Everyone Can Be a Changemaker: The Ashoka Effect
Everyone Can Be a Changemaker: The Ashoka Effect
As a child, Eden loved to build things, and she had a hungry curiosity about the world around her...... She was only three when she told her father she knew exactly what she wanted to do with her life—to be a scientist.
“You can make a difference,” encouraged her father. “Give it your passion, and you can be anything you want to be.”
At the age of nine Eden assembled a model solar-powered car from a kit that her mother had given her, but its battery had limited energy. The car would go from one end of the room to the other, then stop. Eden explored ways she could get maximum energy out of its solar panel to make the car run for a longer time. She Googled “solar panels” and learned everything she could.
A trip to Home Depot with her dad to pick up components resulted in a prototype of a solar panel that rotated to track the path of the sun across the sky. By following the sun, the panel was able to absorb maximum solar energy without using a motor. She was ten when she entered the device into an international science fair. There, someone commented that her device could help people in faraway rural village that had no electricity.
If you think the world can be a better place and you have an idea for how to bring about positive change, you might become a “changemaker”. With help from an organization called Ashoka, the 16 individuals in this book have been able to make amazing accomplishments in their quests to help people around the world. Ashoka (named for a king in ancient India who learned through Buddhism to practise goodness, virtue and charity) mentors social entrepreneurs who strive to make a difference in the lives of others by creating change. Their stories cover a wide range of topics, among them, reusing before recycling, helping alienated youngsters heal, encouraging youth to vote, redirecting unused food for the hungry, linking education to possible careers for young people, and creating nutrition supplements for children in developing nations.
The Introduction explains Ashoka as “one of many helping agencies in the world that supports people who have a dream” by connecting them with other like-minded people, advising about funding and championing their success. Each chapter offers a glimpse into the project of a teen or adult, a brief biographical account of how each person grew their particular interest into a passion, and shows what they’ve accomplished. Each account ends with a nod to Ashoka for the specific ways it helped the idea become reality. All of these people felt the need to share their skills and energies, often in simple ways, to give to others, to improve the futures of others. The overriding message that emerges in each story is how they faced difficulties that often seemed insurmountable but persevered with hard work to find a way through. They all credit Ashoka with helping them feel ‘not alone’ and with giving them the strength to push ahead. Some of the projects have turned into lifelong endeavours, building skills and passing the torch to the next generation. Some of these changemakers have established their own organizations to carry on the work. There is such variety in the projects that readers will easily find these accounts appealing, and uplifting, to read.
The final chapter sums up the foundation philosophies of Ashoka: find your passion, start small, look at the big picture, be a listener, and remember difficulties can be overcome. The road to success may be through volunteering as well as by seeking help along the way. And there’s a list of simple, accessible ways to make small changes right away.
With so many opportunities to consider, Everyone Can Be a Changemaker will offer encouragement to anyone who believes a positive future is possible and necessary. From the opening quote by Mahatma Gandi -- “Be the change you wish to see in the world” -- the book would be a great discussion source for any group, and a catalyst for its members’ ambitions.
Gillian Richardson is a freelance writer living in British Columbia.