After an energizing meeting with the "Seeds of Empowerment" team yours truly is the newest member. Bethany L. Willbanks, Director of International Relations. This is the organization profile from Neha, the Executive Director.

Be a part of the story

The world today is divided into two —the powerful and the powerless. It is the powerless around the world that remain unvoiced and underserved.

Empowerment will bridge the gap between these worlds and education is the foundation of such bridges, because after all an educated generation is the first to break out of the poverty trap. Recognizing the gap between human needs and access, Seeds of Empowerment team intends to plant seeds that will help under privileged communities around the world, break the poverty trap. The Seeds of Empowerment team is dedicated to making sure these people have access to an education and that their stories are heard. Our projects, volunteers work with under served communities in the areas of development of knowledge, skills and abilities in individuals that allows them to become self-sustainable and make a difference in their life and their communities.

Seeds of Empowerment is non-profit arm of XRI, a 501(c) (3) organization, a spin-off of the Stanford University School of Education. XRI Global was formed with the vision to develop educational tools that aim to provide sustainable development in the under-privileged areas around the world. We provide a common platform for projects, initiatives and entrepreneurial ventures to converge and collectively work towards achieving our objective of empowering the underserved.

Our Objectives

ü Self-sustainability: Provide support and assistance in developing skills that becomes the back bone for independence and freedom of under-privileged communities

ü Education: Initiate and execute ventures in taking basic education to those who don’t have access to it. Literacy is the key to empowerment and a primary stimulant in enhancing human skill.

ü Entrepreneurship: Encourage and support individuals to use their skills in building innovative business models. Assist entrepreneurial ventures which help local economies to grow and provide incentives to all.

ü Development: Facilitate the development of projects that help under-privileged societies to prosper, propagate peace and eliminate conflict.

Our Mission

The Seeds of Empowerment team intends to develop and implement projects that will “plant seeds of hope and opportunity” for the underserved around the world. Our projects use cutting-edge technology to create self-sustaining business models that empower the powerless by improving their access to an education.

Our Projects

ü Pocket School: Is a project that aims to use and provide mobile technology as a solution for sustainable education channels, for children who don’t have access to good education. The development of educational programs and the affordability of new devices create an opportunity to help bring literacy and education to those who previously would not have that option.

SOE | XRI is undergoing needs analyses of villages in Latin America. Children at each village are given mobile learning devices, and effectiveness studies are currently underway. We’ve taken this initiative in UN refugee camps in Africa and the project is being explored & volunteers are working on initial stages of the project in Uganda. Our initiatives in rural India have been very successful and we are working with local non-profits to expand our reach.

ü 1001 Stories: Is a project that aims to explore the creation of a micro creative economy which would provide means to fund and promote literacy development in underserved areas. This project focuses on a literacy development and sustainment program by establishing a micro creative economy model – an economy that taps into a natural resource entitled to every individual – creativity. We are working on economic models that are designed to leverage the rapidly emerging social networking infrastructure and the global mobile network in developing countries.

We will help children learn to read and write stories and collect these stories written by children and share it with the world through mobile applications and social networking platforms. The proceeds of sales of these applications and downloads will fund the education of these children. This will help create a self-empowering and self-sustaining blended entrepreneurship model for the under-privileged which will encourage and motivate them to reap the benefits of the creative economy of the 21^st century.

ü Storytelling Entrepreneur: Is a project that is working towards collecting real life success stories of those who tap the opportunities that micro-credit provides. Local entrepreneurs will share their stories in digital formats, talking about micro-finance and launching businesses to become self-sustainable. The success stories are to be made available through mobile learning devices for those who would like to learn what micro-credits are, where to start such entrepreneurial projects, and how to get help. The second stage would be to distribute entrepreneurship education games designed to teach basic computation skills, investment strategies, and planning a venture with a micro-credit program.