– 4 May 2010

Changemakers. The journey of a thousand miles in a single week.

Wednesday and Thursday

This blog post is meant to present some things about the Changemakers Spring School. Time flied while we were learning together about social entrepreneurship. There were some people who did not attend all trainings during the whole program. Who knows, maybe we have made something wrong (if this is the case, Changemakers truly apologize) or maybe the Changemakers Spring School just didn’t fit them. However, a strong team of 20 participants formed while attending our school. They all have different personalities, likes or pastimes, but at the same time all of them have a common feature: the desire to change something around them.

Wednesday

The first training was held by Andreea Floroiu from Euro26, which was actually a more formal introduction in the subject of social entrepreneurship. The participants talked about themselves, some teams have been made and they found out what were the differences between management, CSR, entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship. The session ended in lively debates and discussions. In the evening we stayed in the typical Romanian atmosphere at “Carul cu bere, where the people indulged themselves in the famous “papanasi”, drank beer and listened to traditional Romanian songs played at traditional instruments.

Thursday

Thursday was to be a difficult – emotionally speaking – day for both the organisers and the participants. We have visited Motivation.SRL and saw exactly how a social enterprise looks, inside out. The kind people from Motivation really went to great lengths in order to make us take advantage of everything there was to be seen. We talked to Anca Beudean, Elena Filip and other key employees at Motivation who presented us the main features of their work and who patiently answered to all our questions. Then, we have visited the social homes that Motivation provides for 40 children with mental or physical disabilities, the therapeutic centre and the recreational one, where every Changemaker had the chance to paint next to some special children from Motivation.

What did the Changemakers feel afterwards? See below:

“This day was very active and we had the chance to learn through real life experiences and incredible examples”

„I felt both powerless and highly motivated for the future”

„The trip to Motivation was very cognitive, educative, I can say that I am another person now”

„I am more open minded thanks to Motivation visit”

„I apreciate the Motivation emplyees and hope to finance sometime in the future their foundation”

„I realised the fact that people that get more satisfaction from helping others rather than having lots of money actually exist”

„Visiting Motivation was really inspiring. There I saw a different life style that made me think about my true mission in life”

„The trip to Motivation was a life – changing experience. It opened my eyes”

In the afternoon Changemakers discussed about the SWOT analysis of a social enterprise, while the evening found us dancing in “El Comandante”.

For pictures, you can visit ASER’s Facebook profile :P

-To be continued-

Meet the NEW CHANGEMAKERS! – 22 April 2010

These people have started the trainings of our Spring School! Be proud of them, they are the new Changemakers!

Babcinetchi Andrei

Badea Veronica

Baicus Gabriel Iulian

Belu Anca

Bratescu Monica

Kartsev Alexey

Listes Adriana

Mihalcea Roxana

Mincu Radulescu George

Mindra Laura

Moise Vlad

Neacsu Rocsana Mihaela

Neagu Carmen

Paraschiv Ana

Popescu Ioan Andrei

Popescu Mara

Popescu Mihaela

Simion Dumitrita

Thuy Linh Ngo

Tifor Roxana

Tsikalski Rostislav

Tudor Catalin

Vlasceanu Sergiu

Flashback on ”Meet the Changemakers” – 21 April 2010

Tuesday came, went by and the same happened with “Meet the Changemakers”. Laura Sgarcitu, Mircea Mocanu, Leslie Hawke, Cristian Ispas and Raed Arafat presented their vision about social entrepreneurship in their speeches. The participants asked a lot of interesting questions and the answers given provided us with a greater insight into the topics presented. Everybody left knowing a lot more about social entrepreneurship while the examples given and the motivational discourses made their faces beam with smile. 

Laura Sgarcitu

The International Youth Conference, “Meet the Changemakers” began, as planned, with Laura Sgarcitu. She had a lovely speech in which she touched upon the post-industrial society – our society – in which consumption is not only material: the people are also consuming information or entertainment. Another point she made was that pollution and the disappearance of the social cohesion have become great issues nowadays. Additionally, the weather – a boring topic in the past, which used to be a conversational artifice, is nowadays in the spotlight because of the way in which it manifests.

