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NC Now Feature

By day, Jim Thomas is a professor of epidemiology at UNC, but he also spends many hours of his life working as a social entrepreneur. In this story about an organization called AFRICA RISING, Jim introduces the concept of “social entrepreneur” as the practice of people with business skills doing more than making money, using good business practices to address a social problem like hunger, poverty, water quality, or, as in the case of his work, women with HIV/AIDS.

Jim and his associate, Bill Stevenson, began their work several years ago at their church in Chapel Hill. They had an ongoing relationship with a church in Nairobi, in Kenya, and began discussing ways they could respond to the rising incidence of HIV/AIDS.

Jim and Bill and many others in Chapel Hill became involved with an organization in Kenya called Beacon of Hope. They began working in one of the slums of Nairobi, teaching women who were infected with HIV and AIDS how to weave rugs, how to gain an income, how to keep food on the table without having to sell their bodies. Soon Jim and Bill were bringing the rugs to sell in North Carolina. AFRICA RISING was established on the Internet to help manage the relationships and the bottom line.

Mary Muhara, who works in Nairobi but visits North Carolina often, explains, “Africa Rising is helping Africa rise. It's recognizing the Africans that are doing some really wonderful jobs and then helping them, helping them get to another level, but allowing the African people to lead, and that's what is so special.”

Jim agrees. “We are an organization that tries to make things happen. We try to catalyze connections, so if we find a need, then we're going to look for someone who can meet that need. It's not that we ourselves are going to step in and create or build or do what needs to be done, but we're going to work within that network to find the answers, and sometimes those answers are in organizations in Africa.”

Social entrepreneurship is a concept that Jim believes will continue to grow in North Carolina in the months and years to come. “It is a care for society and how it functions and stepping in to do that in a way that doesn't just rely on government, doesn't just rely on others to solve the problem,” he says. “By saying 'I can do something there, more than just for myself,’ we can do something together that's going to benefit humanity.”

For more information, visit the Africa Rising Web site.