An aspiring social entrepreneur

The idea of poverty alleviation is a difficult one. So many different experts from governments, inter-governmental organisations (i.e. World Bank, UN), businesses, non-profits and advocacy groups have been stumbled by this problem that has existed since the dawn of Mankind. Of course, there are vast disagreements on what is the "best" approach to solving this problem.

For those of you who wish to understand the extent of such differences in opinion, do check out the transcript of the POL 2008 Poverty Forum for a start. I remember a friend who told me after the forum,"You know, I have always been interested in poverty issues but after hearing today's forum and how mind-boggling the issue is, I think this is just not my cup of tea."

True, no one said that it is a problem that can be solved easily. Anyone who thinks that poverty can be alleviated in a single generation is probably dreaming. But then, we make the best of such solutions with what we have.

In hindsight, I realised that we have omitted an important perspective in the mentioned forum - the social entrepreneur. He is one who is dedicated to introducing a business model which places the needs of the poor above profits, and devotes the entire aim of the business to solving the problem of poverty in his community. There are so many examples of social enterprises or businesses that have benefitted the poor, and survived to this day against all odds. The Grameen group of companies, founded by Nobel-prize-winner Professor Muhammad Yunus, is the poster boy of all such social businesses.

This semester, I am glad to befriend people - including students - who have a passion for social entrepreneurship and understand its potential to benefit communities and change the world we live in. Their passion is 'contagious', reaching out to others who believe that they should do something to tackle social issues around them, and are frustrated by the failure of mainstream 'solutions' to these problems.

Hence, I am very excited about what we can achieve in the next few years, by constantly learning about issues from each other and discovering our potential in introducing sustainable initiatives, or starting social businesses that can grow to become engines of change.