BY: FERLIZA C. CONTRATISTA
CEBU CITY, March 18 (PIA) --- The
social enterprise sector here recently met to come up in Cebu City with a
common rehabilitation strategy for the marginalized sector in places
affected by typhoon Yolanda.
Dr. Marie M. Dacanay of the Institute
for Social Entrepreneurship in Asia (ISEA), convenor of the conference,
said it is faster to deliver rehabilitation efforts to the affected sector
through social enterprises.
“Social enterprises are wealth-creating
organizations but are socially-driven,” Dacanay said.
She said that social enterprises,
unlike non-government organizations, does not rely on funds and also
unlike businesses, they help create wealth for the poor.
Dacanay said they drafted a
statement and a plan that is aimed to boost local economies in Leyte,
Panay, Zamboanga, and also in northern Cebu.
“There is unfortunately a low level of
organizing the poor, it is not enough that we provide financial assistance but
we enable them to be players in their own field.
The group then came up with a
declaration in the activity they dubbed as Social Enterprise Rehabilitation
Visioning and Engagement (SERVE).
“We launch the Reconstructive
Initiative through Social Enterprise (RISE) as a multisectoral platform to
support the development of a vibrant social enterprise sector to work on
recovery, restoration, rehabilitation focused on farmers, laborers, fishers,
indigenous people etc,” according to the declaration.
Among their plans are reviving of the
sari-sari store, involvement of disabled persons in reforestation, and putting
up of capital for women.
The participating social enterprises include ISEA, Oxfam, Peace
and Equity Foundation (PEF), Foundation for Sustainable Society Inc (FSSI),
Foundation for These-Abled Persons, Philippine Business for Social Progress
(PBSP), Philippine Coffee Alliance (PCA), Philippine Social Enterprise Network
(PhilSen), Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM), VICTO National
Cooperative and Federation, World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO) and Ateneo de
Manila University School of Government. (rmn/FCC/PIA-Cebu)