Global Catalyst Foundation

A week weeks ago, while conducting interviews for our UN-GAID working paper, I had the pleasure of meeting Kamran and Zohre Elahian, co-founders of the Global Catalyst Foundation (GCF). One of GCF's most recent initiatives is the Ghandi project, supported by the Skoll Foundation, which screens the movie "Ghandhi," dubbed in Arabic, in Palestenian communities and refugee camps. The goal is to promote non-violent resistance, which was so successful in liberating India from British rule. In helping Palestine free itself from Israeli rule, Israel would surely benefit from a lesson in non-violence too.

Another project of note is the Kasulu and Mtabila Internet Project in Tanzania, a three-year Public-Private Partnership Program that uses ICT, through internet access centers, to provide school and health education and income generating projects. One of the project sites is the Mtabila Refugee Camp for Burundian refugees, which was so successful that when Cisco was looking for locations in the country to set up its networking academy, it chose the camp because of its many computer-literate inhabitants.

This speaks to the power of long-term, hands-on involvement of project funders to ensure the success of their creations.