We are responsible for our own fate

Laura underlined that our fate is completely our responsibility. While in the past a person living in the slums was called “unfortunate”, now the name is “loser”, which is another illustration of the change in people’s perceptions and mentalities. She also touched upon the fact that the first volunteering act has been made after the World War I, in 1920, when a group of soldiers of more nationalities rebuilt a destroyed village.

Coca Cola about Happiness

In the last part of Laura’s presentation, she referred to a marketing study the Coca Cola Company made, which showed that the most important contributors to happiness are family (77%) and friends (15%) for adult population. The situation changes for young people, who seem to consider family and friends equally important. Moreover, Romania was found to be on the 5th place on the ranking of the most happy countries in the world. Another interesting fact presented was that eating is one of the happiest moments for 38% of Romanians, percentage above the world average.

Mircea Mocanu

Private, Public and Social Sector. Business Incubation

After a short break, Mircea Mocanu started his speech. He talked to us about the social and the entrepreneurial sector, about business incubation and also gave us some examples of social enterprises in Romania. The business incubator is the place for start-ups to grow and to find help with accounting, space, or other problems a small business might encounter. Mircea Mocanu said “You need a baby-sitter in the first months of your life as an entrepreneur”. The social businesses he mentioned were a cardboard enterprise, who is currently boxing also for BMW, and a scuba-diving authorised course in Sf. Gheorge. The main point he made was that the social entrepreneur is concerned primarily with the development of the community, trying to invest as much as possible into the business.

Leslie Hawke

Leslie Hawke defined the social entrepreneur as someone who finds a new solution to an old problem. She mentioned George McDonald, a person working in the private sector who got upset about the homeless people in NY. They seemed to be everywhere and George was not the person to stand by and do nothing. He started bringing them sandwiches every night and he continued doing that for two whole years. Although the people were happy to receive the food, they were saying that what they really wanted was to get a job. “A job builds confidence and dignity” said Leslie, also quoting from Jefferson, who said that “I believe in luck and the harder I work, the more I have of it”. Then, George started addressing the problem of the homeless people and, against all odds, he managed to help them integrate into the society. No one thought that the homeless, many of them having been abused, having emotional traumas or drug addictions, could be trusted with a minimum wage job. Nonetheless, they were wrong. George managed to turn around the lives of many homeless people by helping them find a job.

Ovidiu Rom – Keeping Children in School

Leslie started then talking about her own mission as a social entrepreneur. She came to Bacau, Romaina and she was shocked to see children begging in the street. In US, this could have never happened, as there are very strong regulations concerning child protection. One child she had been seeing from the window for three days was begging bare foot in one intersection in Bacau. She took him to a shelter for homeless children, but three days after, the child’s mum appeared and told her that the kid’s begging was the only source of income for their family. Leslie then thought about solving the problem of employment for poor people, since she believed that the mothers would prefer to work themselves and not force their children to beg in the streets. This is how it all started. Now, the association Ovidiu Rom is making an awareness campaign, trying to address the problem of the Roma children begging and also of the decreasing level of literacy in Romania. Besides that, the association came with all sorts of innovative ideas in order to keep the children in school, like giving the mothers food coupons for 100% school attendance of their children.

Cristian Ispas

Cristian Ispas from Motivation presented the path their social enterprise had to conquer from the beginning to where they are now. At first they only had a 5 x 5 meters workshop to produce wheelchairs. Besides having a Peer Group Training Program, where people with disabilities are teaching other people, recently injured, how to deal with practical situations in life or how to use the wheelchair, there are lots of complementary services Motivation provides to their clients. In 2009, Motivation SRL managed to have a 30 000 Euro net profit. They estimate that there are 5000 new wheelchair users every year, Motivation supplying 1000 wheelchair per year. Another astonishing fact Cristian Ispas presented was that officially there are 600 000 people with disabilities in Romania, but the world estimation is that 10 % of the population has disabilities in one way or another.

RAED ARAFAT

The Road to Success

Raed Arafat started his speech by mentioning that in 1990 there were lots of problems in the medical system which made it totally inefficient. Dr Raed cast a spell on the whole conference room and even if I was supposed to jot down some aspects of his speech, he simply hypnotised us with his words. Consequently, the paragraphs below are going to present some of his greatest achievements, in a random order.

First of all, Dr Arafat had to face a lot of resistance while trying to develop the emergency service in Romania. This is why he was saying “believe in what you want, because this is the only way you can defend yourself”. There were many obstacles and hurdles that Raed Arafat encountered while trying to implement his idea. He moved from Cluj to Targu Mures, had lots of fights with medical chiefs but he never stopped the “changemaking”. The emergency service started developing after they became a part of the fire department.

Some of the memorable words Raed Arafat voiced during his presentation were “ the best defense is to attack” or “It is easier to ask forgiveness than ask for permission”. Raed Arafat and his team also started the first resuscitation room in the space where the surgeons were changing their clothes. Their first statistical achievement was the lowering of the mortality rate by 50% in their first year of activity. Some Scottish doctors helped Raed and brought a whole modular building from the UK to Targu Mures, which they managed to build in only one month. Their next step was to buy a fully functional ambulance. They managed to raise 100 000 Dollars from August to December in 1998. When the financial ministry asked them to pay the VAT for the ambulance, saying that otherwise the ministry is going to confiscate it, 60 000 people signed Dr Raed Arafat’s petition for not paying the VAT since the ambulance was bought from money donated by Romanian people. Raed Arafat told us that change can not be brought about without disturbing someone, but with determination and faith in your idea, everything can be surpassed. Just like he illustrated.

Meet the Changemakers II – 20 April 2010

Cristian Ispaş is the general manager of Motivation. Motivation is a Romanian NGO founded in 1995 in order to support the disabled children and adults. Their programs are focused on integrating social, educational and professional consultancy support, mediating integration in work, day care center or leisure activities – adapted sports or cultural events. From 1995 Motivation Romania has restored the hope for a fulfilling life and for freedom of movement to over 2500 children and adults with disabilities.

Elena Lotrean is a consultant at Future Capital Romania and is also the president of CRISPUS Youth NGO from Sibiu. She is a very kind person and was happy to embark and support our journey on the road to social entrepreneurship.

Raed Arafat is the founder of SMURD, an emergency service. He came in Romania for studying Medicine and since then he has been an active participant in our society. SMURD was first initiated in Targu-Mures and now it is present in many other counties like Bucharest, Valcea, Bihor, Sibiu, Neamt etc. Besides the fact that through SMURD a lot of human lives are saved every day, one of Raed Arafat’s greatest achievements is that many people involved in SMURD work there as volunteers, learning and practicing how to save others in an emergency. Developing SMURD into what it is today was difficult, but Raed Arafat likes to say that he is suffering from the best disease, which is optimism.

There are lots of things to say about these people and surely it would take us pages and pages to talk about them. But there is an easier way: come to our Conference “Meet the Changemakers”.

Meet the Changemakers I – 18 April 2010

It was a busy and full week but this made us all enter into the  Changemakers’ spirit. Our conference is about to take place so we thought you might be asking what is going to happen there. Well, we think it is time to write some things about our speakers – some extraordinary people, with a lot of experience in social entrepreneurship. What are they doing? They are concerned with change in some way or another, as you shall see from below.

Laura Sgarcitu is Public Affairs & Communication Specialist for Coca-Cola HBC Romania. Her work includes being involved in many Community Programs. The company is oriented especially in the direction of conserving and protection of the water, the main substance for their products. Projects like “Verde 003” (Green 003), “Fiecare picatura conteaza” (Every drop counts), “Cartea Dunarii Albastre” (The Book of the Blue Danube) are the most recent ones, but Laura Sgarcitu says that “Verde 003” is the closest to her heart. “Verde 003” is a project that has been directed to the Dorna River for 3 years and which tries to follow 2 lines: education in volunteering spirit and the greening of the river bank.

