ONE OF WORLD’S BEST EMERGING SOCIAL INNOVATORS

ACCRA, JUNE 3, 2011 – Echoing Green, a leading network for next-generation social innovators, proudly announces its selection of Ghanaian, Deborah Ahenkorah of The Golden Baobab Prize, as a 2011 Echoing Green Fellow—one of 22 named today’s boldest social change visionaries in the fields of human rights, health, and the environment, among others.

Commenting on this announcement, Ahenkorah said, “Echoing Green has 25 years of experience identifying changemakers with powerful ideas. I’m truly humbled and excited to be a fellow, handpicked out of over 2000 applicants for this honor. I had no idea where it would go when I started the prize as a college summer project from an Internet cafe in Accra. Today, I’m working with a global team of advisors and volunteers to ensure that in ten years, there will be beautiful African children’s books on shelves all over the world! It’s a dream come true. I’m very grateful to God.”

"Co-Founder and Board Chair, Rama Shagaya added: This is a tremendously encouraging event in the life of the Prize. It is a testament to the hard work that the operational team has put in over the years under Deborah's leadership. We are honored and proud to be in the company of such great people and organizations trying to solve critical problems around the world."

For 25 years, Echoing Green has helped inspire and seed some of the world’s most powerful, game-changing institutions—From Teach For America to City Year to SKS Microfinance. Since it was founded by growth equity firm General Atlantic in 1987, it has invested nearly $32 million in over 500 social entrepreneurs.

The 2011 Echoing Green Fellows are launching a total of fifteen new nonprofit, for-profit and hybrid organizations to solve intractable social problems. Chosen based on a rigorous selection process from a pool of 2,854 applicants from over 100 countries, each venture will receive seed funding of up to $90,000 over two years, health insurance, strategic planning support, legal assistance, and financial modeling, as well as mentoring from Echoing Green’s network of alumni and other leading social change professionals.

In announcing the 2011 Echoing Green Fellows, Dr. Cheryl L. Dorsey, President of Echoing Green, said, “Echoing Green’s 2011 Fellows are an inspiring group of pragmatic visionaries who, rather than accept the world as it is, see what it can be. It takes a village to raise a social entrepreneur. Help them bring their ideas to life, and further unleash their talent.”

Dave Hodgson, Managing Director of General Atlantic, LLC and Chairman of the Echoing Green Board of Directors, said, “Name the need—hunger, housing, fighting disease, connecting citizens who care, doing greater good with technologies—and you will find Echoing Green Fellows at work on creating solutions all over the world. We look forward to welcoming this new class of innovators into our robust network.”

About The Golden Baobab Prize

The Golden Baobab Prize (GBP) is a literary award that discovers, nurtures and celebrates promising writers of African children’s literature. It connects these writers with leading publishers and ensures that winning African children’s and young adult books enter the marketplace. The GBP believes that educational development in Africa is hampered when youth lack access to diverse quality literature relevant to their experiences. To address this issue, the Prize ensures the production of books and stories that will supplement educational curricula, provide a voice for African people, open up new windows of thinking for youth and encourage mutual cultural understanding.

The Golden Baobab Prize currently operates with a virtual volunteer team of individuals based all over the world. The organization is raising funds and seeking corporate sponsors and creative partners to grow and scale up its operations from an office in Accra, Ghana. The deadline for submission to this year’s Golden Baobab Prize is June 21, 2011.

About Echoing Green

Echoing Green unleashes next generation talent to solve the world’s biggest problems.

Echoing Green is a nonprofit social venture fund that identifies, invests in, and supports some of the world’s best emerging social entrepreneurs—society’s change agents. Because we believe human capital is the most important asset class, and understand the difficulties faced by social innovators who challenge the status quo with bold ideas for a better world, Echoing Green invests deeply in these next generation change agents as well as works to create an ecosystem around them that supports and celebrates social innovation as a high-impact strategy for social
change.

Echoing Green - www.echoinggreen.org