Photo courtesy of Dylac

By Mark Ruiz

The humble sari-sari store is the smallest kind of store in the Philippines, but it can also be one of the most powerful.

It’s normally started by a simple Nanay from a humble background who wants to augment the family income. After all, the sari-sari store is a relatively simple business to start. It’s home-based, which means that there’s no rent nor major construction expenses. In most cases, it’s literally a hole in the wall.

All the Nanay needs to get started is a little capital–just a couple of thousand pesos will be enough to buy the initial goods. These items are then sold with a little margin, more inventory is bought, these in turn are sold, and so on and so forth. The virtuous cycle of sari-sari store retailing has begun.
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By Marielle Nadal

Starting any venture is always exciting. There’s the idea that lights a fire under your backside; the one that gets you all worked up you can’t sleep. Then there’s the stage of infecting others with the idea, and the idea snowballing into something with legs. Then there’s the high of pulling it off, the shared ecstasy of doing what you love, and for social enterprises—seeing the results, and the impact of what you’ve helped bring about. Then, there’s the equally important satisfaction of issuing yourself your first paycheck no matter how small.

After the adrenaline rush dies a bit, and the back-patting stops, the reality of sustaining a social enterprise begins.

Two years ago, we were crazy kids who just wanted to make the world a better place by exercising whatever God-given, UP-trained talent we had as graphic designers, writers, photographers, web designers, animators and filmmakers. Two financial grants later, with a hefty number of projects under our belts (which fluctuated in size through both the lean and the happy times), and enough anecdotes to make for interesting presentations, we’ve learned that though circumstances sometimes point otherwise, the possibilities never end.
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By: Clare de Guzman Amador

We travel primarily for the experience and then after the experience, we tell our stories. Our stories set us apart—we may go to the same place but come home with different takes. We buy the same souvenirs but got them for different reasons for different people. Our photos are the same frames, still we show it to everyone.

All because our stories are our own and each experience hits us at the core. Travel is one of the best ways to experience the greatness of a place, of a people. It almost always leaves a positive mark—something that changes us and makes us look forward to every sunrise.

Youth Trip Philippines (YTRIP) began as a story. A story of traveling around the Philippines and how the experience can change us as Filipinos. Along the way, we figured, if only more Pinoys could do the same, things might just work better. After all, once we see how amazing our people are, how beautiful our country is—what would hold us back from loving and taking care of it?

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By Cristina Liamzon*

Many said it couldn’t be done–that there wouldn’t be much interest among OFWs for yet another training program and that the initiative simply couldn’t be sustained. That OFWs in Italy were only interested in working and earning an income as domestic helpers, nannies or caregivers to elderly Italians, that they didn’t have any time to spare, even on Sundays to attend training programs, especially one which was a year-long, and which focused on the subjects of leadership and social entrepreneurship. After all, the term social entrepreneurship is new and sounds vague for many. What examples could we show of successful social entrepreneurs, or social enterprises that the trainees could use as models to create their own after the training?

Skeptics opined that it would be difficult to find enough trainees who would participate and finish the program and that it could be a waste of time, money and effort. Still, the Associazione Pilipinas OFSPES, a Rome-based NGO hoping to empower overseas Filipinos in Italy, attempted to pursue this dream.

It all began in early 2007. We explored collaborations with the Philippine Embassy to Italy, the Philippine Overseas Labor Office and OWWA and the Ateneo de Manila University-School of Government to interest them in a project that would enhance the leadership and social entrepreneurship skills of our OFW’s in Rome, and then we did an extensive promotion and fund-raising for the program. Despite the initial tepid interest among Filipino communities and armed with limited human and financial resources but a lot of determination, a clear vision and much enthusiasm, the program was launched last April 6, 2008 with some 30 OFWs as trainees. By the second training module on May 18, this number had increased to more than 50 OFWs and youth who had heard about the first session and who fulfilled the essential requirements for participation.
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By: Lauren Wong*

Being a born-and-bred Chicago suburbs girl, I love seeing the US triumph in water or on sand. My unwavering admiration, however, extends towards anyone who is a champion of human ability, not just the Americans. Jamaica’s Usain Bolt, fastest man alive, and China’s golden gymnastics team are triumphs that the entire world can be proud of.  Beyond them are hundreds of men and women who pushed their bodies to the extreme to qualify for the Games. All of these Olympic athletes, hailing from slums and country clubs and bombed-out towns and crowded training academies, are success stories in my mind.

It’s easy to forget that sports are not the sole domain of superhuman elite athletes. The human necessity to play transcends language, class, religion, and geography. It is only natural, then, to use sports as a tool for good. Whether you look at prison boxing programs to keep convicts clean or the Homeless World Cup, the power of social change through sports is evident.

In the Philippines, sport-centered social entrepreneurship has begun to gain some ground.  Christian Doroin, for example, has been working with Special Olympics in the Philippines for nine years now.  Now on the Board of Directors, he still wakes up early on Saturday mornings to train people with physical or mental disabilities. The athletes, ranging from small children to older adults, get the opportunity to have their moment of glory when they compete against their peers. Sports teach them how to follow directions, become self-disciplined, interact with others as a team, and value fitness for continued health.  “It’s the lessons behind sports,” Doroin explains, “that are really important.  [Special Olympics] finds them a place in society by showing them how to live and interact with others.”
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