A month ago, we issued an open invitation to social entrepreneurs and innovators from around the world to submit a one-minute video on their project in our video contest. Before closing the competition on November 20th, we received close to 150 videos from over 30 countries around the world. These videos addressed every type of social issue, from sanitation to clean water, human rights to solar energy.
The goal of this project was to collect, highlight and lend a platform to the many innovators around the world who are confronting social challenges with speed, commitment and ingenuity. Their messages resonated with our viewers. Over the past ten days, our audience cast close to 5,000 votes and today we're honored to announce the winners of our Social Innovation Video Contest:
Congratulations to Embrace, Apopo: HeroRATS and The sOccket for submitting the winning videos in the Social Innovation Video Contest. We would also like to congratulate Duto: IRIS on being named Fan Favorite Video.
Our Winners:
A U.S.-based social enterprise, Embrace aims to help millions of vulnerable babies with a low-cost infant warmer. Unlike traditional incubators, which can cost up to $20,000, the Embrace Infant Warmer costs less than $200. The device can work with or without electricity, has no moving parts, is portable and intuitive to use. As depicted in their video, Embrace is addressing a chronic issue: over 20 million low-birth-weight and premature babies are born each year, and 450 of them die each hour. These babies cannot regulate their own body temperature and many die of hypothermia. This is a preventable tragedy.
Watch Embrace's video to see how their innovation is addressing this preventable tragedy:
Embrace one minute video from Linus Liang on Vimeo.
Apopo: HeroRATS trains rats to save lives. Using their exceptional sense of smell, these rats are trained to sniff out Tuberculosis (TB) in human sputum samples. The rats offer a faster, more accurate diagnostic method, which helps to significantly increase TB case findings and reduce the spread of the disease in Tanzania, where this social innovation is based. HeroRATS provides a low-tech solution to a problem that has defied more 'sophisticated' approaches.
Watch Apopo's video to see how their HeroRATS are sniffing out TB across Tanzania:
The sOccket is a mini-generator in the form of a soccer ball. During play, an internal mechanism captures energy from the ball's movement and stores it for later use. The sOccket provides families in need with immediate access to an energy source that is clean, portable, and of course, fun. It also reduces the use of kerosene. It's estimated that exposure to kerosense lamps, diesel generators and wood burning stoves cause illnesses that kill 1.6 million people a year in developing countries..
Watch sOccket's video and see how kicking a ball can save millions of lives:
Named the Fan Favorite video, Duto: IRIS is a technology for blind students that allows them to "see" colors and visual concepts with their hands. This innovation offers an opportunity to visually impaired children to learn on an equal footing with sighted children. With IRIS technology, they can learn and geometry and other visual concepts more readily. Duto is based in Colombia.
Watch Duto: IRIS's video and see how their innovation allows blind students to have equal conditions in their education:
It is incredibly inspiring to see the sheer volume of social innovations happening around the world. We encourage you to watch the videos, explore the organization's websites, and share with your friends, family and colleagues.