Ewa Wojkowska

Ewa Wojkowska, originally from Poland, is the co-founder & COO of Kopernik , a non-profit organization based in Indonesia that connects simple technology with people in remote communities.

Ewa Wojkowska, co-founder of Kopernik.

Career

Ewa Wojkowska left Poland with her parents in 1984 after her father, an activist and a leader in the Solidarity resistance movement, was threatened. They sought and received asylum with refugee status in Australia.

After obtaining a Masters degree in Politics and Public Policy focusing on Asian studies at Deakin University, her emerging passion for social justice led her to first volunteer, then work for Amnesty International into her early 20s. She joined the Australian Volunteers International program in 2000 and left for East Timor to assist in the reconstruction process. Later she joined the United Nations as a United Nations Volunteer and worked in the remote enclave of Oecusse, East Timor as a field officer.

Observing a problematic gap in the provision of services for, and protection of vulnerable women, she started a local women's organization (Centro Feto Enclave Oecusse) that would provide shelter to women who were victims of domestic violence. It remains an important local organization in 2014. Moving to Indonesia she worked at the United Nations Development Programme in justice policy, where she developed a new initiative to enhance access to justice for poor communities. This initiative was recognised with the “Most Innovative Development Program” award in the Asia-Pacific region and she was able to mobilize USD 12 million for its implementation.

Kopernik

While working in Sierra Leone in 2007 she began introducing simple technology to communities by demonstrating to local fish mongers how cooler boxes could extend the life of their product. She continued doing so in Indonesia and East Timor in 2009, with the assistance of existing NGO networks in the region and her partner Toshi Nakamura. They realized that affordable technologies with life-changing potential existed, but that they weren’t reaching remote areas where they were most needed. They co-founded Kopernik in New York in 2010 with the intention of bridging the gap and subsequently moved to Indonesia to be closer to the communities that Kopernik assists.

Awards and Recognitions

Ewa Wojkowska has been recognised as:

• An Ashoka Fellow - 2014
• An Ashoka ChangemakeHER - 2011
• An Asia 21 Young Leader by the Asia Society - 2013
• Rutgers University's Social Entrepreneur of the Year - 2012
• One of Advance's 50 emerging women leaders - 2011.

She has been a speaker at several prestigious conferences, including TEDxWarsaw (2011), TEDxJakarta (2011) and Emerge at Oxford University (2013).

External Readings

• Kopernik official website Official Website
• Amnesty International official website
• Centro Feto Enclave Oecusse official website

Further reading

• Q&A with Kopernik’s Ewa Wojkowska: Bringing Life Changing Technology to Emerging Markets, The New Global Citizien (http://newglobalcitizen.com/impact-and-innovation/qa-ewa-wojkowska-kopernik)
• Solidarity