All this was made possible through Cornerstone Works, a social enterprise based in Taiwan. The organization helped develop Xiong’s interest in stone crafting. And with marketing assistance from Taiwanese social enterprise Lovely Taiwan, Xiong’s art works can be purchased in many other cities outside of a small workshop in Hualian town where it was produced.

To describe his experience, the humble man quotes a verse from the bible: “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.”

“When I first arrived in Cornerstone, I stared at the crude stones for 3 months. One day, I suddenly realized that the stones are just like me, ugly and raw. I often disliked myself, just like how I looked down on those stones. But deep inside my heart, I want to be someone to be looked upon, and then I thought the stones would be feeling this way as well,” said Xiong. “I picked up my burin (a stone-crafting tool) ever since that day, and began to converse with the stones in my special way.”

He added: “I really appreciate Lovely Taiwan for their help, the team has given me an impetus to work harder so that my stone works could tell their own stories to the rest of the people.”

And just like Xiong, many other local artists have received support from Lovely Taiwan to continue their passion.

Situated in the heart of Taipei, Lovely Taiwan provides a collective platform for all designers to exhibit and sell their wares at its small but elegant establishment. It boasts an admirable repertoire of over 100 unique handicrafts created by designers from locations all over the island, including rural or disadvantaged communities.

Examples of other delicate creations stocked by Lovely Taiwan are figurines constructed by well-known metallic artist Jiang Cheng Yao, hand-crafted organic soaps by students from special schools, and unique cases knit by the indigenous Taiwanese.

The social enterprise emphasizes the product values that go beyond mere profit such as a sense of community and the importance of cultural retention. One of its founders, senior media worker Xu Lu, pointed out that they hope to establish a platform that connects the people and the community through the products and the sharing their stories.

Giving the indigenous people an avenue to show forth their talent and skill without having to travel tremendous distances to bring their works to the market not only opens a window of opportunity for them but also connects them to the entire Taiwan.

But to achieve this is no minor feat: Lovely Taiwan’s founders have traversed across the country, visiting up to 130 communities to discover this rich variety of handicrafts, which reflects the distinct potential and style of its Taiwanese artists and communities. Through these efforts, a more holistic picture of Taiwan’s cultural heritage could then be obtained and shared with everyone else.

Still, being unique is not enough for products to succeed in the contemporary market; the products have to be given a chance to stand out. Hence,

Lovely Taiwan also ventured into giving advice and consultation to the artisans on product, image and packaging development.

Xu Lu cited an example: Handmade chocolates from Taichung Women’s Prison were simply wrapped with aluminum foil and contained in a zip-lock bag when they were first sent to Lovely Taiwan. The social enterprise would then dutifully repackage each piece with colourful, glossy wrappers before placing them in elegant, eye-catching containers. This gives products a better fighting chance in attracting the attention of potential buyers to take a closer look, whereby they would then notice the meaningful stories behind each product and its significance.

However, Xu Lu stressed that the foundation would not override the designers’ artistic integrity. Designers can be assured of retaining the avenue of expression and actualizing their ideas. The Lovely Taiwan Foundation was set up not to lead but to work hand-in-hand with these creative minds, supplementing their skill with solid marketing strategy. Lovely Taiwan also hopes to encourage other Taiwanese to set up local shops, and contribute to the community.

He added that Lovely Taiwan is just a small beginning for a greater scheme of action.

Just like how XIong has transformed the seemingly useless stones to meaningful symbols of love and beauty, by giving local talent from all over Taiwan a stage to shine, the foundation aims to achieve a sustainable development for the local industry and bring out the understated grace of the country through the products it carries.

Lovely Taiwan’s elegant wooden cat and dog figurines could be purchased at Do Things Different here.

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When he had a dream to teach children how to live sustainably, he not only built Green School Bali – arguably the first of its kind in the world, offering a holistic education of traditional math and science subjects paired with a green curriculum and a creative arts programme – he used what he believes is the most eco-friendly and sustainable building material on Earth: bamboo.

In Hardy’s case, this penchant and belief in bamboo has led him and his wife, Cynthia, to launch the Meranggi Foundation to encourage farmers to plant bamboo, create PT Bambu as a design hotbed and production facility for bamboo buildings and furniture, and open Bambu Indah, a hotel based on sustainability.

Along the way, he built what could possibly be the world’s largest bamboo building, the Heart of School, a grand, imposing, three-storey structure, located within Green School Bali.

Located 20 minutes North of Denpasar and 15 minutes South of Ubud, Green School’s eight-hectare campus sits among lush vegetation, divided by the Ayung River. It looks more like a serene, though rustic, holiday resort than a school.

The school’s tagline is “Equipping Children For 2025”. By that, the Hardys want, besides teaching the standard International Baccalaureate (IB) and International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) syllabus, to inculcate in their students the love of learning.

The Green Studies programme includes topics like carbon footprint analysis, water studies and even, organic farming and gardening. Within the Creative Arts and physical education programmes, students delve into yoga and batik painting using natural dyes made from vegetation on site, and martial arts, with the Balinese traditional art of Mepantingan being an important component. Students, aged between three and 15, learn by doing, with each child tending to their very own vegetable patch.

And as part of that commitment to greening the environment, Green School is built entirely out of bamboo – even its blackboards, desks, chairs and lamps.

Bamboo is the latest darling of eco-conscious architects, designers and manufacturers all over the world. The demand worldwide is high for bamboo for clothing, flooring, furniture and as building material.

Bamboo’s environmental benefits arise largely out of its ability to grow and spread quickly – in some cases, one meter a day – without the need for fertilizers, pesticides or much water.

A bamboo grove also releases some 35 per cent more oxygen into the air than a similar-sized stand of trees. One hectare of bamboo can sequester up to 12 tons of carbon a year.

