SE sector in Ireland

Recently, I came across this article

Read more at http://www.siliconrepublic.com/careers/item/33627-social-enterprise-sector/

It is said that in Ireland, 25,000 jobs can be created through the social enterprise sector by 2020. Furthermore, the social sector in Ireland has already employed “more than 25,000 people in more than 1,400 social enterprises in Ireland.” This caught me by surprise as I always thought that social enterprise have little impact on the economy. In my opinion, I thought that social enterprises have more impact on individuals than on the society. Because they aim to be profitable and able to make an impact at the same time, it will be hard for them to sustain. After reading this article, I went to research on Ireland's social enterprise sector and came across another article by the guardian.

Read more at http://www.theguardian.com/social-enterprise-network/2013/mar/19/ireland-social-enterprise-sector-recognition

This article talks about how social enterprise in Ireland was not recognised in the past, but now, the Ireland government is going to "follow through with an earlier commitment to support the development of social enterprise in Ireland". This shows that they government "recognises social enterprises's 'important role in supporting jobs in many local and rural communities'". However, the 'follow through' is not confirmed and there are no definite details about whether is it really going to happen. In Ireland, even though social enterprises creates job for a lot of individuals and 'represents a sizeable proportion of economic activity, with recent estimates suggesting it generates €240m (£205m) in revenue and employs 9,300 people directly, as well as a further 5,100 indirectly", it does not have as much support as corporate or enterprises. Also, people tend to mix social programs and social enterprise together. 

To me, this situation is somewhat similar in Singapore. Singapore is ranked as one of the easiest place in the world to start a business. However, starting a business and sustaining a business is 2 entirely different thing. In my opinion, I feel that it is hard for social enterprises to sustain in Singapore. Social enterprises need to have 2 goals in their concept, one being the profit and the other one being their beneficiaries. Concentrating on 2 things will leave them at a disadvantaged end. On top of that, social enterprises in Singapore are not very recognised. Singaporean's awareness for social enterprises are low and there are people who still think that social enterprises are charities or even social programs. In my opinion, people always think that since social enterprises are there for social good, they should charge at a cheaper price, instead of the quality of their services or products. On top of that, people only go to a social enterprise because they want to do good. They do not view social enterprise as a for-profit enterprise, thus they pay them very little attention.

Maybe this is happening because social enterprise sector is just starting to get in trend in Singapore and that because its a new entity, thus it will still need some time for social enterprises to have an established place in the society that they are also business entities.

Japan's Yamato Transport Company

After the incident at Dhoby, I decided to look for social enterprises in Japan as they are well-known for their aging population. I wanted to see what the do the social enterprises there solve aging population. Then, I came across an interesting article.

Read more at: http://www.newstrackindia.com/newsdetails/2013/07/09/221-People-in-Asia-will-now-be-able-to-taste-fresh-Japanese-food-thanks-to-TA-Q-BIN.html

This article is about a courier service named TA-Q-BIN run by Yamato Transport. It talks about how TA-Q-BIN is Yamato Transport's internation courier service that provides delivery service to five countries, namely Taiwan, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore and Malaysia in collaboration with All Nippon Airways (ANA). I was curious as to how my search for social enterprise in japan will lead me to this article. SO, I decided to do a little research on Yamato Transport!

AND THERE! (Read more at http://www.kuronekoyamato.co.jp/en/)
There was no information about it being a social enterprise. It is a large delivery company that was established in 2005 but had a history from 1919. Then I being searching more and I found an article on Social Enterprise Buzz.

Read more at: http://www.socialenterprisebuzz.com/2013/06/25/yamato-transport-delivers-more-than-just-parcels/

In the article, a lady called Mayumi Matsumoto was working for Yamato Transport as a driver. One day, she delivered a package from a son to his elderly mother. Matsumoto thought that the woman looked unwell, but did not say anything and left. However, the woman passed away in her home that night and was not found until 3 days later. Matsumoto was haunted by the experience and furthermore, in Japan, solitary deaths are an increasingly common occurrence. Thus, she decided to do something. Her idea was to combine parcel delivery services with basic health inquires. Her idea only got implemented after 2 years in a town with a lot of elderly and at a disaster area. In the disaster area, because there was no services and no necessities available around them, the delivery services is very essential. It allows them to get clean water and food.

