Singapore Launches New Youth Social Entrepreneur Program

Written by on March 13, 2010 in Asia, Entrepreneurship, Featured - 4 Comments

Singapore International Foundation has been around since 1991 carving out greater community understanding on the western seaboard, but this year marks the first time they’ve instituted a camp for young, aspiring social entrepreneurs. In partnership with Volans Asia, they’ve launched a five-day camp at the YWCA Fort Canning Lodge in Singapore to cultivate the basics of running a social enterprise.

Students ages 18-25 living and studying in Singapore, but from other parts of Asia, such as China and Vietnam, were encouraged to organize a team and send in a business proposal that includes the creation of a viable social impact. Based on their proposals, various groups are selected to participate in the retreat.

“Through the Young Social Entrepreneurs program, we hope to build and foster a regional network of Asian youth interested in the field of social enterprise,” Singapore International Foundation explained. For their efforts, winning teams will receive a grand prize of $3,000.

Examples of proposals include marketing skills training to basket-weavers in Cambobia, a mushroom cultivation business that uses coffee ground waste, and an enterprise that donates a pair of shoes for every pair purchased.

Industry practitioners that will be coaching the groups include Mr Bjorn Lee, Chief Executive Officer, JABFISH; Mr Douglas Abrams, Managing Partner, Extream Ventures; Mr Lee Junior, Managing Director, Silver Capital Investment Pte Ltd; Ms Jessica Tan, Partner, McKinsey & Company Singapore; Mr Martin Tan, Executive Director, Halogen Foundation; Ms Nancy Frohman, General Manager, SingHealth Foundation; and Ms Sarah Mavrinac, President, aidha.

I say this a lot, but it’s always nice to see the social enterprise movement alive and kicking in all parts of the world – we really are a “social earth”.

Singapore International Foundation

Through shared ideas, skills, and experiences, Singapore International Foundation uplifts lives and creates greater understanding between Singaporeans and world communities.

Ashley

Ashley is a friend of anyone who is fighting the good fight for social change. She has worked for environmental advocacy in Montana, poverty eradication in Guatemala, and peace and conflict resolution in Northern Ireland. She now lives in Bilbao in the Basque region of Spain where she teaches International Relations English and is pursuing her Masters in Language Acquisition in Multicultural Settings.

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  • http://hareton.myopenid.com/ samuel

    Very exciting since the first time I heard about it in the piece of news found by http://www.mp3hunting.com SE and looking forward to participating and benefiting.
    I strongly believe such platform provide a conducive environment for founders to grow.
    Sometimes we just need to get out of being stuck behind the computer looking for answers and share our problems with fellow like minded people and find not just answers but breakthroughs.

  • http://stearnsandfoster.org stearns and foster

    eunahwqprmtnoyk, stearns and foster, YeoNtDGMLMXpxutXpmcS.

  • http://twitter.com/colourcrash Colour-Crash.com

    Nice prediction there Daniel :)

    Here’s what I feel. All of this shows that these foreign investments (incubators, funds, mentors) do look highly upon Singapore as an area worthy of growing and nurturing global startups (or they could have been giving a load of grants and incentives, which made moving to Singapore financially viable :P ). This is really auto promising and now, we can all stop complaining of the lack of credible mentors in the ecosystem. It’s a great opportunity whole ecosystem and I’m definitely excited about it :)