Bamboo also reaches structural maturity in four to five years and produces a crop each year (compared to 30 to 50 years for most tropical hardwood trees), helping to improve soil conditions and prevent erosion along the way. Bamboo is so fast-growing that it can yield 20 times more timber than trees on the same area.

For the Hardys, bamboo was chosen not because there was lack of a better material – in current times, that is. It was chosen with an eye to the future.

John said, in an email interview: “Green School chose bamboo in the spirit of plenty. With rapidly escalating world cement prices, not to mention the sheer amount of fossil fuel that cement consumes, we must look to alternative building materials.

The world needs it. We have run out of cheap natural resources. Bamboo is a renewable resource, which sequesters carbon into the bargain.”

Some cement was used, however. While most of the cement is primarily underground, a small percentage of the classroom floors are made from cement, but “in general we want Green School to be really green, which means less cement”.

In part, they have also chosen bamboo for the children.

“Frankly, it is hard to talk to students about sustainability while they are using the last piece of rainforest for their chair and their table. It is the painful truth that they are going to have to stretch to get enough rain forest timber to build their homes.

“Bamboo is available and plenty, and when it is treated with borax salt, it is rendered immune to the bugs that like to eat it, so it becomes a permanent material.

“Every student at Green School will have an opportunity to plant his or her own bamboo and, eventually, four to five years down the line, will have a chance to harvest, treat and build something with that bamboo,” he added.

John has certainly created beautiful structures with bamboo.

Not only do they blend in seamlessly with the environment – the local craftsmen and their time-honoured traditional building techniques no doubt played a big part in this – the Green School buildings are engineering marvels in their own right.

Take the school’s administrative centre, the Heart of School.

Heart of School, built at a cost of US$225,000, is a majestic, three-storey building containing three interconnecting spirals. Towering over 20 meters tall, it enjoys over 2,000 sq m of floor space. Building the structure – construction started in late 2008, has taken 2,630 bamboo poles and 10,000 strips of alang-alang roofing. It houses the school library, IT laboratory, meeting rooms, exhibition spaces and offices.

John’s passion and belief in bamboo doesn’t just end with the school and its children.

Through the Meranggi Foundation, he encourages local Balinese farmers to grow bamboo. The Foundation works with farmers across Bali by providing seedlings of commercially viable bamboo to participating farmers free of charge.

The Foundation maintains detailed planting records, monitor bamboo growth rates and the associated carbon capture, and secures markets for future bamboo trade.

It has now already planted 15,000 seedlings with farmers across Bali. It is estimated that in seven years, that will yield 1,500,000 poles – enough to “grow” 150 new buildings every year.

However, the journey is just beginning for the Meranggi Foundation.

In an interview with Green School student for the school’s student newsletter, Chris Majors, the bamboo nursery’s manager, shared that some farmers they approach “don’t want any involvement in what we’re doing, and some want hundreds of plants right away… what we’ve learned is not to do hard sells”.

“Work with farmers who are willing and will help spread the bamboo word,” he added.

“A change in perspective will take more than a few months… The potential of bamboo has not yet been embraced fully by the Balinese. It will be quite a while before farmers come to us after the first harvests.”

Such is the reality of the task at hand for the Foundation.

But ever the epitome of someone who lives the life he believes in, John has this advice:

“If you need a lot of timber in the future, don’t look for wood, look for bamboo.

“It fixes a huge amount of carbon in the soil and this is a good solution in the world of ever escalating problems. It is a rapid solution to some of the problems that are facing us.

“Plant bamboo.”

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Clean and Green

One day, however, the chance combination of being frustrated by a broken hanger found in his locker and seeing a creative wall advertisement in the locker room resulted in the idea of bloomerHang®, an eco-friendly hanger that doubles up an advertising platform.

In June 2008, Zhiwen founded bloomerang, a $10,000 start-up. His former junior college classmate, Wong Joon Ian, also 28, joined him later in August the same year. Currently, bloomerHang is the sole product offered by bloomerang and it is 100% environmentally friendly.

The biodegradable hangers are made in Singapore from recycled paper board and card board, held together by water-based glue and carry advertisements printed in earth-friendlier soy inks. The glossy advertisements are also given their shine by an oil varnish instead of a thin film of plastic or spot UV varnish typically used in product packaging and magazines.

Unlike abroad, despite the high volume—tens of thousands—of hangers used every month, few laundry and dry cleaning service providers here encourage customers to return their plastic hangers for reuse. According to the waste statistics and recycling rate in 2009 from the National Environment Agency, only eight per cent of plastics used in Singapore are recycled.

“We have seen our bloomerHang perform in laundry operations as well as under retail operations’ conditions and we are working on the feedback received from the businesses and end-users to constantly improve our bloomerHang.” said Zhiwen, addressing the concern that the paper board hangers are not as sturdy. bloomerang is a finalist in the President’s Design Award 2009.

Produced by social enterprise Bloomerang, the innovative concept of well-designed and eco-friendly paper hanger bloomerHang, which is a finalist in the President’s Design Award 2009, relates a creative business idea with low capital start up. Bloomerang does not rely on the grants or funding that sometimes comes with the social tag. But at the same time, it fulfills both environmental and social aims.

Green Advertising

However, yet another concern that the duo are often questioned about is that they are more expensive to produce and hence, more costly for users.

The cost of a bloomerHang is many times higher than that of a plastic hanger and instead of producing overseas where costs of production are low, they chose to produce bloomerHang in Singapore for easier quality control checks and for a smaller carbon footprint by cutting back on the carbon emission from overseas and overland freight transportation.

But here is where the ingenuity of the social enterprise steps in.

