5 Social Capitalists Who Will Change the World in 2010

EDUCATION

<Jacques Murinda
Open Learning Exchange Rwanda
Kigali, Rwanda

This past fall, all of Rwanda's schools switched from French to English as the language of instruction. As if the basic challenges of improving education in one of the world's 20 poorest countries weren't enough, many teachers now have to learn a new language. The nonprofit Open Learning Exchange Rwanda, founded in 2008, takes a unique, comprehensive approach. They collaborate with a network of Open Learning Exchanges around the world to bolster education with a combination of new technologies like the XO laptop and mobile phones, plus a digital library of free and open source educational software, plus better teacher training.

"Achieving universal education by 2015 is the second UN Millennial Development Goal, however what they don't tell us is how to do it concretely," says Jacques Murinda, a longtime teacher and youth leader. "It's one thing to identify the problems and another thing to suggest sustainable and scalable solutions to solve them."

ENERGY

Bob King
Pacific Biodiesel
Kahului, Hawaii

As a group of mid-ocean tropical islands reliant on tourism, Hawaii has lots of reasons to reach for sustainable energy independence. The state is publicly committed to an ambitious goal to satisfy 70% of Hawaii's energy demand by 2030 through efficiency and renewables.

Pacific Biodiesel is a literally home-grown company helping to fulfill that tall order. Bob King has been in the diesel business in Maui since 1980 and got into biodiesel in 1996 with his wife, Kelly, creating the nation's first retail biodiesel pump and refinery. Their story was featured in the 2009 biodiesel doc Revolution Green. The former mechanic developed a unique, water-free processing technology to take on everything from industrial waste to restaurant deep-fat-fryer oil to virgin crops. In the past few years, Pacific Biodiesel expanded beyond producing and selling fuels to designing, selling, and supporting refineries from the islands all the way to Maryland.

RUNNER UP: EDUCATION

Kushal Chakrabarti
Vittana Foundation
Seattle, Washington

"We're jump-starting a global system of access to higher education," says Chakrabarti, 28-year-old founder of Vittana. This microfinance outfit has a Kiva-like lending model that allows small donors in the U.S., Germany, and Sweden to support kids trying to finish college in $25 or $50 increments. It has made some of the first-ever student loans in Vietnam, Peru, Paraguay, Nicaragua, and soon Cambodia.

While student loans in the United States are often thought of more as a burden than a means of accessing college, Chakrabarti argues that in poorer countries, they are offering opportunities where none had existed before. The goal is to open up a market where more private lenders get interested in financing college. Though less than a year old and still quite small (less than 100 borrowers), Vittana has drawn lots of laurels and accolades already. Backers include Mitch Kapor (the founder of Lotus, EFF, and Mozilla).