CIFA and SEVEN Fund Announce Winners to 2010 Essay Competition on Faith-based Enterprise Solutions to Poverty
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS AND WASHINGTON, D.C. —The SEVEN Fund and CIFA (the Center for Interfaith Action) are pleased to announce the winners of the 2010 CIFA and SEVEN Fund essay competition. The winning essays were selected through a competitive review process that included a jury of experts in the realms of faith and enterprise solutions to poverty. Entries were received from more than 800 individuals in 60 countries.
The two grand prizes of $5,000 were awarded to Dr. Sekai Nzenza of Zimbabwe and Ms. Awet Andemicael of the US. In Dr. Nzenza’s essay, “The Same Song,” she discusses how her faith motivated her to create a sustainable local business with the support of her community in Zimbabwe. Ms. Andemicael’s essay, “The Soul of Economic Development,” centers on her experiences with Home Sweet Home, a faith-based organization in Shanghai.
“I was deeply impressed by Dr. Nzenza’s ability to express how she and her community wove the entrepreneurial spirit with that of hope and self- determination for the well-being of the whole community. She also demonstrated how the wisdom of traditional culture and faith practices may be integrated with 21st century methodology and how new practices may be a continuity of the community’s shared history and customary leadership,” said Heidi Christensen, Interfaith Program Manager at CIFA.
“Ms. Andemicael’s moving narrative describing how Ma Yani’s innate sense of entrepreneurship provided vocational training and basic of life-skills for the most marginalized and outcast on the streets of Shanghai. Her witness will stand as a source of inspiration to those who seek to profoundly serve their neighbors,” added Jean Duff, Senior Advisor for Strategy and Resources at CIFA.
SEVEN and CIFA would also like to congratulate the authors of essays receiving honorable mentions, Dale Dawson, who leads the organization Bridge2Rwanda, and co-authors Helen Kingery and Ellen Ombati, missionaries working with New Mission Systems International. Mr. Dawson writes about how his faith drove him to seek opportunities to serve the private sector in Rwanda during the “second half” of his career. Ms. Kingery and Ms. Ombati’s essay, “Leaving Osina,” is focused on the development of Nasha Creations, a for-profit enterprise that helps support the orphaned children of Narok, Kenya.
“This competition highlighted the inspiring stories of more than 800 entrepreneurs around the globe that are connecting their faith with private sector efforts. Faith-driven entrepreneurs are a uniquely effective and often overlooked group in the development discussion. It is our hope that with this competition, we can draw attention to projects that integrate faith and development that can serve as inspiration and role models for others to engage in this field,” said Andreas Widmer, Co-founder and Co-director of the SEVEN Fund.
The biographies of the winners and honorable mentions are included below. Please check back in coming weeks for the winning essays. CIFA also invites interested parties to visit their Database of Multireligious Collaborations for Relief and Development project, and to share additional stories of faith-based enterprises there.
Winners Profiles:
Honorable Mentions:
About CIFA
Operating at the intersection of faith and development, CIFA is an organization committed to harnessing the potential of the faith sector as a positive force for global development. CIFA does this through increased interfaith coordination, best practices and model sharing, innovative mobilization of resources, and influential advocacy to governments and the general public. Visit CIFA online at http://www.centerforinterfaithaction.org/.
About SEVEN
SEVEN (Social Equity Venture Fund) is a virtual non-profit entity run by entrepreneurs whose strategy is to markedly increase the rate of innovation and diffusion of enterprise-based solutions to poverty. It does this by targeted investment that fosters thought leadership through books, films and websites; supporting role models - whether they are entrepreneurs or innovative firms - in developing nations; and shaping a new discourse in government, the press and the academy around private-sector innovation, prosperity and progressive human values.
Entrepreneurs create products, services and jobs. They expand economies, improve people's lives, provide employment (high and rising wages) and bring about competition. A competitive environment, in turn, gives rise to efficiency, meritocracy and further innovations and entrepreneurial drive.
The potent combination of entrepreneurship and technological innovation can forge an environment that is conducive to further enterprise, involving even government policy in supporting entrepreneurship and innovation.
