The Skoll Foundation, which serves to benefit communities around the world,
has invested in a great number of social entrepreneurs for the past decade. These
social entrepreneurs who are not afraid to bring catalytic changes in the world
and the perception of certain social issues, shared stories that impacted the
hearts of many, including myself.
The founder of Gawad Kalinga (GK) shared, “We chose to start our journey
to ease human suffering differently by bleeding for the cause, digging into our
own pockets and not giving up when the wells dried up and friends started to
abandon us.” Today, for the reason that GK left their comfort zone in their
beginnings, more than 2,000 GK villages were built and over a million lives
were transformed.
Through Gawad Kalinga’s story, I realized firstly, successful social
entrepreneurs possess an inner confidence what ordinary men and women could not
comprehend. In the face of people’s doubts in their endeavors, they are
determined to not allow negative opinions drown out their inner voice. They have
the courage to risk their all for a dream to advance the common good.
Secondly, to successful social entrepreneurs, service love does not
easily give up. The word ‘impossibility’ is never in their dictionary. In
situations where there are limited resources (e.g. money), they will not be
paralyzed by lack. Instead, they focus on their dream and muster every effort
within them to fight for the causes they believe in. Because of their great
love and never give up spirit, they are able to do many little things to bring
greater happiness in the world.
Moreover, Issa Cuevas-Santos, GK’s director for systems and IT also shared,
“I was 13 when my father, a prominent doctor in my hometown, was gunned down in
front of me by insurgents demanding revolutionary taxes. Restoring the lives of
the poor was my way of healing me since I realized that it was poverty that
killed my father.”
Truly, not all but many social entrepreneurs, including ourselves, are
in the business of making lives better for the less fortunate because we may
have experienced the reality of pain ourselves. Having gained liberty from our
past bondages, it is now our drive to plant hope and make the world to be
better than what we have personally experienced.
Among us, many are either ready to emerge or already working hard to
make a difference and I believed most of us belong to the former group. We all
have a dream but more often not, it is unrealized because of umpteen doubts. We
tend to focus everyday on the “how to” questions (e.g. How am I going to deal
with this barrier? How is it possible to get from here to my ultimate goal? ). However
what we do not see is that in every uncertainty in us, there is a little bit of
confidence. We have nothing to lose except time. We are young; we do not have families
to worry about. What would be a better way to utilize our youth? Achieving what
people see as impossible lies in focusing on that little bit of confidence –
that 1% of faith when surrounded by 99% of doubts.
References:
Meloto, T. (2012, April 15). ‘How
crazy idea grew wings, flew out of cage’. Inquirer News. Retrieved
April 29, 2012, from http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/176873/how-crazy-idea-grew-wings-flew-out-of-cage
No comments:
Post a Comment