Advertisers looking for a novel and targeted platform to advertise their products and services cross-subsidise these hangers. For example, Terra Plana, a UK lifestyle shoe brand, which has two outlets at the ION Orchard and Mandarin Gallery, pays for 5,000 bloomerHang to be distributed through bloomerang’s closed channels. These bloomerHangs carry Terra Plana’s brand messages, as well as a discount coupon.

Paper hanger ads bloomerHangs are distributed through laundry and dry cleaning service providers, hotels and boutique hostels for backpackers and gyms such as the Green ‘n’ Clean Laundry, the Gallery Hotel and Dynaforce gyms. To discourage indiscriminate abuse of the free hangers, bloomerang charges a stipend sum of five cents, a marked discount from plastic hangers sold to the launderers, for example, at 13 cents per piece. However, bloomerang hopes to move to a truly free model in the near future.

Green and Good

It is a win-win for the distributors, advertisers as well as end-users and the environment. Businesses like the launderers, gyms, and hotels receive these eco-hangers at a much lower price while advertisers get their messages across to highly sought after audiences including households of PMEBs, sports enthusiasts, tourists and independent travelers to Singapore.

Now, freshmen and seniors staying on campus would also have access to bloomerHangs as well—the eco-hangers are found in the wardrobes on NUS and NTU campuses. SMU student hostels have recently signed up as well.

For users like Josephine Cheong, she reuses her bloomerHang for some of her laundry until they tear then guiltlessly dump them when they can no longer be used.

“I feel good using the environmentally-friendly hangers because they do much less damage to the environment. Besides, they look much better than the usual ugly plastic ones and are much lighter than the wooden ones,” said Ms Cheong, who often has to dump the many plastic hangers that come with her laundry.

To date, bloomerang has replaced some 30,000 plastic hangers with its recycled and 100% biodegradable paper board and cardboard eco-hangers.

To find out how to save the earth one hanger at a time, visit Bloomerang’s website here.

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The recent flourishing of social enterprises to support and integrate the visually impaired community is a heartening sign of Singapore society progressively becoming more inclusive.

These social enterprises range from traditional outfits employing the visually impaired people in consumer services, such as the Society for the Physically Disabled’s (SPD) mobile massage and car-washing services, to more unconventional social initiatives that cater to the aesthetic needs and creative potential of the visually-impaired. The latter group of social initiatives or rather, innovations, not only enables the visually impaired to develop artistic skills and self-confidence for employment but also actively creates opportunities for them to showcase their talents.

In part one of our series in highlighting such social initiatives and innovations for the visually impaired, we present Clay IN-SIGHT, an art-therapy course that provides the visually-impaired with the opportunities to craft, exhibit and market their own pottery art.

Creating beauty from scratch

Another inspiring programme providing creative opportunities for the visually-impaired in Singapore is Clay IN-SIGHT.

Elaine Wong, a clay artist in her earlier years, longed to return to the art despite her inability to see. “Being a part of a pottery workshop has really given me a real sense of achievement,” said Elaine. “The activity itself is an enjoyable hobby and here we have the chance to interact with sighted volunteers, establish rapport with others and also develop marketable skills.”

More importantly, Elaine believes that Clay IN-SIGHT creates a real opportunity for integration, as artworks are a common medium that both sighted and non-sighted people can communicate through.

One of these venues was the recently concluded Clay IN-SIGHT Exhibition, hosted at PaTH Market at Vivocity in December last year. The exhibition showcased the works of fourteen Clay IN-SIGHT participants.

One of exhibitors, Ben Wong, created a pair of footprints. To him, his artwork symbolizes the importance of taking the first step in every endeavor–a fitting symbol for a programme with a far-reaching impact.

“The exhibition was a great success,” quipped Ben, “It really showed the public’s willingness to purchase our art and to support us. Many remarked that the pieces

were sincere and expressive, and we had the opportunity to explain our inspiration to them too.”

Launched in April last year, Clay IN-SIGHT is a unique pottery programme designed specially to help visually-impaired participants interested in art and craft to manifest their inner visions into physical reality through the use of the clay.

Jointly organised by pottery workshop Clay-Street and the Singapore Association for the Visually Handicapped (SAVH), Clay IN-SIGHT has reached out to about fifteen SAVH members to date, who attend fortnightly classes facilitated by a team of twenty volunteers that assist the visually-impaired participants on a one-to-one basis.

Programme coordinator T. C. Kok shared that there are plans for the images of these artworks, which range from cups and bowls to personalized pieces such as nameplates and footprints, to be placed online. Members of the public and corporate representatives can then place orders for these pieces to serve as gifts or ornaments.

Beyond creating a space for the visually impaired to express themselves, Clay IN-SIGHT also help members of the public to understand and interact with the visually-impaired. Volunteers, too, have found their experience with Clay IN-SIGHT very meaningful.

“This is really another perspective on volunteering–where our role is essentially as facilitators to help the visually impaired make their visions into reality,” explained volunteer and clay artist Theingi Wint Wint Soe.

“We use highly visual language to enable them to know precisely what to do, which is a new form of communication for me. It is truly amazing what they can imagine, and their sense of touch is very strong so I don’t find it difficult to work them at all!”

Madhuri Wagle added: “The main challenge we face is in figuring out what it is that the artist wants to create and to help them get there. But things don’t have to perfect–in fact it is the imperfections that make these pieces so unique!”

Beyond the exhibition, Clay IN-SIGHT aspires to contribute to the green movement in 2010 through Drink towards a Greener Earth, a social initiative to promote wider usage of re-washable ceramic mugs in organizations and at work in place of disposable plastic or foam cups.

Through creating spaces for participants to learn personal grooming skills and to market their artistic talents with the support of friends and expert guidance, Clay IN-SIGHT fill a unique niche in the social enterprise landscape–enabling the visually-impaired to develop more self-confidence through practicing their art.

