What did TEDxChange do with Marlon Parker?

In the spirit of TEDxChange, the global happening that took place on September 20th, we follow up on the transformation of “ideas worth spreading” to… “ideas worth doing”! Melinda Gates from the Gates Foundation prepared a special video announcement thanking the TEDxChange@Amsterdam team for their action based program. She highly values the Amsterdam efforts to start doing ideas on top of spreading them.

Marlon took us back to his youth painting a picture where he reaches to the top shelf for sugar – a real treat in poor Cape Town. “It is that community being plagued with all kinds of social issues such as gang violence, drugs, poverty, unemployment, HIV etc. that caused my dream to be birthed 2 and a half years ago.” One of the lacks in such communities is mobile technology: “I wanted to share messages of hope with the community through mobile support giving them access through their mobile phones instantly”.

This endeavor brought Marlon to the Amsterdam version of TEDxChange last September. He seems to have been inspired deeply by Melinda Gates’ message: “I was challenged when Melinda used the same words of “Changing communities and Changing nations”. Around the table the heated discussions were empowering and fulfilling, leaving me with one word to describe the evening…”. Yes, that one word is hope! Now, Marlon tells us, “thanks to the encouragement and motivation at TEDxChange we’ve now expanded our mobile services beyond South Africa into a number of other African countries.” We can change the world, by changing someone’s world – like TEDxChange changed Marlon’s life.

This is the video about Marlon Parker, introduced by Jim Stolze explaining the Amsterdam version of TEDxChange: