March 01, 2009

Cover Story

Got heart? They got it big
By Stella A. Estremera

THEIR photos look like they're having fun. And apparently they are. What with having to travel to scenic Palawan, lush Verde Island, and the rustic towns of Nueva Ecija and getting to mingle with the people there as part of their work.

But behind the playful aura they convey, they got heart, and pretty big ones, too.

For one, if Melissa Yeung had her way, she would be making indigenous peoples in Mindanao become entrepreneurs the AIM-way (that's Asian Institute of Management, for you).

A graduate of Development Studies in Ateneo de Davao University, Melissa was cracking her brain over what can help poor people get out of the rut they are in, and remain out of the rut. But her baccalaureate doesn't prepare her for this, and thus was formed Got Heart Foundation for her to gain entry into the entrepreneurship program of AIM and learn. She is officially the executive director of Got Heart, which means she gets to do all the work, including janitorial at times.

"You cannot qualify for the entrepreneurship program at AIM if you do not have your own enterprise," she explained in an interview the night before she was to return to Manila to prepare for her foundation's "Seal" program for local lumads. Seal means Social Enterprise Academy for the Lumads.

She enrolled at AIM after making a mark with her foundation, which saw her and her small team helping communities appreciate quality work and saving up for major expenses like tuition.

Having completed her master's just last month, she and her team are now not just trying to help more communities make sustainable livelihoods, but become real thinking, analyzing, planning entrepreneurs.

"Mahal naman kasi mag-aral sa AIM, kaya hindi pwedeng dalhin natin sila doon. Kami na lang magturo," she said.

And she has found an enthusiastic in popularizing entrepreneurship in her AIM mentor, Dr. Eduardo A. Morato Jr., presently president of ABS-CBN Bayan Foundation Inc. and chair of the ACE Center for Entrepreneurship and Management Education of the AIM.

In her search for answers to what is keeping poor people poor, she always stumbled on one factor -- sustainability.

Livelihood programs just cannot be sustained beyond a program's lifetime, and poor communities usually end up as they were before. Very much like majority of agrarian reform beneficiaries who end up with no land after they have sold these off for lack of capital to keep their lands profitable.

The answer is in fair trade. Partnering and linking up communities, at the same time establishing standards that the products have to meet.

"We call it Shindig that means Sustainable, Holistically Developed, Independent and Dignified. We want communities to be that," Melissa said.

"Hindi yung pag-alis niyo, wala na rin yung community," she added.

Sad to say, this is the case with a lot of livelihood assistance for poor communities all over the country. Their thrust then is to introduce social enterprise, build the capacity of the communities to produce, and then share the best practices.

For their program here that will start this month, six members of different indigenous groups from Mindanao will become part of a program that will help them appreciate the resources they have and recognize its potentials, as well as craft economically sustainable enterprises for their people.

Among the six are a Mamanwa, a Tagabawa, a Subanen, and a trainer from the National Commission for Indigenous Peoples (NCIP).

"Like this Subanen from Pigsalabukan Bangsa Subanen, their group no longer wants to accept programs from funding agencies because yung mga policies from funding agencies do not fit into their needs," she said. The aim then is to make the IPs themselves craft the policies for their enterprise to make this fit according to their beliefs, their norms, and their culture.

"But we really have to help them see what they have. Ang madalas kasi nilang sabihin is when a big businessman will be interested in their land, hindi nila makita ano yung gusto ng investor sa lupa nila. They should recognize the potentials of their resources," she added.

They have made partners of communities in Nueva Ecija, who does intricate crocheted bags for them; in Verde Island who provides them with woven bags, and; Palawan, too.

They also have partners in business and academe, and a lot of others who "Got Heart" but do not know what to do.

The young foundation has five major endeavors: Social Entrepreneurship where they help a community in product development, marketing and running a whole enterprise; Got Jobs provides trainings and scholarship programs to make people employable; Go Earth are Eco-Adventure Tourism and Environmental Programs; Alkansya is a savings programs for grassroots financial management, and; Project Tinman where they strive to make everyone realize that they too got a heart.
Melissa admits that she had to borrow some funds from her parents when she started off the foundation, although she was quick to admit that she has already paid this loan.

"Kasi kung foundation you need P1 million 'di ba?" she said. And so, with her savings and some money from her parents, she went on to link up with communities, which she managed to do through her network of friends and acquaintances in the business world. Their network is such that they are also into outsourcing corporate social responsibility programs for companies.

"Some companies find it hard to come up with CSRs, and so we make for them, we earn from that too," she said. From someone who "headed" the family's CSR "department", ("actually ako lang isa doon," she said), and managed to make that CSR earn their company a considerable share of the market, Melissa demonstrates that CSRs can really make good business sense.

The family company manufactures Katinko Mentholated Ointment.

When she was formally given a role there, she did away with "promo girls" and instead gathered manghihilots as their "promo" under project "Healot".

"Promo girls will just push your product but not know much about it. But if you get the manghihilot to use your product, they will be the ones recommending it to their customers and people will believe them more," she said. Before she stepped out and put up her own foundation, the "Healots" already had a considerable share of their sales.

That done. Now, she has Got Heart.

"By bringing out the heart in each one and by strategically linking the right hearts together to create a sound support system, Got Heart aims to create endless opportunities for genuine social development and environmental sustainability to become a reality," their website says.

And like the Tinman in the Wizard of Oz who believed he did not have a heart because he was made of tin, Got Heart Foundation is showing everyone whose lives they touch that everyone does have a heart.

In the meantime, the friends she made at Mindanawon, a scholarship program for indigenous peoples, are looking forward to coming up with a really cool marketable planner next year, and some story books as well. Indeed, sometimes, it just takes a little heart to start off to the untried. After that, enthusiasm, commitment to grow, and the capability to keep on growing will carry on the chosen enterprise.

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