Center for Social Initiative and Management, Bangalore

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Reflections on Global Social Entrepreneurship

Every week we spend three hours at a session hosted by the Center for Social Initiative and Management (CSIM).  This week our own program was featured in the session.  As preparation for this presentation, Professor Moledina had us answer the following four questions.  I answered them for the CSIM session and then revised my answers afterwards based upon insights I gained from our discussion.  Here’s how they turned out.

1. What do you think Global SE is?

• GSE is all about context.  Global = contextual.  This context could be cultural, geographical, socioeconomic, gender, values, etc.  When we come to volunteer at Dream a Dream and EnAble India we need to understand the contexts that these organizations are working in.  Once we understand the contexts we learn how to find solutions that are contextually appropriate. 
• GSE is also all about having a special mindset.  It’s a learning mindset rather than a “I’m going to give you an answer” mindset.  Asking questions.  Observing what’s around us and what’s been done before.  Could something that was successful somewhere else be modified to fit the special context we’re in?  Part of this learning mindset is understanding the ecosystem we are are in.
• Because GSE is all about understanding context and having a learning mindset, it becomes a highly collaborative experience.  In this collaborative experience we are avoiding hierarchy and avoiding arrogance. 
• In the larger scope, global social entrepreneurs envision systems-level change.  I like Bill Draken’s quote about changing the entire fishing industry rather than giving someone fish/teaching them how to fish (I used this in a previous post about Ashoka Fellows).  In order to achieve systems level change, global social entrepreneurs need to think outside of the box.
• The systems level change means that the models for change need to self-sustaining models.  They need to empower those who are experiencing the social problem and make sure that the solution is rooted in the entire community.  When one person or one NGO leaves the positive changes should not disappear.
• Wooster’s GSE program is about trying to actively create change rather than just talk about it.  So much of academics is talking, but sometimes you just can’t understand the full scope of a situation unless you’ve experienced it yourself.  Once we’ve participated in the experiential learning process, then we can start devising solutions.
• Finally, Wooster’s GSE program is about personal growth.  What do I learn about myself?  What do I enjoy working on?  Where do I fit in to help affect change?

2. Why did you enroll in it?

I chose to participate in GSE because I’m interested in social justice.  However, I don’t just want to talk about social justice.  I want to do social justice.  If you received a letter from me in the spring you might remember me mentioning this.  At Wooster we do lots of talking about social problems but not as much action.  I think that action is just as important, especially in an academic setting where you are learning skills and methods to take your forward in your life. 

I also chose to enroll in GSE because I thought it would put me out of my comfort zone.  I’m used to being a volunteer in American NGOs and doing labor that pretty much anybody could do.  In GSE I am completing a very intensive project in an entirely different context.  I wanted to make myself do something new like that. 

3. What was your project?

Sam and I worked at EnAble India which is an NGO that works to train and then find employment for disabled adults.  We are finishing up a report that proposes the creation of a knowledge-sharing network for ten Indian NGOs that work for employment of persons with disabilities (PWD).  By sharing knowledge (including best practices) the hope is that these NGOs can better achieve their own specific goals while also working for the common good.  In order to devise our report, Sam and I did lots of research on effective NGO networks.  We also interviewed a number of potential member NGOs to hear their thoughts on knowledge-sharing and see what knowledge they could provide to other NGOs.

4. How has this project affected how you think about working for social change?

I have learned a lot about how I fit into the social change spectrum while working on this project.  I’ve learned that I do not consider myself a social entrepreneur.  Social entrepreneurs work 24/7 and are usually very intense and extroverted people.  I am not like that.  Maybe I can be a different type of person that works for social change.  Or, maybe I should redefine my notion of “social entrepreneur.”  Nonetheless, I know that I am more of a “hands” worker rather than a “head” worker (which is ironic because I chose to attend a liberal arts college where we pretty much only do head work).  I want to be out in the field carrying out the programs rather than thinking up how to do them.  And I’m okay with being this type of person.  I continue to believe that I want a large part of my life to be working for social change.

Conclusions

There is no right answer to what GSE is.  This is just what I’ve gathered so far from our seminar, this internship, and from talks with people we’ve met along the way.  I have done a lot of personal reflection during this experience and I will continue to reflect even after I get on a plane in one week.  I don’t think that my notion of GSE will just stay as what I’ve written above.  It’s still an incomplete picture.  Like most things in my head, it will change.

Traffic and Approaches to Development

Read a post by Kipaya about development here. 

