In 1996, Agnes Binagwaho returned home to Rwanda in the aftermath of its genocide. She considered leaving amid the overwhelming devastation, but women in her community motivated her to stay and help rebuild -- and she's glad she did. In an inspiring talk, Binagwaho reflects on her work as Rwanda's former Minister of Health and discusses her new ...
Long before sustainability was a buzzword, architect Shigeru Ban was using ecologically sound building materials such as cardboard tubes. He uses them to build remarkable temporary structures for disaster-struck nations such as Haiti, Rwanda and Japan. Yet often, these buildings remain a beloved part of the landscape long after they have served ...
I wish you to help create a better future for Rwanda by assisting my foundation, in partnership with the Rwandan Government, to build a sustainable, high quality rural health system for the whole country.
Develop programs to construct health care facilities and encourage economic growth throughout rural Rwanda. Lower the cost of medical treatmen...
On a mission to create a hunger-free world, agricultural entrepreneur Cedric Habiyaremye makes the case for cultivating quinoa -- and other versatile, nutrient-rich grains -- in places experiencing malnutrition, like his native Rwanda. He shares a model to help smallholder farmers across Africa diversify their fields with nutritious and indigeno...
In this deeply moving talk, educator Shabana Basij-Rasikh shares the harrowing story of evacuating more than 250 students, staff and family members from the School of Leadership, Afghanistan (SOLA) -- the country's first and only all-girls boarding school -- to Rwanda after the Taliban took power in 2021. An exceptional story of hope, resilience...
Build Back Better features thought leaders and change agents evaluating our pre-pandemic systems and practices in an effort to create a more sustainable, efficient and just world. (Made possible with the support of U.S. Air Force)
What does it look like when someone in Sweden brushes their teeth or when someone in Rwanda makes their bed? Anna Rosling Rönnlund wants all of us to find out, so she sent photographers to 264 homes in 50 countries (and counting!) to document the stoves, bed, toilets, toys and more in households from every income bracket around the world. See ho...
Architecture is more than a clever arrangement of bricks. In this eloquent talk, Michael Murphy shows how he and his team look far beyond the blueprint when they're designing. Considering factors from airflow to light, theirs is a holistic approach that produces community as well as (beautiful) buildings. He takes us on a tour of projects in cou...
As a foreign affairs officer in Rwanda in 1994, 26-year-old Laura Lane rescued more than 250 Americans at the beginning of the genocide, but was forced to desert all of her local allies whose work alongside her nearly guaranteed their death. Every day, she carries the heavy weight of this perceived abandonment, convinced she could have done more...
Keller Rinaudo Cliffton is CEO and co-founder of Zipline, building drone delivery for global public health customers. (He's also co-founder of Romotive, makers of the tiny robot, Romo.)
To help him come to terms with the tragedy of his own homeland, Bosnian photographer Ziyah Gafić turns his camera on the aftermath of conflict, showing his images in galleries, in books and on Instagram.
Rose Goslinga isn’t your typical insurance salesperson. Through the Syngenta Foundation, her team developed insurance solutions to assist small-scale farmers in Africa, to safeguard their crops in case of droughts.
In the US, Black women are nearly 300 percent more likely to die as a result of childbirth than white women. Sharing appalling statistics on maternal mortality as well as her own tragic story of loss, Wanda Irving explains how racism and bias in health care minimizes and dismisses Black women's pain -- and makes a personal plea for leaders in th...
In her work, Clemantine Wamariya is learning and sharing how remembering our life experiences in story form guides us to make sense and appreciate our present moments.
Wanda Diaz Merced studies the light emitted by gamma-ray bursts, the most energetic events in the universe. When she lost her sight and was left without a way to do her science, she had a revelatory insight: the light curves she could no longer see could be translated into sound. Through sonification, she regained mastery over her work, and now ...
Shabana Basij-Rasikh is the cofounder and president of the School of Leadership, Afghanistan (SOLA), the country's first and only girls' boarding school.