Once again, I have been spending some time on TED.com watching couple of videos. Videos from TEDGlobal 2007 about “Africa: The next chapter” have been posted and I would like here to highlight two of them here, although I guess all of them are great. These two videos show the change that is happening in the world of charity today. A realization that conventional charity models have not been working and that change is needed.

These two videos focus on the same idea. The idea that the African continent instead of being carried towards the future should be prepared to face it by itself, with dignity. That’s why both speakers focus on educating, training and coaching people in Africa to help shape their own lives, shape their own businesses, and eventually help shape their own societies. Of course, the talks are much more powerful that anything I could write, so here they are:

Jacqueline Novogratz: Tackling poverty with “patient capital”

Patrick Awuah: Educating a new generation of African leaders

I encourage anybody interested to watch the rest of TED videos from this conference. On my side, I will right now go donate online to the Acumen Fund, the fund lead by Jacqueline Novogratz.