The service slowly got accepted and it became available to residents in 2011. This is an article on intrapreneurs getting recognised in their corporate. It is very hard for an intrapreneur to get their idea recognised and support from their colleagues. However, Miss Matsumoto did it. With her action, energy and passion, she managed to convinced people around her and started this program that will aid a lot of elder in the future.

This article really inspired me a lot of because I never thought that delivering services could make such an impact. It made me realise that no matter how small the thing may be, it can still make a significant impact to any individual. It is just whether we want to put in effort and make it happen. Because they always say nothing is impossible, you just have to keep trying till you get it.

I will end off with a quote:

"In the realm of ideas everything depends on enthusiasm... In the real world all rests on perseverance." 

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Aging Population (Opinion)

In my opinion I think it is a brilliant idea. I mean, a lot of old people don't want to go to old folks' home because they feel abandoned. However, it is also not a good idea for elder to stay alone at their home. Some of them cannot even take care of them properly. & if anything happens, nobody will be there to help them. Its dangerous. However, if there were to have a service like HomeShare, things will be easier! Moreover, in Singapore, people cannot buy their own flats if they are no married. I think this is partially because we are a small country and resources are very limited. So we can't have everybody owning their own flats! However, if this program is implemented in Singapore, a lot of singles people can move out of their house and live independently.

However, as I am typing this post, I slowly realised the loopholes of this program. Firstly, it will be dangerous if the wrong applicant was set to live in the same house as the elder. Things such as elder abuse may occur and the even if the elder is able to report the case, the deed would have already been done. It would have already left the elder injured, either physically or emotionally. On top of that, the house will not be under surveillance, thus there is a higher chance of such cases happening. Also, some elder may not know how to react to situations of elder abuse, thus they may choose to remain silent.

Secondly, applicants that move in will not even bother about the elder. They will just move in and mind their own business, thus even when something happens to the elder, they may not know. Thirdly, some of them may even feel that if something happens to the elder, they will be accused or be put in a difficult spot, thus they will not choose to rent with an elder.

Even if there is a non-profit organisation that provides this service and even if the applicants are carefully selected and chosen, there will still be a lot of problem. However, I believe it can be a good idea to tackle the aging population is the government steps in and help this service. If the government steps in, there will be more assurance and awareness for this service which allows it to have a higher chance of success.

This is just an opinionated post, if there is any false information, please feel free to correct. Also, the things that I say is not a representation of Singapore or the people living there.

Aging Population (solution?)

So this post is linked to the previous one. While in this, I would like to talk about one interesting aid that I found on the web that helps the elderly in San Diego.

In San Diego, there is a non-profit organisation called ElderHelp that have a lot of on going programs that allow the elderly to lead a more sustainable and happier life. One of the program is called HomeShare.
So, what exactly is HomeShare?

HomeShare is a program that allows elderly to remain in their homes and in the communities they know and love by offering adults of all age, who are in need of housing, to live with the elderly. These ensure that the elderly will be safe as there is more than one person in the home and provides companionship for the elderly. It also acts as an additional income for home providers and affordable rent for home seekers. (HomeShare, 2013)

However, there are also criteria and requirements for one to be eligible for rental. This will ensure that they people coming on board to stay with the elderly are of suitable match. It is very much like renting in Singapore. The agency, which in this case, ElderHelp, will help the adults to look for a home that matches their criteria. After finding a match, they will meet up with the home providers and discuss more in details.

The result of this program is stated as a success in the press release of ElderHelp. ElderHelp state that nearly 2000 people received housing consultation. 50 matches were successfully facilitated, all involving a senior 55 years and older. Each match has an economic or service benefit to the senior through room rentals and service exchange arrangements. 100% of all matches involved at least one person of low, very low, or extremely low income. The average length of matches is steadily increasing, currently to 1.5 years, and many far exceeding this number. (HomeShare, 2013)

Read more at http://www.elderhelpofsandiego.org/programs-and-services/homeshare/

So why can't this be done in Singapore? I will share more about my opinions about this in the next post. 

Aging population?

I know that this blog is about social enterprises and social innovations, but today I just felt like posting something else. Sort of like a social issues and my thought on it.

So yesterday I was on the way back from doing project and I witnessed an incident.

