CW Chu College The Chinese University of Hong Kong eNewsletter

The College and Education for Good jointly organized a Social Entrepreneurship Workshop on 27 March 2014. Ms Katherine Lam and Mr Freddy Law, intrapreneurs of Education for Good, hosted the workshop named 'The Power of Social Entrepreneurship: How I Became a Change-maker'. They shared with the participants the concept and their experiences in running social enterprises.

Ms Katherine Lam had originally served as a Vice President in a bank, earning more than $1 million a year and enjoying a good life. After giving birth to her son in 2012, she felt that her expectation on her son to become a happy person able to make contributions to society reflected her own core values. However, her job, which made her overly profit-minded, was not in accord with her core values.

Last year, Ms Lam participated in the Yunus Centre Study Trip to Bangladesh organized by Education for Good, and was deeply inspired by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen social business. After the trip, she left the bank and aspired to a career in the field of social entrepreneurship. Currently, she is involved in various social enterprise projects and tries to hone her skills for establishing social enterprises in the future. She said, 'Social enterprises can be a business with conscience. If everyone does this, the world would be a better place.'

(Two CW Chu College students had also joined a Yunus Centre Study Trip to Bangladesh; please see an earlier Issue of the Newsletter)

Concerned about the lack of global perspectives of Hong Kong students, Mr Freddy Law left his post in the Asia Pacific headquarters of Google in India and started his social enterprise Intercultural Education Centre. Founded in 2009, the Centre is committed to providing training courses to help establish an international environment in schools and to eliminate discrimination against ethnic minorities in Hong Kong. Through running a social enterprise, he becomes more open-minded and his ability and psychological quality were enhanced as well.

Mr Law encouraged those who are interested in establishing a social enterprise to gain several years of work experience first and explore the opportunities and feasibility before starting the business. 'We should sow the seeds first. The seeds will geminate when the environment is ideal for them.' Freddy believed that as long as potential social entrepreneurs have faith and enthusiasm, they will make a success.