Solar Forward - Allow survivors access to sustainable energy #Nepal #Earthquake

Following the Nepal Earthquake in 2015, many communities were left without power. However, even after a year, the power has not returned to these communities. Many NGOs has called for donations of solar kits to give some of these communities light. I met up with various of these groups and they were interested in giving a few hundred solar kits to villages, however, as there were millions living in the dark, the question I often asked is, “How do you pick who receives these solar kits?”

Looking at the projects and speaking to people from the villages. The feedback I received was that, there is a real need for light and cell phone charging. Having a few more hours of productivity, having energy to power lights and charge cell phones is very important indeed. The fact is, many of these communities do have a need to charge their phones for communication. Their kids do go to school, and light is important for them to do homework. Some of the residents in the villages do have other work besides farming, and a few more hours of light could make them more productive.

I felt that access to sustainable energy is a basic human need. For a post disaster community, there will be NGOs to give food, water and shelter, but these communities also need sustainable energy. But when funding is limited, the question is who will receive these solar kits, and how do we make more people benefit eventually?

From the engagement with the various communities, I got to know that some of the farmers in the villages do have extra work on the side. These farmers are also tailors, cobblers and artisans. They work after the day ends, and a few more hours of light would mean extra income for them. This extra income would mean a big difference in terms of earnings, and they could now make more money and save up to rebuild their homes.

Solar Forward is a crowdsourced project that plans to raise funds to bring in 500 low cost solar kits, consisting of Solar Panels, LED bulbs and a charger which can store the energy and charge cell phones. The local team in Nepal will curate 500 people from the various villages damaged by the earthquake, and give them these solar kits. The criteria for the curation are how much more these communities would make if they were given a solar kit.

If the family would earn at least US$1 more per day, just by having 4 more hours of light, and they would save the extra $1 a day, in 60 days, they would have US$60, which could buy another kit for someone else in their village.

If this family would agree to save up and buy another kit to benefit someone else in the village that would have financial gains when they receive the kit, they would be a potential candidate to receive the solar kit. This is testing a pay it forward model, which transforms the victim of an earthquake from a passive receiver of aid, to an active participant in the recovery process, empowering them to support others in their villages.

Working with Nepal Innovation Lab, studies on success or failure of the project, and how the community reacts to the pay it forward model will be studied and the results shared.

There is also a concern for those who do need the solar kit, but cannot commit to saving an extra US$1 a day. Many families could however, save up US$0.30 – US$0.50 a day. These families would be part of the phase 2 of the Solar Forward project. Once the initial 500 solar panels arrive, the cost of shipping, customs clearance would be confirmed. And we can have the exact price of each of these panels delivered to Nepal.

The local Nepal team is also now looking at finding foundations and various institutions to be bank guarantors. As the communities are out of the banking system, it is very hard for them to get a US$50 loan for the solar kit. Having a bank guarantor would allow them to access the bank loan. And after building credit by paying off the loans, these communities could be integrated back into the banking system and have access to more loans.

The initial calculations show that they can pay a US$50 loan in as little as 7 months if they save US$0.30 a day. And the other benefit would be that after paying off the loan, the communities could also build up a credit history for them to have access to the banking system.

Lastly, for those who may not even save US$0.30 a day, they can also access microfinance, which will train them in running a business or other skills which will help them generate income, and the microfinance companies could them put them on a microfinance loan, allowing them access to solar energy.

This project is still ongoing, and the results will be made available once the project is completed. 

If you would like to contribute to Solar Forward, the fund raising page is here. 

https://give.asia/movement/solar_forward

-- Robin Low

Relook at Social Entrepreneurship

I would call a social enterprise a company with a triple bottom line: social, environmental (or ecological) and financial. It needs to serve a social need, and it needs to be both environmentally and financially sustainable.

You see this diagram in many books talking about social entrepreneurship. The definition of a social enterprise today is very vague, and many even argue if there is a need to have such a definition.

It is already not easy to run a "social enterprise" but I do find many people interested in this field. Across the world, social enterprise is the buzzword to get the support from various governments. But when you do look into the various business models, there is so much grey areas where the organization operates.

