ASN Spotlight

Could you please share examples that have shaped your view of social entrepreneurship!

One of the first examples I remember was a project in a disadvantaged neighbourhood. They were trying to reintegrate people through music by creating an orchestra with children who came from families with very limited means, often living in difficult neighbourhoods. The school was called REMUA. I attended a concert later, and I saw these children; each of whom had received an instrument they didn’t know how to play; performing together after learning for some time. It was beautiful to see how they learned to collaborate, to work together, to build something collectively. Especially in a context where there was a lot of social tension. That project really illustrated what social entrepreneurship can do: create dignity, collaboration, and confidence where it is most needed. 

Another example that stayed with me comes from the Globalizer program. I met a #Fellow from South Africa; Pat Pillai. He grew up in a slum in Cape Town. At some point, he said he was tired of the assumption that solutions to post-slavery and post-colonial challenges must come from outside communities rather than from within. He believed solutions should come from the people themselves. He created Life College, a social enterprise that offers champion mentality, character and leadership education to youth, communities, business and government. Young people aged 6 to 18 attended that school to reinforce their identity, using leadership examples like Nelson Mandela. The school grew enormously, and many students went through it with excellent results. They became more confident, more responsible, more capable of taking their destiny into their own hands.