You can support Clay IN-SIGHT by stepping forward to volunteer their services as a workshop facilitator, or donate directly to Clay IN-SIGHT. For more information on how you can support this project, please contact Mr. Alvin Yong at alvin@clay-street.com.

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Kendra is a professional guide dog, and her job is to guide her master to various places—office, lunch, and the gym among others.

She is extensively trained from the tender age of two months old to be well behaved while at work as well as confidently and safely assist her master in crossing busy traffic junctions and through crowded sidewalks and shopping malls. Kendra and her master travel all over our sunny island on buses, trains, taxis, and even on board a plane at times.  When they are not on the move, Kendra quietly tucks herself under Mr Kua’s chair and takes a little snooze to recharge for the next adventure.

Kendra, however, is currently a rare sight in Singapore. She is the only guide dog in Singapore now. Kendra is a generous donation from The Guide Dogs for the blind INC. (GDB) based in America, who hopes to see mobility of Singaporean visually impaired improve through the use of guide dogs.

But thanks to The Guide Dogs Association of the Blind in Singapore (GDAB), Kendra would not be alone much longer. Arrangements are currently made for more guide dogs to arrive in the coming months.

Kendra’s owner, also a founding member of GDAB, Mr. Kua Cheng Hock said: “A guide dog exponentially enhances the safety and independence of a visually impaired individual.”

He added: “Guide dogs are especially important in Singapore as our fast pace of life often means family members or passersby do not have the time to help a sight challenged person cross the road or get to the place he or she would like to go.”

Mr. Kua is deeply passionate about helping fellow visually challenged individuals be able to lead independent and more productive lives. He has been campaigning for the lawful use of guide dogs by the visually impaired in Singapore for more than three decades.

In 1982, Mr. Kua brought an Australian trained guide dog to Singapore but had to return it, as the culture here, such as establishments and public transport, was extremely unreceptive of a guide dog. Saddened but not discouraged, Mr. Kua continued to lobby for improvements in public areas for the use of guide dogs so that the visually impaired of Singapore may better travel about.

Finally, in 2005, Mr. Kua came together with a few philanthropic friends bound by their love of dogs and their compassion for the visually impaired, and formed GDAB. Their vision is to provide a high level of quality care for the visually impaired by providing a trained guide dog for suitable individuals, as well as to make changes in our environment to integrate guide dogs. The GDAB also hopes to raise funds for professionally trained mobility instructors to provide continual support to beneficiaries and their guide dogs after training.

Since 2005, GDAB has improved the infrastructural support for the use of guide dogs in Singapore. For one, they obtained approval from the authorities, allowing guide dogs to live in HDB flats (public housing), where usually only small dogs are allowed as pets. Also, through GDAB’s continuous lobbying, guide dogs are now exempted from legislations that prohibit the entry of animals into food establishments and onto public transport.

Nonetheless, more doors need to be opened for the ease of guide dogs use in Singapore. GDAB still has much work ahead of them as they aim to make Singapore a friendlier city for the visually impaired. Currently, some of GDAB’s projects are working on raising awareness in the general public through school and community talks as well as visiting businesses and service providers like hotels and hospitals all over the country to invite them to be guide dogs-friendly establishments.

According to Mr Kua, the challenges of having a guide dog now are similar to that of 28 years ago. Although media interviews have helped broaden awareness and access to guide dogs here has improved, there is still much to be done to educate the public about the legislation in order to ease the use of guide dogs in Singapore.

For example, people are still afraid that guide dogs may bite them and taxi drivers fear that guide dogs may dirty their taxis. All these misperceptions are largely due to lack of awareness—the general public would often label a guide dog as just another pet. Most are unaware that guide dogs are even better behaved as they are professionally trained to help enhance the lives of their visually impaired owners.

In the past, Mr Kua, a very active sportsman, was reluctant to visit the gym in fear that it would inconvenience others who might worry for his safety. Because of the many fitness equipments there, people would often stop their work out fearing Mr Kua’s white cane would get caught and he would fall or jam the equipment.

Now with the help of Kendra, he could now confidently and safely make his way around them in the gym. Additionally, his social life blossomed whiles taking Kendra downstairs to relieve herself—he got to know more of his neighbours.

There looks to be a happy ending for Mr. Kua’s dream of enabling the visually impaired to enjoy life better through the use of guide dogs. Now, in partnership with the guide dogs school in America and with the expertise of GDAB’s board members, which includes veterinarians, opthalmologists and lawyers, what was once a dream is slowly but surely turning into reality.

To find out more or if you wish to lend a helping hand to GDAB, please visit GDAB at http://www.guidedogs.org.sg/.

About the Author: This article is written by guest writer Cassandra Chiu, who was blinded from the age of eight from degenerative eye condition Stargardts. She also shares her life experiences, hope and dreams of being a counsellor with SEforum here.

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He spends most of his day serving its residents, many of whom form the vibrant migrant population there.

Shin Yong is co-founder of HealthServe, a non-profit organisation that was set up in 2006 and which caters largely to the needs of the migrant workers and the local poor and needy in Singapore. HealthServe aims to raise awareness, empathy and acceptance of vulnerable and marginalised communities in Singapore and aboard and their services include areas in service learning, research, outreach, counseling and medical treatment.

“Migrant workers make up a significant part of our workforce of about a quarter,” said Shin Yong. “But they are also the ones who lack most access to healthcare services. Hence, we set up HealthServe to fill this gap.”

According to the Ministry of Manpower, the number of foreigners form a 35.2% of total employment in December 2009.

But it is not just about providing services, said Shinyong, it is also about building rapport with the people you serve and understanding their needs.

In the beginning, the migrant workers living in Geylang were apprehensive about HealthServe’s first clinic in Geylang. Volunteer doctors who expect the clinic–which provides medical services at low rate of $5–to be crowded, was shocked by the turnout. For the first three months the clinic was open, there were barely any patients.

