Ron Layton, USA
Ashoka Fellow Ron Layton is assisting low-income communities around the world to capitalize on an asset they may not have known they possess. Combining his experience in intellectual property and business management with his involvement in the international fair trade association, Ron is helping coffee producers in Ethiopia, cocoa producers in Ghana, crafts people in Uruguay and others to gain sustained and increased revenue from their products.

Albina Ruiz, Peru
Working in the poor and congested northern suburbs of Lima, Ashoka Fellow Albina Ruiz is building a community-based solid waste management system that is playing an increasingly important role in improving sanitation and health conditions in the area.

Maria Teresa Leal, Brazil
Ashoka Fellow Maria Teresa Leal, known as Tete, is showing that poor people need not produce poor quality goods, and has designed a clothing line and cooperative society which brings expensive, high-fashion clothing to boutiques and runways around the world.

Ismael Ferreira, Brazil
Ashoka Fellow Ismael Ferreira has developed an active and creative approach to improving living standards in an arid, impoverished region by organizing subsistence sisal farmers to produce quality finished goods for export.

Maqsood Sinha and Iftekhar Enayetullah, Bangladesh
Ashoka Fellows Maqsood and Iftekhar are promoting the concept of waste as a resource by introducing a series of urban composting plants to tackle the problem of urban waste disposal.

Hector Marcelli, Mexico
Ashoka Fellow Hector Marcelli is maximizing the value of Mexico's small business production by providing them with the critical assistance and access to markets that they lack, while creating ecologically and commercially sustainable enterprises.

Sahra Luyt, South Africa
Ashoka Fellow Sahra Luyt is empowering women and creating jobs by coaching coastal people in becoming a part of the white male dominated fishing industry, and forming an association for cooperative and collective action.