2019 Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship

The 2019 Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship, one week before we head into the 16th Annual Skoll World Forum: Crisis Text Line, Harambee  Youth Employment Accelerator, mPedigree, mPharma, and Thorn. 

The Skoll Awards distinguish transformative leaders whose organizations disrupt the status quo, drive sustainable large-scale change, and are poised to create even greater impact.

“These brave entrepreneurs are on the frontlines of solving the world’s most pressing problems,” said Jeff Skoll, Founder and Chairman of the Skoll Foundation. 

“Each social entrepreneur may have a distinct approach, but they all share a relentless pursuit of impact and the desire to create a more just world.”

“These leaders have demonstrated how to spark transformative change to improve health, protect vulnerable individuals, and provide new opportunities for young people,” said Richard Fahey, Interim President of the Skoll Foundation. “We are thrilled to welcome these passionate problem solvers into the Skoll community.”

Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator:  Nicola Galombik and Maryana Iskander

Harambee  Youth Employment Accelerator confronts South Africa’s youth unemployment crisis—among the world’s highest—with its innovative job training methodology, business partnerships, and opportunity matching.

mPedigree: Bright Simons and Selorm Branttie. mPedigree fights drug and agricultural seed counterfeiting with a product identification marker that consumers use to determine authenticity immediately with a mobile phone.

mPharma: Gregory Rockson. mPharma fixes the broken drug supply chain in Africa to make medicine accessible and affordable by eliminating the inefficiencies and price fluctuations that keep drugs from sick people.

Thorn: Julie Cordua . Thorn defends children from sexual abuse, scouring web data, publicly available classified ads, and online forum data with smart algorithms to help law enforcement find child victims.

Crisis Text Line: Nancy Lublin. Crisis Text Line has built a 24/7 mental health support service that reaches underserved demographics. It leverages its data to catalyze a more effective, cohesive mental health system.