Lalbagh Botanical Gardens, Bangalore

Cleaning up after Bangalore 10K

Saahas is a social enterprise in Bangalore that is working to solve the city's waste management problems.  They organization is made up of twenty women who do a variety of waste collection and sorting programs around the city.  We learned yesterday that they were responsible for cleaning up the waste generated at the Bangalore 10K that I wrote a post about a few weeks ago.  See photos on facebook of this clean-up effort here.  While it does not justify the waste generation of the event, it is nice to know that an NGO has filled the need to make Bangalore cleaner.

Social Entrepreneurship, Ashoka Fellows, and Where I Fit In

Our program is called Global Social Entrepreneurship.  So, naturally, I should be thinking a lot about social entrepreneurship.  It seems though that the more I learn about social entrepreneurship the less I know about it.  This post will hopefully help me organize some of my knowledge and thoughts about SE.

I’ve learned a fair amount about social entrepreneurship in the context of the Ashoka Foundation.  The Ashoka Foundation was started in 1980 by Bill Drayton and is a platform to provide social entrepreneurs with resources and networking.  For Ashoka, a social entrepreneur is someone who has an innovative idea to solve a social problem with the ability to create systemic change.  Social entrepreneurs are very creative people who devote their whole self to making social change a reality (this is where the entrepreneurial quality comes in).  There is a quote by Drayton that helped me better understand social entrepreneurs when we were learning about it in our spring seminar.  It was again repeated by a woman from the Ashoka Foundation that we met when we first arrived in Bangalore:

“Social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish or to teach how to fish.  They will not stop until they have revolutionized the fishing industry.”

The Ashoka Foundation elects leading social entrepreneurs to become Ashoka Fellows via a rigorous selection process.  There are over 350 Ashoka Fellows in India alone.  Shanti Raghavan, the founder of EnAble India, is the Ashoka Fellow that I have personally worked most closely with.  She started EnAble India in 1999 after witnessing the difficulties her brother (who is visually impaired) had when trying to find employment despite having great qualifications.  This was a social problem that she wanted to change.  Her innovative idea was to start providing training for persons with disabilities that matched what was needed by the employers. 

At EnAble India, candidates (the people with disabilities) are registered and then an analysis is done to see what type of job would best suit the candidate.  The candidate then receives the proper training for the job and EnAble helps place them with an employer.  Moreover, EnAble visits the employers themselves to come up with “workplace solutions” that will make that company accessible for someone with a disability.  A workplace solution could be something as simple as screen reading technology for someone who is visually impaired.  Once a disabled person gains employment, EnAble’s job is not complete.  They continue with post-placement reviews.  EnAble also does trainings with employers to so that workers in the company can understand how to work with a disabled person.

EnAble India trains its candidates very well.  When a person with a disability is placed into a company by EnAble India, they become a change agent.  This is where Shanti’s ideas begin to create systemic change.  Employers see that a disabled person can do excellent work and they then begin to want to hire PWD just because of their skills, not necessarily to fill quotas.  This starts a process where disabled people can have more than just employment.  They can have economic independence.  They can have dignity because they enjoy their work and their work is valued by others.  They can have a livelihood.  They can begin to teach people that disability is just one part of a larger diversity of human beings.

Talking with Shanti in meetings has been very inspiring for me.  She is truly driven by her vision of dignity for all persons with disabilities.  She has countless ideas about how to work on these social problems and she is constantly networking and partnering with others to work for social change.  Working with Shanti and learning about her path with EnAble India has really shown me the power of someone who is a social entrepreneur.  It is great to see that people like her have become Ashoka Fellows.  (And, as someone who was brought up with an empowering all-girls high school education, it is great to see that a large number of Ashoka Fellows are women.)

Since I’ve arrived in Bangalore I have been thinking a lot about where I fit in in terms of social entrepreneurship.  Not everyone is a social entrepreneur.  I do not consider myself to be one.  If you have read any of my blog posts you know that I am passionate about working for systemic change.  However, I don’t have any innovative ideas to a social problem and I don’t have the entrepreneurial skill set like social entrepreneurs do to create the systemic change.  Or at least I don’t have these things right now.  So is social entrepreneurship the only way to create systemic change?  What can I do in terms of helping to create the systemic change?  I reflect on it every day.  I don’t have any answers yet, nor do I think I will by the time I leave India.  But that doesn’t mean I’m not thinking about it.

About Food and Livelihoods, by Sarah

Check out Sarah's post on the Global SE blog to hear her thoughts on our Russel Market experience last weekend along with her experience in general in India.  Sarah, a rising Wooster senior, is a great addition to the GSE team.  She and Kipaya are working with Dream a Dream, an NGO that helps teach life skills to underprivileged children in Bangalore.