Mircea Mocanu is the Head of Socio-Economic Section at United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). UNDP is the UN’s global development network, an organization advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. UNDP addresses five critical issues: human and economic development, nation building, sustainable resources and the environment, infectious diseases, conflicts and natural disasters. Often these challenges are interlinked, reinforcing each other. UNDP designs programs and partnerships in response to this interdependence.

Leslie Hawke is the Co-Founder of Ovidiu Rom Association. She was a manager for over 20 years in the USA. In 2000 she came for the first time in Romania, in Bacau, like a volunteer for Peace Corps. In 2004 Leslie Hawke and Maria Gheorghiu founded the Ovidiu Rom Asociation in order to offer equal opportunities to under-privileged people in Romania, especially helping poor children to go to school. Ovidiu Rom helps schools and communities successfully integrate impoverished children into the education system at the appropriate age. The goal of Ovidiu Rom’s national initiative Fiecare Copil în Școală (Every Child in School) is to eradicate illiteracy and primary school abandonment in Romania – and to provide at-risk children with an adequate skill-set to move on to high school and succeed there too.

Pinwheels everywhere – 15 April 2010

Sorry for not posting anything for a couple of days, but Hank was really busy. You’ll completely understand him after reading this post.

On Monday Hank started being promoted, but only through the pinwheels. The Changemakers have a stand in the Commerce building but probably you have already received a pinwheel in the other ASE buildings as well. Of course you noticed the three huge pinwheels in ASE or the letters CHANGEMAKERS hanging between two trees, in front of the Gerlads Hotel. This has meant a lot of work.

On Tuesday, even more people were asking for the pinwheels. The demand was quite high, all the more since the Changemakers’ pinwheels were attached to our beloved ASERTIUNEA, the magazine our organization published. The pinwheels and ASERTIUNEA vanished some seconds after they appeared, so we started teaching people how to make their own pinwheels at the stand.

This Wednesday was a very special one. We wanted to promote our project by riding bikes, and this is what we’ve done even if the cycloteque was not yet open. It will open tomorrow, but we were some 15 strong Changemakers willing to make them change their minds, which they did (only to their advantage, cause everybody was asking where we rented the bikes from). So, on the road to Social Entrepreneurship, we spread pinwheels all across the center of the Bucharest, making people turn their heads around after the strange and funny bikers.

Finally, we received the flyers and the posters (in printed form) so the students could enjoy them today as well. If you haven’t received a flyer yet, just come to school and we will find you! Last but not least, your eyes will be delighted to see everywhere in ASE the famous Hank as we have promised.

Changemakers. Making of. – 9 April 2010

Have you ever been part of a team who was supposed to coin something, a name, an image, a story? If you haven’t, you will see in the following lines the story of the Changemakers’ Team trying to find their way through the multitude of great ideas (and bitter criticism). If you have had such an experience before, you’ll find it encouraging and amusing to know that we, too, had to go through the same painful but exhilarating process.

First of all, we had a great battle to fight when the issue of the tag line arose. What is entrepreneurship? [Brainstorming] What do we want people to feel when they see our project’s name and tagline? [Brainstorming] What are the key concepts, the key words that define social entrepreneurship? [You guessed! Brainstorming again…] After a long night, after working in groups, after debating and discussing, we saw the light at the end of the tunnel:

Changemakers. More than just business. Social impact.

(Applause and standing ovations for that who voiced these words).

Morning came. Time flied. We still didn’t have any posters. What to do? Meeting after meeting we debated and argued and listed our ideas. In the end (the team being too tired to argue some more), we all agreed that we should make some comics.

The first poster was easy to imagine and express. After all, changemakers are the ones who will change the world. The pinwheel is the symbol of change. The main character, Hank (who got his name from cHANgemaKer), and the pinwheel will make the world a better place by “Releasing the wind of change” and by “Putting the change in motion”.

Then another great idea came. EntrepreneurSHIP. How about a ship for our next comics? Again, the protagonist is the faaaamous Hank (you’ll see him for sure on all the walls starting with next week). Social entrepreneurship is about making a change in your community, and we all know the environment is a part of that, whether we like it or not. Consequently, Hank manages to combat pollution with the help of our dear pinwheel (becoming a very successful entrepreneur and helping his peers at the same time). Nice, huh?

