Carol hails from Taiwan(left) while Maria (right) is from Hong Kong.
Carol Chyau and Maria So started social enterprise Shokay long before the term became a buzzword in recent years.
Shokay, which is the Tibetan word for yak, is a lifestyle brand that designs stylish products made from soft yak down. By sourcing from Tibetan herders in Qinghai and employing women in rural areas, it helps promote sustainable income in rural China.
Shokay’s work allows indigenous herders to generate more direct income, preserve local culture, promote sustainable usage of the environment and promote community development work.
Carol was in Singapore the past November for TEDxKRP to share her experience.
From inspiration to execution
While doing their Masters in Public Administration at Harvard, the duo decided to put the business concepts they learnt into action. The pair went seeking for inspiration on two weeklong trips in Yunnan, China in January 2006. Read more
Government funding will be available from January next year to support promising social enterprises in their expansion plans, reported Channel NewsAsia (CNA).
This is in addition to the existing ComCare Enterprise Fund (CEF), which has been providing seed funding for startup social enterprises that provide employment and training for poor Singaporeans. Read more
At the World Entrepreneurship Forum held in Singapore, two social entrepreneurs were recognized at the Entrepreneurs for the World Awards ceremony this evening.
This year’s winner of the Social Entrepreneur Award is William Drayton, founder of Ashoka, who was the person to coin the term ‘social entrepreneurship’. Read more
The Unreasonable Institute promises to give you wings, not by feeding you cans of Red Bull, but by arming 25 lucky entrepreneurs with mentorship, funding, and networking opportunities.
The startup accelerator for social enterprises, located in Boulder, Colorado, is open to applications from around the world. Read more
When I spoke to French native Vincent Perrier-Trudov some weeks ago, two things stood out about him: One, he is very passionate about social entrepreneurship, and two, he comes up with bloody good analogies.
Vincent is the founder and international coordinator for Citizens for Social Business (CSB), an NGO started in July 2011 that aims to promote social entrepreneurship around the world.
Photo: Vincent (left) at the first CSB meeting in Paris. Courtesy of CSB
They have about 260 members now, and within Asia, they have representatives in Singapore, Malaysia, India, and Japan. Read more
Five entrepreneurs have been recognized as Social Entrepreneurs of the Year in Asia for 2011.
They hail from Cambodia, Japan, the Philippines and Pakistan, and address issues like healthcare, distribution of everyday goods to inaccessible places, nutrition in impoverished areas, and clean water supply. Read more
Entreprize, in cooperation with NTU Ventures and Social Enterprise Association is organizing Social Enterprise Challenge 2011. It is a start-up competition that focuses on social enterprises. The competition aims to create young social entrepreneurs as they come up with innovative and sustainable solutions to solve the social problems of today. There are no business plan submission required, but technical workshops, a 4-part of seminar series and constant mentorship from industry leaders. Read more
Post Museum, a social enterprise in Singapore that provides a platform for community causes and the arts, has closed shop on August 7, after four years of existence. The venue hosted a regular soup kitchen, NGO talks, and even a beer festival. It also has studio spaces for artists in residence.
According to newspaper Today, they are not the first of such cultural spaces to disappear recently. Blackhole, a community space focusing on music, lifestyle, and the arts, was shut down last September. Evil Empire, an eclectic arts space which holds events like a drawing contest and faux auction, followed suit in April this year. Read more
Do Business. Save the world. All in a day’s work?
If you have an idea how you could potentially ‘do well while doing good’, or if you already are working to get something off the ground and would like to get additional support and access to a whole ecosystem of like-minded individuals, come join the Rotary Youth Social Entrepreneurship Challenge 2011 (RYSEC). Read more
We met with Samuel, president of the Raffles Entrepreneurs Network last month, deciding to do so because of his article in Knowledge @ Wharton High School (KWHS).
We found it interesting to hear from the perspective of a young entrepreneur from Raffles Junior College. Below are his insights and experiences about entrepreneurship, taken from an article in KWHS (with permission): Read more