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In Singapore, the NTUC is considered a social enterprise. They run an insurance company, supermarkets and various other commercial enterprises. National Trade Union Congress in Singapore is a politically backed company after the Singapore Association of Trade Unions (SATU) collapsed in 1963 following the government's detention of its leaders during Operation Coldstore and its subsequent official deregistration on 13 November 1963, leaving the NTUC as the sole trade union centre.

As most of the leaders in NTUC are members from the PAP party, NTUC's operations is closely seen as PAP's operations and hence it is much supported by the government to run social enterprises which has lower cost services.

However, I do not really see NTUC Fairprice having lower cost of food. NTUC Foodfare seemed to charge a much higher price for food with some of the similar chain stores found in other foodcourts, And the one in AMK hub especially has similar foods that costs even more than Orchard Road.

With NTUC considered as a social enterprise in Singapore, Singapore can declare themselves to have one of the largest social enterprises in the world.

With such a broad definition of social enterprises, it is hard not to identify yourself or not identify yourself as a social enterprise in Singapore.

Ways you can call your business a social enterprise.

If you hire elderlies or disabled (due to wage subsidy from government), you can consider yourself a social enterprise as you employ the marginalized.

If you hire the marginalized such as ex-offenders, (due to wage subsidy from government), you can consider yourself a social enterprise.

If you use recycled or sustainable products, you can consider yourself a social enterprise.

If you carry out activities which benefit a certain group of NGOs, like doing some pro-bono work for a VWO, you can consider yourself a social enterprise.

If you donate part of your profits to charity, you can consider yourself a social enterprise.

If you sell sustainable fashion, you can consider yourself a social enterprise.

If you run (paid) courses for the marginalized, you can consider yourself a social enterprise.

If you build products that some marginalized people can use, you can consider yourself a social enterprise.

The list goes on...

So eventually, if you register with the Social Enterprise Association (Which seems rather dormant), you can consider yourself a social enterprise.

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So why is this good (or bad)?

I feel that generally, when everything is a Social Enterprise, it can hardly demand differentiation. 

I would argue locksmiths, plumbers or electricians are social entrepreneurs as well as they do serve social need. What about Hybrid Taxi Drivers? Ooooh, they are sooo Green, and they sometimes transport the needy.

The Social Enterprises which creates a big social impact may now find it more difficult to differentiate themselves from the "greenwash" or "whiteswash" social enterprises, and people may not really care otherwise.

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Are social enterprises even needed then?

I personally feel that commercial enterprises that primarily focus on profits or interested in the needs of the shareholders is simply wrong. The whole capitalism has warped our sense of reality that we praise businesses that are doing something good.

I really want to discourage students who are interested starting businesses today to start social enterprises if all they want to do is to sell things to the poor.

"Bottom of the Pyramid" 

I really hate this concept of looking at "the poor" as a market to sell things to. The poor does not need low cost pop corn, potato chips or soda... They do not need LCD TVs or other non essentials. 

I really cringe when some of the young entrepreneurs decide to raise funds to make products to target "the poor" after reading the book...

There are needs and wants. If you can find a solution to allow the poor access a need, like lower cost healthy food, sustainable energy, clean water, etc. And if you find a financial model and a distribution model which allows them to buy these needs, great! You are doing good while running a business.

This however may seem to be a fairytale. I'm trying to bring low cost solar kits to rural communities and for them to afford, you need a fantastic logistic model which is efficient and low cost, you need to cut out the middle man and connect to the end users directly, you need to have a low profit margin. All of which most people who you may seek finance from will definitely not fund you.

Most "Impact Investors" -- unfortunately -- are still looking for a profit margin. If they provide the risk capital, they want returns (20% ROI)? And this means your retail price has to be 20% more, an amount which the beneficiaries and target audience may not afford.

In my opinion, there is not really a good place for social enterprises as the corporations are already doing CSR, and the charities are trying to make income. With the confusing definition, people may not even tell the difference between companies and social enterprises.

If you want to create real social impact, stop trying to sell things to "the poor" and think of them as a "Market". With more needs available to them, they may not save enough money to acquire assets which they need to get out of poverty. 

