GUEST POST: Changing Payatas through social entrepreneurship

By: Harvey S. Keh* There's a famous proverb that says, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." For many of us working towards curbing poverty in our country, this saying resonates to us as saying that our efforts towards uplifting the lives of the poor should not be centered on giving dole-outs, but our main focus should be providing them with the necessary education and training for them to find decent opportunities to earn a living. Thus, it is no wonder that while our present administration may mean well by giving a P500 electricity subsidy to the poorest Filipino families, the subsidy continues to receive flack as a band-aid solution to the growing problem of the rising prices of basic commodities in our country. Yet, despite the fact that our government, private foundations and non-government organizations have delivered effective livelihood training programs for the past 20 or so years, millions of Filipino families continue to still live with less than P150.00 a day. Does that mean that all the efforts of these well-meaning organizations were total failure? I don't think so, but I think that we need to understand why many of these families remain below the poverty line despite having the necessary skills that will allow them to access livelihood opportunities. I'd like to give as an example, a group of mothers from Payatas, Quezon City, one of the most impoverished areas in our country today. These groups of mothers have been making rugs for many years but despite the fact that their rugs are almost always sold-out, they continue to earn less than the P300 for a week's worth of work. Why, you may ask? Upon further scrutiny, we realize that they sell their rugs for a measly profit of only P1 per rug while the middleman who buys it from them sells it to department stores at a premium profit of almost P 25 per rug! In short, while the Payatas mothers receive a paltry peso for their efforts, the middlemen earn 2500% by doing practically nothing. Good thing there is a social enterprise called Rags2Riches which was founded by a group of young professionals together with the Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan. Rags2Riches or R2R enables Payatas mothers to earn more by giving them direct access to the market and removing their dependence on the middlemen. R2R also innovates by developing new products out of Rugs such as bags, purses wine holders and a yoga mat bag. Through these unique innovations, Payatas mothers increase their income by more than 300 percent! Now, these rug-makers can send their children to school and at the same time earn enough to provide for the basic needs of their families. Finally, to ensure its sustainability, R2R has also made the Payatas mothers as active partners in running this social enterprise, giving them the right to plan for the future of R2R. Now, due to the growing demand for their products both here and abroad, R2R is currently training more mothers in Payatas to be part of their social enterprise. R2R has shown, through social entrepreneurship one can not only earn profit meaningfully but more importantly help change the lives of many in a sustainable way. As Ashoka Founder Bill Drayton has said, "Social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish, or teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry." If you wish to know more about Rags2Riches, you can visit their website at http://www.slb.ph/r2r/index.html or you can send an email to their Executive Director, Reese Fernandez at reesefernandez (at) yahoo (dot) com . For those who wish to learn more about social entrepreneurship and how to become an effective social entrepreneur, the Ateneo de Manila University-School of Government together with Ashoka-Philippines will be running Beyond Bottomlines: An Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship this coming July 12,2008 (Saturday), 8 am to 5 pm at the Ateneo de Manila-Professional Schools campus in Rockwell, Makati City. If you are interested to attend this seminar, you can send an email to youthventureph (at) gmail (dot) com or contact Katrina Wy at (02) 683-0262 local 141. *Harvey Keh is the director for youth leadership and social entrepreneurship at the Ateneo de Manila School of Government.