• The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship is helping social innovators respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Social entrepreneurs are providing food, water, shelter and mental health care to vulnerable populations.
  • There are five easy ways you can help people in need right now.

Every day we engage with the some of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs and innovators through the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship community.

The community includes approximately 400 social entrepreneurs and innovators, operating in 190 countries, who have impacted the lives of 622 million people and counting by distributing loans and services, mitigating CO2, improving access to education and energy and driving social inclusion for people with disabilities, the homeless and refugees.

And now, in the COVID-19 pandemic, this community is responding in incredible ways, specifically to the needs of those who governments or the market are unable to account for: the excluded, marginalised and vulnerable populations.

However, the work has been seriously hindered due to the lack of adequate technical support, financial resources and access to partnerships during the crisis.

When we share the unique challenges these social innovators face, the most common question in response is, How can I help them?

Here are five ways to help the World Economic Forum social innovator community, right now – and in turn, help the world’s most vulnerable get through the pandemic.

1. Feed the hungry.

Human Nature is a for-profit business with three social goals: strengthening the Filipino economy, creating a new middle class from the poor and caring for the environment.

Human Nature has produced a truly Filipino brand by formulating and marketing personal and homecare products made with local and natural raw materials and free from harmful chemicals. To support farmers, the company works with community cooperatives and provides training, equipment and a market for high-value crops such as citronella, lemongrass, virgin coconut oil and coco nectar.

Goodness Rising is the company’s collective effort to feed the hungry in the Philippines. For less than $7, you can provide food packages to feed a family of five or six.

2. Improve access to water.

Water For People is a global non-profit working in nine countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia to develop sustainable water and sanitation services. COVID-19 has highlighted the need for easy access to water and sanitation services more than ever before, and yet more than half of the world does not have access to safe sanitation services.

Read the rest of Pavitra Raja’s article here at World Economic Forum (blog)