This post was originally published by Empower Generation, which merged with Pollinate Energy to form Pollinate Group in 2018.
KAPOW
We’re back on the blogosphere after a considerable absence.
We apologize for the lag.
We’ve been busy settling into our new existence in Leiden, The Netherlands.
Reflecting on our recent travels through Asia, we’ve decided to take the awesome opportunity offered to us by Luna Shrestha Thakur, Founding Director of ChangeFusion Nepal(CFN), whom we met this past November. We will participate in CFN’s Fellowship Programme by raising funds to support an entrepreneur that shares our passions—renewable energy technology (RET), community social enterprise, and gender equality.
The funds we raise (with your help!) will allow this entrepreneur to attend CFN’s Capacity Building where experts will help her to finalize her business plan, and receive a start-up loan, on-the-ground mentor-ship, and access to a network of professional support for their new business.
This is a great first project for us. We will work with a respected grassroots organization promoting youth-led social enterprise in the country we fell in love with. In Nepal, the need for innovative methods of powering communities is as obvious as the rolling blackouts. And so, the Story of Ideas continues. With the help of our friends, family and greater networks, we can start getting some hands-on experience in micro-enterprise generation and help some of the women we met in Nepal promote RET and a healthier local ecosystem in their villages.
The top 25 young applicants from around the country are going through CFN’s Capacity Building Workshop right now (April 15-18, 2011), in Dhulikhel, the mountainous town where we stayed for much of our time in Nepal.
There are a number of RET project proposals and CFN staff is working hard to select the right candidate to work with us as the EG Fellow. Stay tuned for the next post, early next week, when we announce the first ever Empower Generation Fellow!
As our video says, this is just the beginning for Empower Generation. This is also just the beginning of our partnership with CFN. The start up loan, when paid back by the first EG Fellow, will be continuously reissued as new start-up financing for the next generation of EG Fellows. If we are able to raise our fundraising goal we’ll be participating in the CFN Fellowship Programme for the foreseeable future.
We hope you’ll share, tweet, post, etc. these blogs and campaign linkor widget everywhere and anywhere you can. Use the share tools on our home page so we can track our Power Rangers. Remember, if 3 of your contacts donate you’ll become the first EG Super Power Ranger and we’ll write a blog post about how totally rocking and fantastic you are.