Social enterprises ‘the future’

Empowerment

He explained that by building business skills of sari-sari store owners and connecting them with companies, they are empowered to support themselves.

“As their stores grow, so will they, as individuals.”

Aquino said that as they grow their businesses, they also become better family members.

Microventures services microfinancing organizations and their clients through the Hapinoy Store program.

Aquino said that their company started with a dream to make the “lowly” sari-sari store powerful.

With the sari-sari store being at the bottom of the retail chain, Aquino said they want to bring hope to microentrepreneurs, about 800,000 of these being sari-sari stores.

He said organizing owners of these stores allowed them to create a network of sari-sari stores and “transform their mindsets” from being a poor, helpless store owner to an entrepreneur with a business that can be scaled up with proper management.

Resistance

While he admitted initial steps introduced to storeowners are often met with resistance, he said they will later on willingly implement more discipline in running their stores and see things differently.

The Hapinoy Program won the United Nations’ Project Inspire award against 400 other social enterprises. He and Ruiz were also named Asian social entrepreneur of the year by the World Economic Forum’s Schwab Foundation for social enterprises.

Aquino also joined the board of Rags2Riches in 2007, a business that helps underprivileged women weave rags and turn these into fashion accessories.

He hopes that in five to 10 years, a similar model of the Hapinoy Program will flourish in other developing countries. -Mia A. Aznar

Published in the Sun.Star Cebu, http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cebu/business/2012/03/15/social-enterprises-future-211459 ; March 16, 2012.