Ashoka, the world's community of leading social entrepreneurs, and Staples Foundation for Learning (SFFL), a private foundation created by Staples, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLS), today announced Pachamama of Tepeolulco, Mexico, as the Excellence Winner of the Staples/Ashoka Youth Social Entrepreneur global competition. The team was honored during a special ceremony that took place today at Youth Venture's National Summit in Boston, Mass. The global competition recognizes youth who are addressing social issues affecting their communities and is part of Ashoka's Youth Venture(R), a global initiative that identifies and fosters young entrepreneurs who are creating positive change.

Juan Carlos Luna Hernandez and Mary Cruz Romero Gudino work with Pachamama, an organization that develops and teaches environmentally friendly alternatives in agriculture. Under the leadership of Juan Carlos and Mary Cruz, Pachamama educates low-income families throughout Tepeolulco, Mexico about optimizing resources to produce organic crops in an environmentally friendly manner. Pachamama developed two interrelating agricultural techniques; Banconejo to produce natural fertilizer from rabbits to enrich the soil, and Tierra Adentro to simplify rainwater recollection for irrigation. They were chosen out of five finalists selected from around the world for their outstanding impact, innovation and potential. As the global excellence winner of the competition, Pachamama will receive a grand prize worth $5,000 to help run their entrepreneurial Venture.

Pictures:

• Juan Carlos and Maricruz- Leaders of Pachamama (JPG)
• Maricruz in the Award Ceremony (PNG)

The second National youth gathering took place from November 14th to 17th, 2008 in Rio Frio, State of Mexico. In this meeting 60 young people from different parts of the country participated representing their ventures. For almost three days they shared their knowledge, experiences and challenges.

There were two main issues deeply developed through workshops in this gathering. The first workshop was focused on different matters regarding venture´s sustainability. In the second workshop participants received a special training to learn and practice new communication skills in order to tell their stories to media and other audiences. Two Ashoka fellows facilitated these workshops, where they share their expertise with encouraged venturers to continue being changemakers.

All the participants have the opportunity to show his/her project to others and receive comments. The venture fair was a successful moment of expression, where each of the venturers showed their passion, motivation and commitment to solve social problems

National Gathering is a moment expected from venturers year by year. This is a special time for young changemakers coming from very different places and contexts. A great opportunity to learn from diversity and different worlds but with a common feeling shared by everyone: Change the World.

Attachments:

• Venturers coming from whole country (JPG_ATTACH=1)
• The Gathering (JPG_ATTACH=1)

On July 12th, we had the first panel in Mexico City. 20 ventures presented their projects in 5 thematic tables: Environment, Community and Education, HIV-AIDS, Alternative Media and Economic Development . The panel was integrated by specialists coming from international organisms as UN, Government (Mexican Youth Institute), Foundations (Axtel and Pfizer), Ashoka Fellows, NGO´s and Enterprises (Televisa). One of the most emotive moment was when two young changemakers from the past generation presented the ceremony reading a poem and saying inspiring words to welcome the new changemakers.

Pictures:

• Youth Venture Teams (JPG)