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Date : 30.09.08
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World Challenge 08 – one of the world’s most exciting business and community project awards - has announced its 12 finalists for this year’s competition.

Entries from Kenya, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Brazil, Kyrgyzstan, Paraguay, South Africa and Colombia have made it to the final of World Challenge 08, a competition run by ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ World News and Newsweek magazine, in association with Shell.

The World Challenge 08 finalists are (alphabetically by country):

• Brazil: Oficinas Quero – Changes lives through cinema - teaching skills and entrepreneurship to students who finance, produce and present three short films.

• Colombia: Oro Verde – Helps miners who have switched to eco-friendly techniques establish an international standard for eco metals and export "Green Gold" to foreign markets.

• India: Keystone Foundation – Connects the traditional honey hunters of Tamil Nadu and Kerala to lucrative markets and teaches how to improve production.

• India: She Hope Society - Rehabilitates disabled youths through education and micro loans, as well as physiotherapy and corrective surgery.

• Kenya: Hawkers Market Girls Centre – Offers the chance of education and earning opportunities to girls found scavenging for food in the waste of Hawkers Market.

• Kenya: The Leakey Collection – Provides a way out of poverty for more than 1400 drought stricken Maasai women by establishing nomadic work stations where they produce jewellery.

• Kenya: UniquEco Designs Ltd – Recycles the thousands of flip-flops washed up on Kenya’s beaches to produce and sell consumer items such as toys and accessories.

• Kyrgyzstan: Yurt Kindergartens – Gives the chance of an education to nomadic kindergarten children who travel with their parents.

• Nepal: Shanti Sewa Griha - Helps leprosy suffers and others with physical disabilities medically and socially.

• Pakistan: Hashoo Foundation – Assists female beekeepers boost their income by selling high quality honey through a network of five-star hotels throughout Pakistan.

• Paraguay: Self-Sufficient School for Rural Entrepreneurs – Trains young people from rural Paraguay how to use sustainable and organic agriculture to generate income.

• South Africa: Heiveld Co-operative – Supports a co-operative of farmers in growing, marketing and exporting fair-trade, medicinal tea to a worldwide market.

World Challenge 08 seeks to identify and reward people and businesses who bring economic, social and environmental benefits to their local communities by implementing grassroots solutions to alleviate tough global challenges, such as poverty and pollution.

The yearly competition first launched in 2005 and has already inspired passion within communities globally and propelled enterprising projects and businesses into the spotlight. Since its inception financial grants have been awarded to nine projects from around the world.

³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ World News will broadcast six 30-minute programmes profiling each of the 12 World Challenge 08 finalists showing how their projects and businesses are changing lives and local communities. In addition, Newsweek will detail the projects in six advertorials. The audience and readers are then invited to vote online – – for their favourite project or business from tomorrow – 1 October 2008.


For more details contact bbcworldnewspressoffice@bbc.com

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