Social entrepreneurship the latest method to make money and benefit communities

Inspired by the desire to fight poverty among the youth while rehabilitating the environment in northeastern Brazil, Ms Lillian Silva founded Acreditar, a youth-run microfinance.

Here, young entrepreneurs apply for loans by presenting business plans that focus on low environmental impact agriculture rather than sugar cane monoculture, which dominates the region.

The organisation has supported over 600 small businesses in seven cities.

In Thailand, Poonsap Suanmuang works with women in rural communities to create economic opportunities and prevent forest destruction.

Through the Appropriate Technology Association, Poonsap trains weavers to recognise and group plants and trees that produce natural dyes.

The women use these forest resources in an ecologically sustainable way to create naturally dyed, cloth-woven products.

They then market the products and build relationships with customers. This approach also protects human health as chemical dyes can cause burns when handled poorly by workers besides leading to environmental pollution when dumped into rivers and lakes.

More than 500 people in more than 20 villages work with Poonsap, providing women with additional income rather than relying only on remittances from their relatives in urban areas.

Environmental degradation

The two businesswomen above are social entrepreneurs. “These social entrepreneurs empower communities and individuals to address environmental degradation and strengthen their local economies,” says a report from Ashoka Innovators, an organisation that promotes social entrepreneurship internationally.

Just as business entrepreneurs create and transform huge industries, social entrepreneurs act as the change agents for society, seizing opportunities others miss in order to improve systems, invent and disseminate new approaches, and advance sustainable solutions that create social value.

Unlike traditional investors, social entrepreneurs primarily seek to generate “social value” rather than profits.

And unlike most non-profit organisations, their work is targeted not only towards immediate, small-scale effects, but rather sweeping long-term change.

“Social entrepreneurs identify resources where people only see problems. They view the villagers as the solution, not the passive beneficiary. They begin with the assumption of competence and unleash resources in the communities they’re serving,” writes David Bornstein, author of How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power Of New Ideas.

In Kenya, this idea is also developing as an increasing number of business people realise the importance of social entrepreneurship.

A growing number of Kenyans are using their talents to start social enterprises whose focus is the environment, health and social care, enterprise development, and education.

According to Mr David Cheboryot, a social enterprise trainer at Tangaza University College in Nairobi, social entrepreneurship is a growing sector in Kenya which is producing both economic and social benefits like creating jobs, providing training, and protecting the environment.

Innovative ways

“If you are interested in setting up a social enterprise, your chances of success will depend on how resourceful you are. You must be committed to identifying new services or products that benefit communities or society. You will need to find innovative ways to deal with often complex social problems. You will need drive and determination,” says the lecturer.

Ms Jacqueline Kiage is one of this new group of investors. A programme manager and social enterprise developer at Innovation Eye Centre Ltd, Ms Kiage says that acquiring basic skills in your line of business and doing research on the social needs of the people around you is a big step towards ensuring the financial sustainability of the investment.

“As a social entrepreneur, I decided to set up a business that addresses social problems, meet local community needs, and to try to bring about change. However, I still use similar skills and principles that entrepreneurs in the mainstream business world use. To me, this is a good approach to business,” she says.

By creating something that is commercially successful, she said social entrepreneurs “give something back” to society and it is through this way that they win their customers’ loyalty.

This, she adds, makes starting a social business a worthwhile career path.

“I believe that a society which only has business entrepreneurs would lack balance and a strong community spirit. We need social entrepreneurs who can shape opportunities and meet needs that others dismiss because it also creates a more diverse economy while still contributing to economic growth,” she told Money.

Before she started her eye care business, she had to acquire basic skills in her line of business.

“I enrolled for an MBA programme at Tangaza University College which I came to know through a friend. This has helped me a lot since at the end of the course you are needed to do a presentation in front of potential investors. It’s through it that I got several foreign investors who are interested in my idea.”

Innovation Eye Centre, the business she founded in Kisii County, is a social enterprise committed to eliminating preventable blindness in south western Kenya targeting peri-urban and rural areas.

Its aim is to offer services to communities through innovative, accessible, affordable, and quality comprehensive eye care services to all people irrespective of their economic status.

While she is the social enterprise development programme manager at the hospital, her husband, Daniel Kiage, an eye surgeon, is the medical director and eye specialist.

Mr Ronald Kefa is an up-and-coming social entrepreneur with his sights set on the construction industry.

He is the director and owner of Centsible Homes Ltd, but is looking into a partnership deal with Surelink International, which has taken root and meets his social entrepreneurship goals.

The company provides low-cost housing in a social and environmentally friendly manner, while at the same time providing the company with economic benefits, the hallmarks of social entrepreneurship.

Mr Kefa believes in business that pursues profit while at the same time addressing social, economic, and environmental issues.

“I have had a varied career which allowed me to develop technical skills and general business skills, especially in the construction industry. But I wanted to learn how people can minimise costs in the Kenyan housing market, so when I learnt about interlocking blocks, the less costly product that is now penetrating the market, I realised that it was important to obtain skills in social entrepreneurship,” he says.

He adds that when he took his time to research and at the same time study for an MBA, he could see its relevance to his business.

“I saw it as a chance to help create something that the community could value and enjoy. Actually, I now consider it more a vocation than a job.”