Shinyong likens it to walking into a kampung where nobody knows them.

“We cannot just walk into a community blindly and do our thing. We will surely meet with problems. Similarly, when we set up our clinic here without first knowing or understanding them, they say why $5 so cheap? ” said Shin Yong.

“So the volunteer doctors and I went out of our comfort zone and walked the streets. We met the people in the area; we shook hands with everyone and introduced ourselves. When they understand where we are coming from, people then started coming in. “

Now that patients are pouring in, they may call or email to make reservations for treatment at the clinic. Between HealthServe’s clinic in Geylang and a partner clinic in Little India, healthcare services are available three days a week.

“Other than financial and medical needs, the migrant workers have mental and emotional needs as well. We hope to cultivate a strong sense of community like a kampung (at HealthServe) in Jurong,” said Shin Yong, who plans to make the new arm of HealthServe in Jurong “like a community centre”.

Asked Shin Yong: “If you don’t even understand the community, then who are you really serving?”

Community seems like the buzzword here at Healthserve. Regular leisure activities such as ping pong sessions and festive celebrations are a common sight there.

“Through bridge-building events like Games Day and dumpling parties, barriers are broken and many workers found friendship with Singaporeans,” said Feng Guang, a Chinese national who is now logistics and migrant support manager at HealthServe, one of the organisation’s seven full-time staff. In the last dumpling-making session, more than 1,000 dumplings in Chinese jiaozi style and Nepali momo style were made.

On top of getting word of their healthcare services out, HealthServe volunteers and staff’s interactions with the migrant workers–and building a community with them–also open a window into their world.

As they find out more needs of their patients, they grew from a clinic in Geylang to provide pro-bono legal services, HIV screening tests and social assistance on top of the initial subsidised medical care. HealthServe also distributes public health information and materials to commercial sex workers, migrant workers and vulnerable groups in the community, and conducts elementary conversation English classes for foreign workers.

“When you know them–the community–you will find out about their other needs. So from medical services, we helped to find help for legal advice, then HIV screening and then counseling… It all comes together,” said Shin Yong.

He cites an example of how HealthServe considers every aspect of help that may be required: Chinese national Jing* came to Singapore late last year to claim her alimony, which her Singaporean ex-husband has not fulfilled since 2007. Two years ago, when she went to Sichuan with her daughter, Xiao Yan*, the major earthquake struck.

Now, on top of rendering her legal advice, Jing undergoes counseling at HealthServe in a bid to put the trauma from the earthquake behind her. HealthServe will also be providing mother and daughter financial assistance for a year upon their return to China.

Other than growing their portfolio of services, social enterprises under the HealthServe wing also grew to include travel immunisation packages and a thrift shop in Geylang.

“To meet more felt needs of the migrant workers, we set up the social enterprises as an engine for our financial sustainability,” added Shin Yong. HealthServe’s services are currently supported by donors, foundations and the social enterprises under its wing.

Next, HealthServe has future plans to move into working with more governmental agencies. Currently, the social enterprise has already partnered with the Youth Expedition Project (YEP), Health Promotion Board, Ngee Ann Polytechnic and the National University of Singapore among others.

Said Shin Yong: “We wish to work with other VWOs and like-minded agencies to collaborate and share resources to provide more services for the less marginalised, whether it is for the same group of people or not.”

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Her responsibilities include management, balancing finances and handling discipline problems as well as duties down to the smaller tasks such as ensuring that everyone has enough food, manning one of the help-desks, and even buy groceries.

The day does not end until twelve hours later, when she returns home only to continue with work that can be done from her second home – where she lives but spends less time in – such as to clear H.O.M.E. emails on her handy Blackberry.

This is a typical day in the life of Bridget, founder and president of H.O.M.E., for the six years since she begun the non-profit organisation.

It all started in 2004 when she became acquainted with issues concerning the marginalisation of migrant workers in Singapore through a Fillipino priest. He was looking for volunteers who were willing to aid mistreated Filipino migrant workers in Singapore, where the welfare of domestic workers is largely determined by employers and governed by few laws.

For example, domestic workers in Singapore are not included under the Employment Act, which regulates working hours and conditions, due to the nature of their work in a home environment. For them, weekly day offs are not mandatory although employers are encouraged to grant their domestic worker rest days. Otherwise, the domestic worker should be compensated in cash.

However, the contract does not specify a domestic worker’s salary. On top of the commonly debated issue on day offs, foreign workers also have to bare the brunt of xenophobic feelings towards them in the neighbourhood such as in the much publicised case of Serangoon Gardens.

Hence, when she first learned of the plight of the domestic workers, Bridget, who came from a background of human resource management, was appalled.

She cites two examples why: An average domestic worker earns about 350 Singapore dollars a month for working 30 days and for about 16 hours a day. That boils down to less than a dollar an hour – a measly wage for all the hard work an average domestic worker has to do daily. Also, an average condominium’s architect would often construct the maid’s room just enough to fit a single bed and often without much ventilation.

But what’s worse, says Bridget, is that the majority of the domestic workers here do not even have a weekly day off.

“These are the basics. You should treat your domestic worker like how you want your employer to treat you. Wouldn’t you want a day off each week?” said Bridget. “Besides, you can resign if you want to but these workers can hardly do that. They may have to top up their loan to be referred to a new employer. If not, their work permit will be cancelled and they will be sent home penniless.”

Without an appropriate counsel, these domestic workers may suffer any oppression or even abuse that they meet with silence rather than risk getting sent back to their home countries. Or they may also be forced to leave without a trial or any compensation due to the lack of evidence.

Other times, as it takes a considerable amount of time for investigations to be completed, these workers would simply choose to return home as there is nowhere here that they can go to for shelter and no one here to help them.

