wards has never been a priority. Driven by poverty, they have looked upon their children as money earners to fetch the daily meal.

No wonder then that students dropping out of the local Gujarpur Shibganj Bisalakshi High School was a norm rather than an exception.

Not an ideal situation for a headmaster. But, Monojit Dutta was a missionary. He sparked a revolution in this hamlet, 90 km from Kolkata, by targetting poverty-driven school dropouts and their parents, convincing them that good education is a better investment than making children earn to fight penury.

Dutta, who was a technical supervisor in the Army, quit his job and got back to his first love, teaching. When he took over as headmaster in 2001, the dropout rate was high. Parents, mostly daily-wage labourers, wanted their wards to till the soil or work in brick kilns from an early age. Then, Dutta began his mission – changing mindsets of parents, students and teachers.

He convinced teachers that their job went beyond classroom teaching. He told them that they must ensure that students attended school by getting at the bottom of problems that kept them away.

And, he led by example. Dutta visited students’ homes and convinced their parents about the need for schooling. He told them that they could break free from the shackles of poverty by taking a different path – education. “But you must do without your children's earnings,” he told parents reluctant to take their wards off jobs and to the classroom. Some parents came out with problems.

“How can I send my son to school? We will not survive unless he tills the field or works in brick kilns,” said Samir Mete, when Dutta visited his home. His son Prakash earns about Rs 500 a month. The headmaster immediately promised to pay Samir Rs 500 a month. The quid pro quo – Samir must regularly send his son to school. Prakash, who had dropped out in class VIII, was admitted to class IX.

Dutta brought back many other dropouts to school either by cajoling them or through charity. He got the school’s managing committee to pay Rs 500 a month to the family of Shyamali Jana provided they sent their daughter to school. She was readmitted to VI and now studies in class VIII.

The results speak for themselves, with a number of students shining in the madhyamik (secondary) and higher secondary examinations. Dutta is now on his next mission, getting students to study further.

For Prasenjit Pramanik, who scored 715 out of 800 in madhyamik in 2005 but chose to take up a job in a jewellery shop in Mumbai, it was Dutta’s persuasion that had him return and get back to school. “Sir is like god to us. He has inspired us to study and even got poor students meals and gave bicycles to those who stayed far away,” says Prasenjit. The school is today a movement. Dutta is aware of the problems but believes they can be surmounted and his dreams translated into reality.

Name - CHEWANG NORPHEL Age - 70 Years Occupation - Civil Engineer

Chewang Norphel did not wait for glaciers to melt so that farmers had water. He created one!

Growing up in Skarra, a tiny village on the outskirts of Leh, Chewang Norphel believed water was a magical word. For, in Ladakh, water is worshipped. Farmers pray to water-gods at the start of the sowing season. They erect statues of deities at every spring site. But often, their prayers fall on deaf ears. Norphel’s family, like other farmers in the area, depended entirely on the melting snow from natural glaciers to irrigate their fields. The fate of the Ladakhi farmer's crop rested entirely on nature’s whims.

When Norphel joined the state rural development department as a civil engineer, he heard desperate pleas for water from every Ladakhi village he visited. And, if one expected a sarkari babu to gloss over them, Norphel had found his heart melting.

And, so moved was he that as soon as he took early retirement in 1987, Norphel took it on himself to set things right.

“I felt compelled to find a solution to the acute water scarcity,” says the retired engineer, now 70. He evolved an innovative project to meet farmers’ needs. That year itself, he constructed the first ‘artificial glacier’ at Phoktse Pho. The revolution had started.

Norphel’s artificial glaciers trap and freeze water at the start of winter. Water from a stream or river is diverted along a large wall of rocks built at the foot of a mountain. This water is channeled through pipes to an area that is protected from the glare of the mountain sun.

Water accumulates in a large pool. The pipes reduce the speed of its flow and, as temperature drops, the water freezes to form sheets of ice. In summer, this ice melts at the start of the sowing season. The water is diverted to fields, freeing farmers from their dependence on natural glaciers.

“We use rocks and pipes available locally to build these glaciers,” says Norphel. Local labourers construct the low-cost structures, built for about Rs 1.5 lakh a glacier. So far, 10 glaciers have been built in Ladakh under Norphel’s supervision.

The Desert Development Programme of the Central government funded the initial stage of the project. Norphel later approached the Centre’s watershed development programme for funds. “People scoffed when I first presented the idea,” remembers Norphel. “Officials were skeptical and villagers were not ready to accept the concept,” he says. But Norphel soldiered on with rare stoicism. He held meetings with village elders to explain the benefits of artificial glaciers. Gradually, his enthusiasm caught on and villagers agreed to get involved in the construction work. When the artificial glaciers morphed from concept to functional reality, farmers in the area began expressing their gratitude to the enterprising engineer. They now affectionately refer to him as Ladakh’s glacier man.

Given the funds, Norphel wants to build a glacier in all of Ladakh’s 112 villages. But official apathy and red tape proved to be stumbling blocks. The watershed development programme allots Rs 25 lakh per project per village on paper. But so far, only Rs 6 lakh has been released in two installments over the last six years. “We are going ahead with construction, hoping that the money will be released. Payments are due and people lose faith if you don’t pay them for their work,” says Norphel.

Despite the setbacks, Norphel is determined to continue his work. As chief project officer of the Leh Nutrition Project, one of Ladakh’s old NGOs, he is also addressing other concerns of Ladakhi farmers. His organisation is building greenhouses and lambing sheds in areas like Changthang where it is impossible to plant crops because of the severe cold. Water reservoirs with lock systems and water releasing valves are being built in villages to ease the farmers’ burden.

