April 2009 Newsletter

Contents

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Introduction

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APOPO and founder recognized at Skoll World Forum

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APOPO named an inaugural member of ‘Phoenix 50 List'

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Interview with the President of the Board: Mic Billet

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Photography contest finalist focuses on landmines and APOPO

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Support APOPO's Work

Introduction

We hope our April newsletter finds you well. Everything is continuing well with everyone here at APOPO and HeroRATs in Tanzania and Mozambique.In Landmine detection, 2 rats passed their final tests in field training inMarch. In Tuberculosis detection, our HeroRATs detected 61 patients missed by microscopy.Bart Weetjens, founder of APOPO, was invited to the Skoll World Forum heldat the Saïd Business School at University of Oxford from March 25th to March27th. He officially received the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurshipduring the forum. He was also invited to speak on the prestigious Innovatorsin Action panel to discuss ways in which innovations are helping thehealthcare industry. Also at the Skoll World Forum, APOPO was announced part of the inaugural'Phoenix 50 List' of enterprises, corporations and government agenciesmaking sustainable changes in the world.

In other news, we are happy to present an interview with the President of APOPO’s Board, Mic Billet.Thank you for your continued support! We wish you the best this month.

APOPO and founder recognized at Skoll World Forum

From March 25th to March 27th, the world’s leading social entrepreneurs,academics, economists, funders and policy-makers gathered at the SaïdBusiness School, University of Oxford. This year’s theme was “Shifting PowerDynamics.” Close to 800 delegates, including our very own Bart Weetjens,discussed and explored how social entrepreneurs are able to access, navigateand influence power dynamics to create sustainable change throughout the world.Some of the speakers at the forum included the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Dr. R. K. Pachauri; Canadian advocate for indigenous rights Chief Judith Sayers; Charles Leadbeater, UK Government advisor and leadingglobal authority on innovation and creativity; and Raghda el-Ebrashi, aleading social entrepreneur who is pioneering a new approach to community development in marginalized neighborhoods of Cairo.During the awards ceremony, The Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship was officially presented to Weetjens and APOPO. The Skoll Awards for SocialEntrepreneurship is presented by the Skoll Foundation to recognize the mostinnovative and sustainable approaches to resolving the most urgent socialissues. APOPO joins a prestigious global network of Skoll entrepreneurs, now numbering 61, who are working around the world on issues includingtolerance and human rights, health, economic and social equity, peace andsecurity, institutional responsibility, and environmental sustainability. Weetjens was one of four social entrepreneurs asked to speak on theInnovators in Action panel. His fellow panelists included the world-renownedsocial entrepreneurs Gene Falk, Co-founder of mothers2mothers, PaulFarmer, Founder of Partners in Health, and Nathan Wolfe, Founder of Global Viral Forecasting Initiative (GVFI). The gap between rich and poor is manifestin any number of ways, particularly in healthcare, where governments andmarkets have failed the most vulnerable populations. Weetjens and fellow

panelists each discussed their own simple, scalable approaches to improvehealthcare delivery, prevention and education.

APOPO named an inaugural member of ‘Phoenix 50 List'

APOPO was nominated and accepted into the 'Phoenix 50 List' by Volans andSustainAbility networks. The 'Phoenix 50 List' highlights enterprises,corporations and government agencies making significant contributionstoward building more equitable, more sustainable global economy. ThePhoenix project seeks to identify the 50 businesses, organizations andgovernment institutions that will rise after the current economic recession: “A new economic order is rising form the ashes—and a new generation of innovators, entrepreneurs and investors is accelerating the changes essentialfor delivering scalable sustainable solutions to the world.” The list also pointsout that small enterprises are incredibly important in this new economicorder, “But even solutions developed by tiny enterprises can vault to the pointof addressing macro issues, like APOPO with its ‘sniffer rats’ hunting outlandmines, helping to underscore the significance of the multi-dimensionalsecurity agenda” (The Phoenix Economy: 50 Pioneers in the Business of SocialInnovation). APOPO and the other named organizations were officially presented at theSkoll World Forum 2009. Others on the Phoenix 50 list include Google, Ashoka, The Grameen Group, and Mothers2Mothers. More about the PhoenixList and Phoenix economy can be found on the Volans website. The report can be found here.

Interview with the President of the Board: Mic Billet

Mic Billet is a very active retired professor who spends most of his free timeacting as the President of APOPO in Belgium and Tanzania. Mic Billet has been happily married to his wife Nan since 1964 and has 3 grown, successfulchildren. Before acting as the President of the Board for APOPO, Billet createddocumentaries in Belgium with Belgian Radio and Television for twenty years.He was already very active in social issues and created the first documentary on sexual abuse in Belgium; he also created other documentaries creatingawareness about many social issues. Through this work, Mic Billet had aunique perspective of creating systems to not just help victims, but to stop