And this is where HOME steps in.

“We’ve not done too bad over the past five years,” Bridget said. HOME has gone beyond its initial vision to provide counseling and paralegal assistance to migrant workers under duress from their employers. It has established two shelters to provide for migrant workers who are no longer able to reside with their employers due to abuse or threat.

Also, HOME runs a 24-hour helpline and two help-desks for workers in distress. The organisation is the only humanitarian endeavour in Singapore that provides shelter for migrant workers.

But six years, a Nobel nomination, and several success stories later, Bridget remains humble about the immense value and service that H.O.M.E. offers in Singapore. A devout Catholic, Bridget credits her success to her faith. “Faith has often enabled me to overcome the fear of running into financial difficulties,” said Bridget.

H.O.M.E.’s biggest challenge lies in finding sufficient funds to sustain their shelters. “We need at least $20,000 a month, or 250,000 a year,” said Bridget.

That was one of the reasons why Bridget decided to set up StarHome, a work placement service of a social enterprise, in 2005. She hoped that the social enterprise would be a helpful part of the mission and at the same time, generate some income for H.O.M.E.. But despite her setting up StarHome out of her own pocket, there were opposition from some profit-making employment agencies that accused her of making money out of her mission and being unfair competition.

“There was a perceived conflict of interest with running H.O.M.E. at the same time, and since it was never profitable anyway, I gave it away to an ex-domestic worker who is currently running a shelter in Batam,” said Bridget, who ran StarHome for three years before taking the practical route out by giving it away at her own loss.

She shares her lesson on social enterprise learnt: “It is not easy running a social enterprise. You have to consider whether the business will become a liability for the organisation instead. That is why I set it up under my own name. And later, rather than spend the time changing public opinion, I chose to focus on the mission at hand by giving it away to someone whom I can trust.”

In fact, Bridget also had ideas to set up a thrift shop to raise funds but due to the nature of H.O.M.E. – it serves foreigners rather than locals – they were unable to get tax exemptions or subsidized rental like the other charities and the plan was shelved.

Still, rather than giving up on H.O.M.E. due to tight finances, Bridget employs her experience in the field of human resource to the fullest – H.O.M.E. is run entirely by volunteers. By recognising and matching the skills of their volunteers with the needs of migrants workers in Singapore, H.O.M.E. has managed to maximise the capacity of its volunteers to running the organisation at as little cost as possible. Bridget, for one, works full-time without pay.

But finances aside, she says, almost as challenging is changing the mindsets of the local society.

Said Bridget: “Migrant workers aren’t popular with the locals.”

“People have said that I’m so foolish for investing so much time and money in this work. I even had to convince my own mother and daughter that the work I do is for a just cause.”

When she just begun, Bridget received obscenities on her mobile from some employment agencies who felt threatened by H.O.M.E.’s existence and people who oppose her work such as employers who had their maids protected through H.O.M.E..

On the other hand, she has also met people who encourage her greatly especially those through their actions – good employers who treat their domestic workers well by giving them the basic weekly day off and some, even sending them for courses to improve themselves.

“But the good employers I’ve seen are largely the angmohs,” said Bridget. “Perhaps it is the culture we were brought up in.”

The social and economical impact of migrant workers has long been an international agenda. For example, the rights of migrant workers lists third on the United Nations global agenda. However, the Convention on Protection of Rights of Migrant Workers, which was adopted in 1990 and acceded by 21 states, is not acceded here in Singapore.

It might well be a result of our culture but Bridget trusts that the Singaporean government is beginning to realize the impact and importance of addressing migrant worker issues.

“Neglecting them may result in severe repercussions such as a strain on diplomatic problems or a stain on Singapore’s image as a choice of city for foreign talents to work in, especially when about one third of our population is made up of foreign workers,” said Bridget.

“Therefore, there should be more in terms of social services for foreign workers and Singaporeans of all people should understand. After all, most of our ancestors are migrants themselves.”

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2. VillageWorks Songkhem Collection
3. Travel with Love

Internet cafes and computer gaming centers line every major street in Bangkok. Thailand’s new generation of innovators are no strangers to Information & Communication Technology (ICT). What’s more, they are not satisfied in using these skills for just pursuing monetary returns.

Thailand is fast becoming a breeding ground for young social entrepreneurs who are harnessing the power of Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D).

Social enterprises like Thoth Media and Chivalry silk are examples of innovative social enterprises that are leveraging new online media in support of sustainable development.

Media Censorship & Thoth Media

Media in Thailand has always been under strict censorship by the government as a preemptive attempt to controversial dialogue among citizens. As a result, the lack of outlets for free speech within Thailand has made it extremely difficult for the people to have open discussions on issues that are directly affect them.

Yet, to foster an open, educated and democratic society, access to such information is crucial as well as a strong creative problem solving mindset.

With over 1,500 Thais graduating into the ICT profession every year, how can these valuable skills be put to use for Thailand?

One answer lies with the young social entrepreneurs behind innovative social enterprise, Thoth Media.

Thoth Media was created in 2006 by three friends with backgrounds in IT, who were greatly inspired by the widespread usage of social media in the developing world to engage people in entertaining, stimulating and informative discussions.

“The government will censor anyone who is criticizing the monarchy,” explains co-founder, Kla Tangsuwan.

“But criticizing the monarchy is not our position. We are focusing our efforts on encouraging people to spread knowledge, wisdom and insight through social media on issues such as technology, education, child welfare, political transparency and social responsibility. We focus on inspiring creative solutions rather than criticisms.”

The first of their many projects was Duocore.tv, which has grown to be one of the largest internet shows in Thailand with over 60,000 views a month on top of being aired by many satellite TV stations.

