Kopernik tries to connect the underprivileged with useful technologies.
Ewa Wojkowska and Toshi Nakamura.
KOPERNIK IS THE ORIGINAL POLISH SURNAME of the famous astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus. He is considered one of the most famous scientific minds from Poland. Thus, when Polish expatriate Ewa Wojkowska was looking for a name for her nonprofit, she proposed the name to her co-founder and Japanese husband, Toshi Nakamura. “To honor my Polish background, we decided to name our venture Kopernik, the Polish name of this great scientist,” Ewa says.
Kopernik was founded in 2010 in Bali by the couple, and like its namesake, tries to bring tech to bear on some of the problems of the poor and rural communities in Indonesia.
“We want to bring new ideas to solve the poverty problem,” says Ewa. The venture is working on issues such as poverty reduction, education and environment. Prior to co-founding Kopernik, Ewa worked for international organizations including the U.N. and the World Bank. She worked in countries such as Timor Leste, Sierra Leone and Thailand. She met Toshi while both were working at the U.N. Toshi, who holds a masters in comparative politics, also worked for the U.N. in Timor Leste, Sierra Leone, Switzerland, and the U.S.
This couple’s experience was focused on development issues particularly for rural and vulnerable communities. Inspired by the work of Kopernik, who convinced people that the world was round, they wanted to take a different approach in their philanthropy. “Why don’t we start with proven solutions and let the communities articulate how they want to use the technology to solve their existing problems?” Ewa asks.
This story is from the July 2016 edition of Forbes Indonesia.
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This story is from the July 2016 edition of Forbes Indonesia.
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