Week 13 - SPREADING THE SOCIAL WORD

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Making the world a better place does not have to begin with a huge global transformation. While this is a dream that is wonderful to achieve, it is extremely ambitious and one would probably just be building sandcastles in the air for the rest of time. Having listened to various different people who are pioneers in what they do in the social sector, it has come to light that starting small and consistently while slowly growing is the way to go. We had a field trip earlier this week to a social enterprise hawker centre called Dignity Kitchen that provides many opportunities for people with disabilities as well as the elderly and we were fortunate enough to get an inside look into how it is like trying to create social change without much, or any support for that matter, from the government. The founder, Mr Koh put everything on the line to make Dignity Kitchen where it is today. From pure dedication and passion, to the amount of time and resources, to the large debt he still faces until today ... Mr Koh has been kind enough to tell us that it is not at all easy, but at the end of the day it is extremely fulfilling and heartening to see all that he put in result in better lives for the many people there. 

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For people with no experience like many my age, I am glad that Mr Koh mentioned this; "Volunteer somewhere just one day, once a month, every month." He then further elaborated that making this small step could result in so much more to come. We would be able to find where our passion truly lies. We would be able to gain expertise in an area that would come in useful to us for when we wish to kickstart our venture. We would be able to gather necessary contacts in the industry to help us in the future. We would be able to use the time planning and thinking things out very carefully before beginning anything. We would be ready for creating social change. We would succeed.  

Plus, I really think that we need to go out there into the industry and share with people the concept of social entrepreneurship rather than just trying to do things all on our own. Two heads are better than one, and the success rates of collaborations are much higher than sole startups. I was just previously writing on how the concept of social entrepreneurship is not very known in the Middle East. But I should not have even looked that far. Adults in our midst right here in Singapore are completely clueless as to what social entrepreneurship is. My mum had forced me to join her and her colleagues for dinner one night and I spent the entire time waiting for our meals to be served just talking about what social enterprise is and what possibly lay ahead for me in the future.

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There needs to be more knowledge on social entrepreneurship. I wish that when people heard that I am studying a course in social entrepreneurship, it would hit them instantly just like how one would react to hearing that someone is studying in the field of business, or engineering, or even dentistry. Social entrepreneurship needs to become a more common concept and it can be done by spreading the social word. To be honest, I hardly read the newspapers and watch the news but I do follow updates on Twitter with regards to current affairs and this might just be the way to go - spreading the social word through social media. I'm not very active on Facebook, and I have a couple of friends who are just as inactivate, some of them having even deleted their Facebook accounts. Facebook may not be the social media approach to take on here as it is somewhat becoming a fad. What could instead be done is promotion through Twitter, and those creative Youtube ads that we MUST sit through before our video plays.   

"Volunteer somewhere just one day, once a month, every month." - Mr Koh, founder of Dignity Kitchen

References

The Straits Times. (2012, November 23).What can you get for $600,000?. Retrieved on 29th January 2013 from http://ifonlysingaporeans.blogspot.sg/2012/11/dignity-kitchen-what-can-you-get-for.html