“As long as I have the energy, I will do my best to help Ladakh's forgotten farmers,” says Norphel. A hostile terrain and harsh weather make survival a tough battle for Ladakhi farmers. Though they may be just an obscure dot on global India’s map, Norphel is determined to continue with this Himalayan task.

MIRACLE MAN: Nisheeth Mehta (third from left) lends a helping hand to disabled employees in his company Name - NISHEETH MEHTA Occupation - CEO of Microsign Products

Ever wondered what the balance sheet of a company with 60 % disabled staff would be like? The graph has only gone northwards. In this age of global competition, you wouldn't expect compromises on quality from a company that makes components for Volvo, Mercedes, Tata Motors, Hewlett-Packard and Reliance Industries. And you would think that Nisheeth Mehta, CEO of Microsign Products, an engineering plastic fastener manufacturing company in Bhavnagar, Gujarat, has done just that by employing 60 per cent of his staff from among the physically challenged. But, Mehta insists charity is the last thing on his mind. While the Persons With Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995, reserves three per cent jobs for this category, as many as 13 of Mehta's 20-member team are people with physical and mental disabilities. Mehta claims his productivity has increased by at least 20 per cent, has almost zero attrition rate and has bagged several awards including the National Award for Welfare of People with Disabilities for fulfilling corporate social responsibility. "My employees are known for their ability to transform their limitations into strengths," says Mehta. Candidates are assigned jobs to match their capabilities. Tukesh Bhatt, the first differently-abled employee Mehta hired 17 years ago, is a mechanic working at the noisy engineering machines. The noise does not affect Bhatt, who is hearing impaired. So, are his six other colleagues working in a high decibel atmosphere.

On May 25, 2001, Erik Weihenmayer became the only blind man in history to reach the summit of the world's highest peak - Mount Everest. And on September 5, 2002, when he stood on top of Mt. Kosciusko in Australia, Weihenmayer completed his 7-year quest to climb the Seven Summits - the highest mountains on each of the seven continents, joining only 100 mountaineers who have accomplished that feat. At age 33, he was also one of the youngest. Additionally, he has scaled El Capitan, a 3300-foot overhanging rock wall in Yosemite; Polar Circus, a 3000-foot ice waterfall in The Canadian Rockies; and a difficult and rarely climbed rock face on 17,000-foot Mt. Kenya.

Erik's speaking career has taken him around the world, from Hong Kong to Switzerland, from Thailand to the 2005 APEC Summit in Chile. He speaks to audiences on harnessing the power of adversity, the importance of a "rope team," and the daily struggle to pursue your dreams. Clearly, Erik's accomplishments show that one does not have to have perfect eyesight to have extraordinary vision.

VISIT: TOUCH THE TOP

FOUNDERS SABRIYE TENBERKEN (1970, German) Sabriye studied Central Asian Studies at Bonn University. In addition to Mongolian and modern Chinese, she studied modern and classical Tibetan in combination with sociology and philosophy. As no blind student had ever before ventured to enroll in these kind of studies, she could not fall back on any experiences of anyone else so had to develop her own methods to come to terms with her course of studies. It was thus that a Tibetan script for the blind was developed. Sabriye coordinates and counsels the project. She is responsible for the training of teachers and trainers for the blind and initially she taught the children herself. Further she selects and supervises all staff-members. Sabriye is also responsible for fundraising and communication with official and sponsor organisations. Sabriye Tenberken wrote a book in which she tells about the history of the project and about the way she dealt with becoming blind. The book has been published in 11 languages: Original title: "Mein Weg fuehrt nach Tibet", English:"My Path leads to Tibet" (Arcade Publishing house, New York). PAUL KRONENBERG (1968, Dutch) Since May 1998 Paul has been working together with Sabriye to establish the rehabilitation and training centre for the blind, Tibet. He also worked part-time as a designer and construction co-ordinator for the Swiss Red Cross in Shigatse. Paul has a technical background. He graduated in 4 different studies: mechanical engineering, computer science, commercial technology and communication system science. For several summers during his studies Paul worked for different organisations in development projects in Africa, Eastern Europe and Tibet. Paul is responsible for all technical aspects and maintenance in the program. He trains people in bookkeeping, office work and the use of computers. Along with being responsible for communications and fundraising, Paul started up the production of Tibetan Braille books and supervises all construction activities within the project.

VISIT: BRAILLE WITHOUT BORDERS

I AM A HUMAN BEING JUST LIKE YOU

Pham Thi Hue: "The information on HIV/AIDS given by the mass
 media should be changed in order to help people understand
more, not just to scare them."

Pham Thi Hue (24)  is a Vietnamese woman who makes a difference in the most admirable way.

Ms. Hue could be any other Vietnamese young woman from the port city of Haiphong. She is a tailor and the young mother of a son, who recently turned four years old.

At first glance she appears to be very much like most young Vietnamese women: Charming, energetic with the sing-song voice and the frequent shy smiles.

The day she was diagnosed HIV-positive, her life changed dramatically. All of sudden her friends and even her parents turned her away - they were not able to imagine that a normal person would be exposed - only drug addicts and prostitutes got this dreaded disease.

What makes ms. Hue such an admirable difference is the way she has handled her personal tragedy. Many HIV-positive people choose to go in hiding, because they feel miserable and ashamed of themselves, as if it is their own fault.

Instead Ms. Hue chose to take action.  She is now constantly campaigning to broaden the understanding and acceptance in Vietnamese society of the unfortunate HIV/AIDS victims. 

"My husband is 31 years old, also having HIV/AIDS. He used to work as a cook in a big hotel in Haiphong, but his boss asked him to leave, as soon as he learned that my husband is a person living with HIV/AIDS (PWH). He has stayed home since then. Luckily our son does not have the virus," says Pham Thi Hue.

READ: PHAM THI HUE