20 December 2010   |    Greetings from Ashoka’s Changemakers!

Land is one of the greatest assets of the world’s poor. Securing rights to this asset provides people with life-altering benefits—economic opportunity, enhanced identity, and personal dignity. Yet more than a billion people around the world live without these rights, unable to prove who they are and what they own

Omidyar Network and Ashoka’s Changemakers recently hosted an online competition, “Property Rights: Identity, Dignity & Opportunity for All” to unleash opportunity for individuals and communities worldwide working on this issue as well as bring together stakeholders and solutions for millions. 19 semi-finalists from 9 countries have been selected for their efforts to improve the lives of the poor and transform communities through secure rights to land.

This challenge drew a total of 211 of entries from 47 different countries, nonetheless, the 19 semi-finalists demonstrate innovative approaches that help to provide land to the landless, formalize and document property rights for individuals or communities who lack established rights, or work on legal education to help people understand and benefit from the laws that protect these assets.

From today until January 12, 2011, the Changemakers online community will Vote for their preferred semi-finalists to help them emerge as finalists. The finalists will then be evaluated by a distinguished panel of judges to arrive at the three winning solutions.

Please support these ardent social innovations from around the world to win cash prize of USD$50,000 by helping them to emerge as finalist through your Vote. Also encourage your network to do the same. Your simple gesture will mean a lot to the hard work of these semi-finalist organizations, who thrive to make our society a better place to live for everyone!

To vote:

• Please sign in or register: go to www.changemakers.com or create a profile and complete the registration form.
• Go to your email and make sure to verify your email address. This will helps you prevent voter fraud;
• Follow the link; http://www.changemakers.com/en-us/node/88051/semifinalists to the competitions semi-finalists page.
• You can read short descriptions about the projects by clicking “Preview” next to the titles;
• Choose your up to 3 favorite entries and vote (if haven’t signed in, clicking on Vote will prompt you to create a new profile or sign in).

Let’s all congratulate these organizations for their exemplary work and support them through our VOTE!

Best regards,
The Changemakers Team

Read more at Omidyar or at Changemakers