Sophia Swire, Social entrepreneur and expert on international development

<p>In this episode of <em>Frankly Speaking with Lynne Franks and Friends</em>, Lynne is joined by her friend Sophia Swire, social entrepreneur,  the founder of Future Brilliance Afghan charity and GEDI, her global women’s investment fund. They discuss using education as a powerful tool for creating positive and radical change for good in the world and Sophia’s passion for impact and building a sustainable livelihood for others.</p><p><br></p><p><em>Sophia began her career at Kleinwort Benson Securities, part of London’s largest Investment Bank, but after the market crash of 1987, she started down a very different path, one that would have a direct, meaningful and immediate impact on people's lives.</em></p><p><br></p><p><em>Whilst trekking in Chitral, a remote, snow-bound valley in Pakistan’s Hindu Kush she was approached by the local Deputy Commissioner who asked her to help him up an English Medium school, and returned to spend a year teaching there.</em></p><p><br></p><p><em>She went on to co‐found Learning for Life, a UK-based charity that supported the establishment of over 250 village schools for girls in rural Pakistan, Afghanistan and India.  For this, she was awarded the 2010 Pakistan Achievement Award.</em></p><p><br></p><p><em>In the 1990s, she launched and managed an innovative, social impact cashmere brand, Sophia Swire London, that is widely credited with starting the global fashion trend for pashmina shawls.</em></p><p><br></p><p><em>In 2008, she started Afghanistan’s first Jewelry and Gem-cutting school for the charity, Turquoise Mountain, and has since worked with various Afghanistan-based government and non-government organizations to reform the gemstone mining sector and put more value into the hands of Afghan miners and artisans.</em></p><p><br></p><p><em>In 2012, she founded the non-profit Future Brilliance to foster stability and prosperity through enterprise and workforce development in post conflict countries.   Its first project helped Afghan women artisans gain access to the gem