ArTiCLe oN RaGs 2 RiCheS

We live in such fast-paced world—foods serve instantly, clothes being made ready-to-wear, relaxation come quick in a snap. In today’s era, one can never stop from moving because stopping will get you nowhere. Men and women both work for everyone does not want to let any opportunity to earn pass by and be taken for granted. For what everyone has in their minds—Power is through economic means. Just like what the contemporary renowned singer, Lana Del Rey, would sing from her National Anthem, ‘Money is the anthem of success.’ There lies the problem now.

Earning money nowadays is such a fast-paced thing, that you can easily earn money in an instant just by doing a particular task or so. But what is earning if it could not satisfy you and your personal happiness, would you still continue it? Does money make the world go round these days, or does the situation vary from each person? What is the real essence of money and how can people make something out of it, despite earning a little low from what is expected? These questions, in this article, we seek to answer.

Live fast, die young

When there is absence of light

When you close your eyes, what do you see? It is emptiness, absurdity. You see nothing and everything is black. Although black is considered as a colour by the many and apart from the understanding of everyone, black is never and will never be a colour. Black happens when there is absence of light. To some, it conveys evil and sorrow because this has been what the society has been constantly imposing. But what is black to me?

Black is beauty.

When there is no light, we only find darkness, and with the darkness should come our appreciation of it. We can never do something productive if we do not love black or mere darkness. Hence let me put everything all together now.

I equate light to money because we make our lives better and we do more productive things when we have it. Money is light because it can give hope to everyone, especially to those who are in dire need of it. Without it, almost everyone can never function; they cannot progress with what has been going on, like for example in a certain project when money resources get depleted, the project stops.

I see the absence of light as the absence of money, or at least the absence of the usual source of it. This is the part where one fails to perform functions because money has run out. This may come in various forms—unemployment, unpaid labour—and it may occur to anyone. But what does this all means? This is simply an analogy of what has been happening now; that despite the absence of light, one should still continue to strive harder. When realises the fact that he or she faces the same problems with other people, would they not think of joining forces together in other to let the problems perish and be gone by busting it?

Power to empower

In the fight towards the achievement of development, it will never be harnessed and it will never succeed if the efforts are not put together. The mere sense of togetherness brings something which others do not really feel because they choose to work alone. In working together towards the achievement of an objective, there is a big sense of empowerment which it brings forth to those involved; and that is what social enterprises bring on the table.

Historically, the concept of “social entrepreneurship” has its origins in the eighteenth and nineteenth century when philanthropic business owners had concerns for the welfare of their employees and attempted to improve their lives by improving their work skills, education and cultural life. The earliest scholar to have focused on the relationship between entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship was J Schumpeter which he discussed in his dissertation in the year 1911. Social entrepreneurship, (also known as ‘social enterprises,’) builds and develops local capacity which by then transforms the cultural context of communities/beneficiaries. By economic, it means that social enterprises bring forth tools and resources to augment productivity of its members. To add, coming from the study conducted by Alvord, et al. (2004), social enterprises conducts an empowering approach which then increases the right to be heard of the marginalised and amplifies their political influence. So much for the initial concepts, let us now dig in where I am driving at.

Inspiration turned advocacy

It once started from a mere observation turned into an inspiration and advocacy in July 2007. Reese Fernandez-Ruiz, an advocate of literacy (math, science and reading skills) in Payatas, one of the Philippines’ biggest dumpsites, did something that others would not even think of. Who would have thought of empowering women in Payatas by increasing their income for their family? Who would have thought that by eliminating the middle men who were the ones who took what the women in the place had worked for and earned 25 pesos per rug can give a lot of benefits to them? This is where the idea of social entrepreneurship bringing power to empower comes in; the idea of turning an inspiration to something that people can actually benefit from is what social entrepreneurship wants to dig in.

The story of Rags2Riches came to life when Fernandez-Ruiz called Rajo Laurel, one of the Philippines’ high end designers, and asked if he would be interested in participating in the project that she wanted to pursue—Rajo Laurel as the one who would solicit designs for the mothers to produce. To her surprise, he agreed. That was a breath of new life for the mothers of Payatas for when there was a design on board that meant many more designers would come in and invest on the project. Not only had that Fernandez-Ruiz called in Mr. Laurel. But she also called in supports from alumni, students and professors of Ateneo , De La Salle University and University of the Philippines.