I was exiting from Dhoby Ghaut Mrt station around late afternoon. On my left, was the escalator up to Dhoby xchange and my right was the escalator down to the Mrt station. There was approximately a good 100 metres wide of stairs in between these 2 escalators. Midway through the escalator up, I began to hear a cry. It wasn't like the normal cry. It sounded confused, terrified and helpless and it was inaudible, like "ergh, urgh". I turned to my right and say this old uncle grabbing onto the side of the escalator with only half of his head visible. I was so shocked, he looked so scared and old. Around the age of 80+?. Then a lady ran down, shortly followed by a man to assist him. I didn't know what was going on, I guess he tripped on the escalator and couldn't get up. He just kept crying out and it was so traumatizing. He sounded so scared. When I reached to the top of the escalator, I saw the lady at the bottom the the escalator trying to pull something out. I was petrified. I think it was the uncle's item or that the uncle is stuck there. I don't know what. I couldn't see because a crowd was gathering and all of us was so surprised. Until a lady shouted "hey! the emergency button!" Then someone quickly acted and stopped the escalator from moving. It all happened so fast.

It such a traumatizing incident. & it was not the first time experience for me. Before, I experienced it first hand, being caught on the moving escalator because an old lady fell while trying to get off. It was such a horrifying experience. The escalator just kept moving up and people where stacking on each other. Its like domino effect. It was crazy, everyone just kept shouting and crossing over each other. The old lady was beneath me and screaming. I was trying so hard not to press on her and crawl my way out before helping her out. It was really really horrible.

After I saw the uncle, which led to recalling my first experience, I thought 'hey, do these kind of things happen a lot in Singapore?'
With us being an aging population, there will definitely be a lot of these cases happening. Why so? Are we going to say that because we are experiencing aging population so an increase of such incidents are inevitable? I felt that if there was someone accompanying the elderly out, we can prevent such incidents to happening. Someone younger will be able to keep a lookout for the elderly. But how? I think this is something we should all 
think about.

Vegan Burg

Today, I am going to share on a restaurant in my favourite list: Vegan Burg

Vegan Burg is the only restaurant that serves solely vegan burgers in Singapore. It is healthy, nutritious and wholesomely good. Their mission is to inspire and excite the world in introducing vegan diet into their lifestyle, as a form of sustainable diet and means of restoration for our global environment.

They started out when they realize that the world reports distressing climatic happenings and developments one after another. Therefore they wanted to raise awareness of the environmental crisis and gather every small effort in creating a possibility for our planet.

Being the only vegan fast food restaurant in Singapore, Vegan Burg is healthy and delicious. It is of the same standard with other fast food restaurant yet it promotes vegan diet and raise awareness for global warming different from the aims of other meat based fast food.

They provide a variety of vegan burgers.

These set meals provides everyone a filling and healthy meal and also helping the world at the same time.

I find Vegan Burg very inspiring  As a vegetarian out of own choice, I really admire people who can show the world the real problem of global warming and tries to raise as much awareness as possible. People always say, global warming is too big of a issue for individuals to make a difference. Yes, it may be true, but if a lot of individuals come together and start to work towards this social problem, a difference can be make. We should all try out best to sustain this world for our future generations.

Be it social enterprise or not, I think the most important thing is to start something with doing good as the starting point.

For more information, please visit http://www.veganburg.com/

Social Intrapreneurs

http://socialenterprise.guardian.co.uk/social-enterprise-network/small-business-blog/2013/apr/17/social-intrapreneurs-changemakers-companies

I think that social entrepreneurship is a very vague term. While I was trying to look for an article about social enterprises, I came across social intrapreneurs. I found it really interesting. The thing about social intrapreneurs is that they start to make a difference in their corporate or company. Instead of starting from scratch, they can work within a company that is already stable and established and help a group of beneficiaries. I feel that this can actually produce more results and make more difference. For social enterprises, it is very easy to start up in singapore, but it is very hard to sustain, and their awareness is always low compared to established companies. Therefore I think this would actually help a lot of people. However, there are cons to being a social intrapreneurs too. I looked up on articles about social intrapreneurs and they show that some of the problems they may face. One of it is this:

This is abstracted from http://www.socialenterprisebuzz.com/2013/01/08/social-intrapreneurship-an-idea-whose-time-has-come/

Thus, I feel that there are pros and cons to both social entre/intrapreneur and I am still deciding which one I would actually really love to work on. Maybe we should all take some time and think about this. That's all for this week.