27-09-2010
“Since my nomination for the World Challenge 2006 – I would say that it has really been a good advertising for my business and all the work that was doing in my little corner in silent.” - Viah Ganoo, Founder, Seeds of Hope
We first met Vinah Ganoo, and her Seeds of Hope project, in 2006 during filming for Blooming Business. She’d been working with the rural community to create seed banks – selling some around the world and using the rest to rehabilitate degraded forests in Mauritius and Madagascar. There are over 8000 species of plant thought to grow only in Madagascar, yet the country has lost 83% of its forests in the last 30 years.
And it seems the exposure that the World Challenge brought to Vinah’s business really made a difference. The year after the programme went out to BBC World News viewers, she was nominated in the top eight for the Schwab Foundation in their Global Social Entrepreneur of the Year awards. In the same year, Newsweek magazine in Japan nominated her in their top 100 Entrepreneurs of the Year.
The plaudits continue. This June she was invited to Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, to attend the UN’s International Day of the Environment official opening ceremony. She was there picking up top honours in the ENERGY GLOBE awards, in the Earth category, taking home the trophy and €10,000 in prize money.
Her hard work has really paid off - she estimates that over 2,500 farmers benefit from her project, exporting over 500 different types of plant species to 45 countries around the world. She believes that over the years she’s helped ship 100 million plant seeds around the world – contributing to biodiversity whilst providing sustainable incomes for poor forest communities. You can visit her business here.
Posted by Oliver Lamb
Click on the project name to view the producer blogs
World Challenge Down to Business visits previous World Challenge projects with Robert Lamb and sustainability expert Leo Johnson.
We have looked back at some of the previous finalists to see how their projects are fairing. Click on the links below read about these projects.
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