Today, Thoth Media has succeeded in creating an interactive and engaging social media platform that provides a variety of media options to service the growing needs of citizen journalists, non-profit organizations as well as other social enterprises.

For example, Thoth Media provides the technical expertise and support to build a new citizen participation function to the current Prime Minister’s website. This medium allows the public to ask questions and come up with creative solutions to problems that they can share and further develop on the website. The public can “vote up” the questions and the Prime Minister will answer the top voted questions in his weekly address. To date, this page has had more than 600,000 views, over 10,000 website members, 8,500 questions posted and 15,000 votes collected.

This platform allows citizens to report, discuss, create and engage in valuable discussions through the use of technology. And by fostering a populous and sprawling online community where citizens have the power to contribute to important discussions, Thoth Media is, in turn, encouraging an online Internet culture that is important for a healthy, informed and free society.

Through this form of de-centralized media, the Thais can bypass many censorship obstacles as content is uploaded directly to the Internet, where it can be accessed from many different sources from throughout the virtual world. This is much more difficult to censor–once a campaign goes “viral”, it is almost impossible to contain.

In addition to using technology to facilitate important connections between the people and the government, Thoth Media also uses creative technology to help people to take better care of their health.

For one, Thoth Media works with the Folk Doctor Foundation, a thirty year old foundation in Thailand, in coordinating, organising and distributing information promoting health related issues. Fortnightly, the social enterprise also produces and distributes a dynamic and engaging short video that explains a health issue as a form of public education.

Thoth Media helps the Folk Doctor Foundation, among many others, to have a visible and active social media identity by helping to create and manage their social media channels.

The social enterprise aims not only to encourage the open sharing of knowledge, but also to promote free speech, health, human rights, and the growth of a new industry that can employ Thai people that will allow them to join the ranks of a novel class of workers.

“The government will censor anyone who is criticizing the monarchy,” explained co-founder, Kla Tangsuwan.

“But criticizing the monarchy is not our position.  We are focusing our efforts on encouraging people to spread knowledge, wisdom and insight through social media on issues such as technology, education, child welfare, political transparency and social responsibility.

“We focus on inspiring creative solutions rather than criticisms.”

Cultural Preservation Through E-Commerce:  Chivalry Silk

Another social enterprise that makes good use of technology is Chivalry Silk.

Early 2007, Thepparat “Ongchun” Tantikalayaporn, a young Thai university student was given a memorable gift from one of her closest friends. The gift was a piece of traditionally woven Thai silk artwork made from the cocoons of some of the finest silkworms in the world. The quality and attention to detail was only made possible through the tedious and dedicated craftsmanship of the Thai silk weavers. It took an entire day to produce about one meter of this type of silk.

Ongchun left for the Northern Thailand village of Chiang Mai where she dedicated herself to learning the silk making process–from growing the mulberry-like plants that feed the silk worms all the way to the final stages of hand weaving–with the hopes of better understanding the Thai culture and tradition.

During this time, Ongchun learned that traditional silk manufacturing was disappearing from the rural areas of Thailand simply because the price of traditional handmade silk could not compete with cheaper, industrialized silk.

Due to the lack of access to markets, many of the rural artisans are forced to abandon their craft and leave their villages for the big cities in search of work. This not only contributes to overpopulation in the cities, but is also a threat to the traditional family unit.

“So many of the villagers are forced to move to the cities after the harvest season because it has been their only way to earn more money,” said Ongchun, founder of Chivalry silk. “They leave their children with their grandparents when they leave the villages in search for a better paying city-based job.”

The problem of seasonal work coupled with the lack of access to external markets seriously impedes this industry from developing.

Armed with the understanding of the story behind her cherished gift, Ongchun set up her own social enterprise, Chivalry Silk, to help solve this problem.

“I really wanted to do something to solve the problems I saw in the Thai silk industry. I wanted to find a way to bring back the profits that were made through selling Thai silk back to the community who produced it,” recalled Ongchun.  “I also wanted to do away with the middlemen who were taking advantage of the people in the villages by taking all of the profits.

“That is where the idea of linking the communities directly with the markets came from.  I thought that if the groups of women I saw in Northern Thailand could raise their incomes beyond just through agricultural activities, then the whole economic cycle of the villages would be stronger and more sustainable.”

Chivalry Silk merges fair trade, cultural preservation, and community empowerment by sourcing their silk material from rural weavers, who are otherwise unconnected to the global market, then selling the material mainly through an e-commerce portal.

The money earned through the e-commerce portal is channeled back to the weavers themselves, unlike factory-based weavers who get only a mediocre share of the profits for their labour.

Besides the e-commerce portal, Chivalry Silk employs an online merchandising model that allows it to take full advantage of the tools the Internet offers for global outreach.  With nearly a third of its export & merchandising model coming from the Internet, it is the glue that binds all of the pieces together.

These online channels–including a B2B and B2C online e-marketplace, third party seller stores such as eBay, Etsy.com and Elevyn.com (fellow Youth Social Enterprise Initiative fellow), live customer support services and a comprehensive website–not only provides access to the product, but also includes a comprehensive explanation of the product heritage, cultural importance and the evolution of the Thai silk industry.

In addition, Chivalry Silk is actively engaged in raising awareness and business through related forums, blogs, Google groups, buyers’ guides and discussion groups, which gives a boost to their search engine optimization. Chivalry Silk appears on the first page of Google search results for a variety of important search terms such as “quality Thai silk”, “hand woven Thai silk” and “silk product”. This, in turn, translates to consumer awareness and in turn, strong sales.

On top of reaching consumers, ICT is also used to connect the vast web of players that Chivalry Silk has weaved into their business models. The ability to use online channels to connect with fashion designers, overseas importers, online trade shows, interior designers, retail stores and more has facilitated the global expansion of the business.

