The Skoll Foundation in Palo Alto, California, has announced the four recipients of the 2011 Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship.

The annual awards provide unrestricted funding to further extend the reach of social entrepreneurs who have achieved significant impact in the areas of tolerance and human rights, health, environmental sustainability, peace and security, and economic and social equity. The 2011 awardees will receive a three-year grant and be invited to join the growing global network of Skoll social entrepreneurs, now numbering eighty-five from seventy organizations, who are working to address the world's most pressing problems.

This year's Skoll Award recipients are Rebecca Onie of Health Leads (formerly Project Health), which works to expand the capacity of clinics to connect patients with food, housing, and other resources they need to be healthy as well as to build a pipeline of new leaders in the healthcare field; Ned Breslin of Water for People, which partners with communities in developing countries to create sustainable, locally maintained drinking water solutions and support market-driven sanitation solutions; Ellen Moir of New Teacher Center, which works to boost the effectiveness of new teachers, specifically those who work with low-income, minority, and English as a second language (ESL) students; and Madhav Chavan of Pratham, which works across urban and rural India to execute low-cost solutions designed to improve government services.

"Many of the most challenging problems we face — access to clean water, effective and affordable healthcare, and literacy and education — are rooted in poverty. But looking at our 2011 Skoll Award winners, I see great hope for the future," said Skoll Foundation president and CEO Sally Osberg. "The four social entrepreneurs we honor this year offer scalable, proven solutions to these truly daunting problems."