Finally, Hank encounters another problem. Ready to turn every issue into an opportunity, he gets rid of his flat tires and with the help of the pinwheels (once again) off he goes, on the road to SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP. (That is, to our Conference and Spring School).

We know Hank is a stud, but what’s your favorite one?

In categoria Changemakers Update

The multinational Changemakers preview – 5 April 2010

Never heard of social entrepreneurship or you know little about it? Well, you might not be the only one as it is a rather new self standing concept promoted in the world of entrepreneurs. But all the initiatives of the young to make the others aware of this possibility are promising.

For example, we started the Changemakers vibe in Bucharest, Romania one year ago and we are happy to have sent our message directly to at least 300 people. This year Carolin, Mona, Anna, Maxim and Thies were awarded a scholarship in Berlin to do a research on social entrepreneurship in Germany and Romania. Not only were we happy to get in contact with them via internet, but we also had the opportunity to meet each other on the 26th of March. The world is small and even smaller when internet and social networks interfere! :D These five students from Romania, Russia and Germany form an enthusiastic team with Changemakers spirit! They came to our country especially to meet the social entrepreneurs from here, the beneficiaries of this kind of businesses and to speak with students from Cluj Napoca and Bucharest about how each of us can make a change in our communities.

In Bucharest, they and the Changemakers team spent an interesting and challenging day together with some students from the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies who were interested in this matter. We were surprised to learn that in Germany social entrepreneurship is as new to people as it is to us. Moreover, it seems that there are as well enough issues to be solved in their country, although Germany is known as one of the most developed states of the world.

The best part in reunions of people who share the same interests is sharing knowledge, ideas and vision. The ‘theoretical’ aspects of social entrepreneurship would’ve been a burden if they came from a professor reading the slides of a PowerPoint presentation in front of 200 students. But this was not our case as each and every participant in the meeting had the chance to speak their minds out and express what they knew or what their opinions were about social entrepreneurship, social issues, successful entrepreneurs in this field or failures and so on.

And how can you learn the most about something if not by actually putting yourself in the situation you’re studying? Through a role-playing game that Anna and Maxim presented to us we simulated what factors of decision a social entrepreneur has to meet and what his or her chances would be to influence them. Briefly, there was a building offered for free by the city hall of Târgu Idea to one of the three participants in a competition. These were a social entrepreneur who was going to involve disabled people in his business, an investor planning to open a subsidiary of a multinational and an NGO which had in project to open a theatre for the disadvantaged people. They negotiated for about an hour with each of the six members of the jury and with a tight scoring the social entrepreneur managed to obtain the building she needed to start her business.

Lots of interesting things have we learnt out of this experience and, as a promise, we we’ll do our best to ensure the same unforgettable atmosphere during the Changemakers Spring School. Apply today! ;)

Why Changemakers ? – 1 April 2010

The change comes from simple solutions, but from colorful and brilliant ideas. This is why the pinwheel makes the best symbol for social entrepreneurship. Build it easily, then take a deep breath and release the wind of change!

You might think: “Yeah, well, I like the pinwheel, but social entrepreneurship… where’s the fun in that?”. This concept maybe sounds complicated at a first glance since it is relatively new, but it all begins from solving problems.

We are sure you face and see issues in your community:

-    Piles of garbage at the suburbs of the city, dirty water, smoky air – pollution;

-   Sad faces, children working or begging, people missing water and food – poverty;

-   Health and sanitary problems ;

-  People with disabilities having  trouble in finding a way to earn their living;

-  Old people being abandoned, poor and without activity;

-  Ethnic discrimination;

And the list can go on endlessly.

The fact that you are still reading this post means you do not only observe problems, but you also want to make a difference and try to solve them. Solution comes from simple things – just like the pinwheel that spins in the wind.

The Changemakers project is here to help you solve social issues in a sustainable way and to guide you step by step in building the friendliest business for your community.

What’s the spirit of a Changemaker?