At present, Chivalry Silk has helped to improve the standard of living for nearly 30,000 people throughout the supply chain of the Northern Thailand silk industry by connecting them with socially conscious consumer markets and marketing the ethnic product.

With the help of Chivalry Silk, the average silk-weaving artisan’s income increased by about 8 per cent in just a year’s time.  This rise of about USD $150 a year is enough for drastic lifestyle changes, such as sending children to school, which can in turn make all the difference for a family trying to escape the cycle of poverty.

At the same time Chivalry Silk is improving the lives of Thai artisans and their families, the social enterprise also helps to preserve a valuable Thai tradition.

Related posts:

1. Open Source Technology for Rural Hospitals in Thailand
2. INSIGHT: Social Initiatives
3. 7 Things To Consider Before Embarking on Social Entreprenuership

Related posts:

1. Dialogue in the Dark (DiD)
2. INSIGHT: Social Initiatives
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Some people may consider the three Social enterprises (SE) that I present here as “outliers”. True, they are hardly profiled, but in my opinion they characterise the potential for social entrepreneurship in Hong Kong (HK).

Unlike HK’s SE stratum which is dominated by mostly work-integration social enterprises that are largely encouraged by preferential government policy; these three SEs are driven by young social entrepreneurs who identified a market gap, felt deeply uneasy about the social situation they saw, and undertook it upon themselves to try to make a difference. In doing so, they challenge existing norms; work against existing practices, and set in motion new social and cultural norms.

1. Non-Profit-Making Veterinary Services Society Ltd (NPVSS)

Humans are not the only one that deserves proper medical care.

Founder Mark Mak wanted to bring quality veterinary services within everyone’s means. He felt frustrated by the fact that many pets and their owners could not afford basic veterinary services because of the unreasonably high prices of existing animal clinics. Hence, Mark set up NPVSS in 2006 and is now running two clinics, with throngs of pet owners lining up for the pet-doctor.

A “cost plus” pricing principle is adopted by NPVSS to ensure affordable pet care, which simply means adding only a reasonable mark-up to the actual cost of services and not to “overcharge” the pet owners to maximise profits. 

On top of this, NPVSS would also offer special discounts to pet owners who are social security recipients. Instead of submitting to the view that the poor and disadvantaged should not be pet owners, NPVSS recognizes that pets are sometimes the most important companions for the socially disadvantaged especially the singleton elderly who chose to have pets for company.

2. Social Ventures Hong Kong (SVHK)

Modelled after successful venture philanthropy institutions (VPI) in other parts of the world, SVHK aims to provide financial, intellectual, and human capital support to the development of social entrepreneurship in HK. As a pioneer of venture philanthropy, one of the unique features of SVHK is its ability to blend the talents of committed young professionals and the visions of social entrepreneurs by using a high-engagement approach to create social impact across many service realms.

SVHK is a platform serving four key groups of stakeholders: visionary social investors, social entrepreneurs, engaged professionals, and devoted citizens. In the case of engaged professionals they are the knowledge volunteers and for sure, a key success factor. But instead of replicating the Social Venture Partners model from the US that emphasizes on support via the professional volunteers/social investors, the working platform of SVHK is wider and goes beyond professional volunteering.

Since its inception in late 2007, SVHK has already registered thousands of volunteer hours from its committed young members in supporting SE projects that may or may not be SVHK’s direct investees.

With over 3 years of experience, SVHK aims to gradually enlarge its SE investment portfolio. This includes Fullness Hair Salon, arguably the most successful work-integration social enterprise in HK, and Dialogue in the Dark (Did), another SE that belies great potential.

In the cases of Fullness and DiD, SVHK had their members appointed as Board members to the two SEs and playing very influential roles. For example, the SVHK appointed board member to DiD is from Disney HK and brings in a lot of experience in helping DiD set up its facility as well as run its programmes.

By testing out new ways of combining financial and social resources to tackle complicated social problems, SVHK is practicing social entrepreneurship in its core operations.

3. CNEX Foundation (CNEX)

CNEX is the short form of “Chinese Next” and pronounced as “See Next”, which is an apt name for the motto of CNEX:  “Looking for Chinese 2.0”.

CNEX came into existence in 2007 with the aim of promoting the production of documentaries related to the Chinese people. Firmly believing in the power of empathy, founder Ben Tsiang is determined to make CNEX the vehicle for people from within and beyond the Greater China region – in particular, the next generation of Chinese people [aka Chinese 2.0] – to better understand contemporary Chinese societies through documentary films.

CNEX also strives to facilitate the cultural exchange between the Chinese and the rest of the world by supporting documentaries depicting contemporary Chinese – people of Chinese ethnicity, their lives and their society. With the mission of producing 100 documentary films about China’s society change over the course of ten years, CNEX works towards its aim of establishing and developing a library of global Chinese non-fiction work, as well as to enable a sustainable strategy for the contemporary Chinese documentary making.

Founder of CNEX Ben Tisang is originally from Taiwan and is a successful IT entrepreneur. He co-founded the popular Internet search engine Sina.com and has a good grasp of the deep cultural diversity across Chinese societies.

Since CNEX was set up five years ago, 15 documentaries have been produced for the last two seasons so far.

Here are two such impactful films:

All’s Right is about poverty in HK and throughout the past two years it was screened more than 100 times in the campuses pf local universities, in community centres or NGO offices in various neighourhoods. A local NGO working on poverty issues even used the film to develop a teaching kit for the use of secondary students.

As for KJ, a biography of a talented pianist, it addresses a wide range of issues. For one, parents putting their kids to learning instruments merely for the sake of getting the certificates. Of course there are the main issues about the meaning of life, of growing up, the love between father and son and more. Through Facebook viral marketing, the film has broken the box office record for documentaries in HK. The film recently won three prizes in the prestigious Golden Horse Award in Taiwan.

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