At the present, Rags2Riches has three product lines: foot rugs, which was originally what the women does, a line of small purses and bags and higher-end designer line. As for the salaries that which the mothers take, each constituent gets almost 100 pesos per day for the foot rugs; and almost 400 pesos a day for the designer line.

What is at stake?

But what really drives Rags2Riches to do more can be put in this way—‘People need opportunity to be able to get out of poverty.’ Thus the social enterprise acts as an agent towards the betterment of its constituency; having given the fact that the enterprise has the power. The thing is that the enterprise involved is going to give power to its target constituency. Empowerment of someone who is not empowered is such a difficult thing to do because the source of power cannot be easily determined. But when an outside force, such that the social enterprise, takes charge and the leads the way, the one who is not empowered can then realise how it is that it can be empowered. This just goes to show the interconnectedness between the two ideas—that one cannot exist without the other (both the social enterprise and the constituency).

Under the context of development, we can truly say that the role that every social enterprise plays is a vital one. Why so? It is because of the following: (1) the communications strategy that every social enterprise is a key thing to look at. This will also go to how these enterprises gather up resources and partners in order to facilitate its programs and functions; (2) the targets. It is always a fact that each enterprise has its own unique purpose and agenda and the targets (sectors, communities/beneficiaries, and level) will always be a key thing to look at in order to fully understand a particular enterprise; (3) the indicators. In order to really prove and to really see how far the enterprise has gone through, it is right to look also at the indicators that every social enterprise wants to take part in pursuing development and progress.

What really is at stake is the owning power of the beneficiaries. It is true that in the case of the members of the Rags2Riches foundation, the beneficiaries earn enough to support their family for a day, given the monetary benefits that it can actually generate and the other perks that it gives. But the question of ownership is in question – How much does an actual member of the organisation has and owns from within the enterprise? Is it really the members who own the enterprise itself or are they really just part of it? This question can never be omitted because of another underlying question – How long will the partners be able to support the beneficiaries? Indeed, the question of sustainability can also be kicked in. If one day, life forbid to happen, the time that the partners gave up on the social enterprise for support, then where will the beneficiaries go to? The very best answer to this is the partners’ initiative. Even though the design for the products and the support goes in from the partners, the beneficiaries get trained and to manage and to lead the organisation. That is what is exceptional about the organisation; that the members are not limited to be the members only but they can be the leaders of it. Hence the question of ownership is answered, too. The organisation, simply, does not want to close itself from the partners. However, the organisation is first made for the beneficiaries and it is a must for the beneficiaries to take part of its management.

The call

Let us not be blinded by the fact that most of our people nowadays are in dire need of employment and income revenues for many of them, still, are not able to provide anything for themselves and especially for their family. What the story of Rags2Riches taught to us was that nowadays, men cannot be the only provider for the family because of the higher cost of living. Hence the wives, who usually stay at home and look after the children, can also do something productive in order for the family to gain more and to survive, especially that they have almost all the luxury of time to be engaged in such profit-generating activities. Despite living in a patriarchal society, it is a must to give women the chance to contribute something for their family’s survival, and this open-mindedness can be taken as a good source of development because everyone has the right to function and has the freedom to be of their own usefulness not just for their family but also for their community.

If there is one thing which separates a social enterprise from a traditional one, then it will be the benefits which it usually generates. Aside from the economic benefits that it generates, social enterprises generate social perks as well. It will not be termed as social enterprise if it does not give anything of social in nature. Rags2Riches has offered ‘quality of life’ program for the mothers. This means that in every product that each mother makes part of their income goes to their respective bank accounts that they can actually use for other purposes—social security, education or even health care. According to the founder, these things are not accessible to the poor. But when they are able to increase their income potential, the benefits go along as well.

As I was gathering materials and ideas to write, I came across this question—Can we actually consider the sense of unification as another social perks of social enterprises? If the sense of unification brings forth positive benefits to the constituency, then it can be considered as one. This is a great view point to look at and to consider because empowerment of the women in Payatas comes also from the notion of their togetherness. The main point in here is that more than the economic benefits that any social enterprise can generate and that it wants to focus, such as the Rags2Riches, social benefits cannot be omitted in this. It is like the two, from a social enterprise perspective, are interconnected with one another.