He is not idealistic and he might not smile all the time. But he sees opportunities in every problem and doesn’t hesitate to take action.

A Changemaker is a realistic dreamer – he has the head in the clouds, but the feet on the ground. He likes simple things and results.

A Changemaker knows that change begins from small actions, but he always keeps in mind the big picture.

A Changemaker is not in the center of attention, but he wants to achieve social impact.

A Changemaker is fulfilled when he brings smiles on people’s faces.

So… don’t you think it’s high time to become a Changemaker?

Meet the old Changemakers – 29 April 2009

Am ramas cumva datori cu aceste randuri fata de toti cei ce ne-au sustinut.Vestile vin. Conferinta Changemakers a fost, clubul merge mai departe. Mai sunt doar doua intalniri.
Pentru mine, povestea Changemakers a inceput acum 3 luni. 3 luni in care s-au ingramadit treptat 1 milion de schimbari din viata mea, 3 luni in care am castigat mai mult decat clasicele clisee”mi-am facut foarte multi prieteni”, sau „m-am dezvoltat profesional si personal”. Am castigat inceputul drumului pe care vreau sa-l urmez si pe care, studenta impartita intre o facultate de arta si una de economie,nu credeam ca-l voi gasi curand. As fii vrut sa scriu despre ce a insemnat de fapt munca in aceste luni, dar am realizat, enumerand zeci de activitati, ca succesiunea virgulelor nu ar aduce un plus finalitatii pe care noi o avem: 34 de tineri, membrii in primul club de antreprenoriat social din A.S.E.

Povestea merge mai departe, ca vantul care pune morisca in miscare :)

Ne-am lipit degetele si ne-am intepat cu bolduri construind 800 de moristi in cateva nopti.Le-am impartit pe toate si pe 24 martie am umplut pana la refuz sala 2013, pentru fiecare dintre cele doua parti ale conferintei. Au vorbit atunci: Tudor Maxim, Stefania Popp, Dragos Dehelean, Ionut Georgescu, Dragos Bucurenci si Raed Arafat. Am primit foarte multe formulare de inscriere, am selectat 34 de entuziasti si am inceput clubul.

La prima intalnire Changemakers au fost expuse notiuni teoretice despre antreprenoriat social si discutate studii de caz de catre Bogdan Diaconu si Luiza Cristea(Junior Achievement). A doua sedinta a inceput cu Doru Mitrana si Cornelia Catana, care ne-au vorbit foarte frumos despre MaiMultVerde, respectiv Copacul de hartie, inspirandu-ne pentru un interesant brainstorming. Ne-am reintalnit apoi, intr-o sedinta deschisa Changemakers, pentru a o asculta pe Aneta Bogdan, Managing Partner Brandient. Am aflat importanta formarii unui brand in orice activitate de antreprenoriat si-am aflat multe povesti interesante despre antreprenori de succes ai Romaniei. La a 3 a intalnire ne-am ingramadit toate ideile in cafeneaua „ Sala de lectura”, ne-am impartit in 6 echipe si cu ajutorul Danielei Staicu (Junior Achivement), fiecare echipa s-a decis la 3 posibile idei de antreprenoriat social.  Mugur Ciumageanu ne-a vorbit apoi despre multe lucruri interesante si noi , despre cum ar trebui sa ne raportam la comunitatea in care traim si  despre concepte noi si in voga aplicate de afacerile responsabile in strainatate.

And  there is more to come.

Am invatat sa ma definesc altfel decat majoritatea celor din jurul meu: Am 20 de ani, iar varsta imi da toata libertatea sa cred in schimbarea pe care eu pot sa o aduc in comunitatea in care traiesc si refuz ca pentru asta sa fiu acuzata de adulti ciufuti, prin: „Generatia de azi nu face nimic bun”. Totodata, refuz sa mi se desprinda de pe buze clasicul: „Traiesc in Romania si asta imi ocupa tot timpul”, tocmai pentru ca am 20 de ani, iar varsta nu-mi da dreptul sa ma resemnez.

Promit sa revin cu vesti :) ,
Changemaker-ul de serviciu, Ruxandra.





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