Festival for Good: Singapore’s first-ever festival celebrating social enterprises!

When we first got to know about the Festival for Good, where social entrepreneurs in Singapore are brought together to celebrate their spirit, innovation and passion to do good through their businesses. We thought that

THIS IS AN AMAZING IDEA!

We were watching a documentary about charity organizations helping out in Haiti 2010, it turns out that 6 years after the catastrophic event, the organizations are still there! According to the locals, charity organizations started to give out food, clothing and shoes which have good intentions but did not bring about overall good to the country.

Why?

This is because, when free rice was given, local farmers were no longer able to sell their rice at competitive prices (how do you compete with free rice?). Farmers stop farming. Likewise for tailors (due to free clothes) and shoemakers (due to free shoes) etc. As a result, the entire economy was not able to build itself up and continued to rely on the “free donations” from overseas.

This is an extreme example. But it highlights the importance of social enterprise.

Social enterprises uses a business model that helps a targeted group of people through training and employment. They help by “teaching others how to fish” and this model is sustainable, helps the individual and in the long run helps the overall economy as well.

Some of these social enterprises in Festival for Good help people with physical disabilities, special needs, youths-at-risk, elderly, disadvantaged/underprivileged, ex-offenders and more. Instead of merely “giving the fish”, they’re enabling them to be employable and integrate them back into the society.

AMAZING!

Which is why, we have so much respect for these organizations. Keep up the good work guys!

The event will be held on 20 August at JTC Launchpad, Timbre+ and Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE) Ideation Centre, and across social enterprises island-wide on 21 August.

If you have no plans as yet, why not make your way down to these events and support this amazing festival?

Day 1 – Festival
Date: 20 August 2016, Saturday
Time: 10am – 8pm
Location: JTC Launchpad, Timbre+ and ACE Ideation CentrePage 1

Day 2 – Learning Journeys
Date: 21 August 2016, Sunday
Time: 10am – 6pm
Location: Social enterprises island-wide

To these social enterprises, keep up the good work and have a successful Festival for Good! #partofthegood

For more details, visit Festival for Good and their Facebook page!