You’ve heard of business schools and boarding schools. But did you know that in the Philippines, we actually have a social entrepreneurship school… for the poor?
Yep we do and multinational companies are betting on it. The most recent case: Monsanto, a publicly traded multinational agriculture company, sponsored 30 students to undergo a two‑year enterprise management course offered by poverty alleviation movement Gawad Kalinga (GK) at its School for Experiential and Entrepreneurial Development (GK‑SEED). The scholars are set to graduate and change the face of rural areas.
GK‑SEED
Launched in August 11, 2014, GK‑SEED, which is located at the GK Enchanted Farm in Bulacan, aims to raise the next generation of agri‑entrepreneurs by training students to create social enterprises. It claims to be the first school for social entrepreneurship for the poor—a model for rural development through education.
“We don’t teach the poor employment,” said Mark Lawrence Cruz, director of GK‑SEED Philippines, in a statement. “We teach them to become employers.”
“It is the first school to be training people from the bottom of the pyramid, specifically the young to actually learn business,” Cruz added. GK‑SEED prepares students to enable rural job and wealth creation. Students undergo an intensive two‑year program with courses on character development, enterprise management, communications, business math, and agriculture.
SCHOLARS
Already, the batch of scholars are developing their own enterprises.
One girl, Gladys Parohinog, a farmer’s daughter who doesn’t have a permanent home in Cotabato and who grew up supporting herself, is developing an enterprise called Fabu‑roots, which makes products out of root crops. Meanwhile, John Paul Jose, a 22‑year‑old from Nueva Vizcaya, is working on an enterprise producing what he calls Oasis Chips. The enterprise is promoting the production of world‑class indigenous root crop products—after all, he himself belongs to a tribal community.
“I was conditioned at a young age that when you belong to a tribal community, you are not capable of doing something great,” he said. “It was like a line was drawn for the poor.” Today he says, schooling has help him “define my own line.”
Aside from the scholarship, Monsanto Philippines also built a two‑story dormitory in Bulacan. The company considers the project a “unique strategy towards ending poverty.” After all, who else could best innovate agricultural products than those from the grassroots?
For more information on how you can further support the School for Experiential and Entrepreneurial Development, email Josef at JFPMontinola@gawadkalinga.com.
