Susan McPherson

Board member, Business Council for Peace (Bpeace), and member of Echoing Green's Social Investment Council

During my career, I've witnessed "progress" in business by how much revenue was generated or by the numbers of deals that were signed. At the gym, I've determined progress by reaching certain mileage or times. In my personal life, progress might have been measured by whether there was a third date! All seem so superficial.

But what is progress from the perspective of a female entrepreneur who is attempting to grow her business in Afghanistan, following a childhood growing up under the rule of the Taliban? Or what does it mean for a similar business owner who witnessed the horrors of genocide within her own small village in Rwanda? Do I know? As a board member of the unique organization Bpeace, I would like to think so. But after volunteering my time for over five years, I am just now starting to understand. We provide a fusion of pro-bono services delivered by experts in the Bpeace network: volunteer professionals, corporations, accredited educational institutions and in-country staff hired by Bpeace for their experience. Our young organization, made up of volunteers, has worked to support fledgling business owners in these two countries ravished by war. Since 2002, we've watched Afghan and Rwandan women venture from small, micro-financed, home-based businesses to create organizations of 40–50 employees who build and sell furniture, run gas stations, manufacture soccer balls, and operate radio stations. More than 1,700 jobs have been created, supporting more than 13,000 family members, and generating a revenue of $6 million that circulates in the local economies. We have only just begun and hope to add many more countries in the future, generating good will, building businesses, creating jobs, and indeed making REAL progress.

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