If you are running a social enterprise, make sure you can create positive social change, real social impact, instead of just running a business, pretending to do good.

-- Robin Low

Crab vs Turtles

Crab Mentality

This is an experiment you can do to learn more about crabs.

In many markets, crabs are sold in an open bucket, and there is no need for any covers as the crabs do not escape.

Whenever a crab tries to climb out of the bucket, other crabs will pull it down when it gets close to escaping.

“I can’t have it, neither can you”

Crab mentality can manifest in many forms, and in many communities, they feel powerless and they get joy when they see others fail, and fear of failing prevents these communities from moving forward. There may be many problems that these communities face, but they do not work together to solve the problems.

Also known as Crabs in a bucket, this is the kind of mindset that some communities have to prevent them to moving forward. It is far more common than you think. In Singapore, there is a term called

“Kiasu” which is prevalent in Singaporeans.

“Kiasu” or “Fear of losing” is seen by some people as a positive thing. It makes Singapore a very competitive society, always trying to be the best in things. This mindset permeates through many differ organizations in Singapore. The Singapore government call it a meritocracy society, where the top students in schools are on full government scholarships and groomed to be leaders. And these leaders are paid many times the average salaries of average Singaporeans, and often placed in top positions in the government or government linked companies.

This mindset has worked in building Singapore the way it is, but it also creates a lot of stress as everyone is very competitive. For some Singaporeans, success also means others should fail. This is the definition of crab mentality and it fragments a society and there is low public trust.

Turtle mentality

Where crab mentality is not desirable, turtle mentality is positive (and adorable)

Baby turtles help each other dig out from a pile. The ones in the bottom push the ones on top upwards until everyone comes out. The process takes about an hour and no one was left behind.

I’ve also known many friends who own terrapins as pets and these turtles will find ways to help their friends escape if the cover of their aquarium is not closed property and they can reach it. Through teamwork, these turtles climb on each other and push the one closest to the top and help him escape.

Many communities have very close relationships and support one another. In Japan after the Tsunami, the survivors self-organize their cleanup and shop owners on the street gather every day to decide on which shops to clean up, allowing them to more efficiently clean the debris and mud than each shop owner cleaning their own store.

In Haiti, I’ve worked with Haiti partners and seen people in the village pooling money to send the children in their village to high school in Port-au-Prince. The people in the village also come together to apply scholarships for all the eligible children and pool money to send them to universities.

Working together allows the villagers to accomplish tasks which may be difficult if a family were to do it alone. There are many examples of farmer cooperatives set up in rural villages to pool resources for bulk purchase and negotiate sales.

When working with communities, it is important to find ways to change their mindsets. It is not just having a solution that matters, but how the change can be sustainable. If the community has crab mentality, the people you help may be pulled down again by others in the community and it is important to address the mindsets as well.

-- Robin Low

How do I deal with all the drama while striving for positive impact?

It is not easy doing good. Creative People who work on innovative solutions when faced with bureaucracy, rejection or simply lack of support can easily burn out and suffer from depression.

I have been working with marginalized and post disaster communities for more than 8 years now, and today, I see more young people working on social projects or starting social enterprises. This is very encouraging, however, I have also seen many others burn out from time to time. Doing good is not as easy as you may think, and I too at times feel down.

I have volunteered for various organizations and been to many major disasters in the past 15 years. The work is inspiring and addictive. When I volunteer at disaster areas, I feel that my work is very meaningful, and I do feel that many benefited from my presence. However, at times, when I see a problem and I am not empowered to solve it due to bureaucracy, I feel disappointed especially if the bureaucracy and inaction actually causes harm.

Bureaucracies of large organizations cause these organizations to be unable to handle changes on the field, and even when I complained, it was largely ignored. I co-founded Relief 2.0 in 2011 and we went to Japan after the Tsunami and carried out the process of “running the last mile of disaster relief” where we provide what is not provided on the field and do the tasks which are not performed.

When the organizations deliver donated clothes but no one use them, Relief 2.0 members engage the kids in the shelters to sort clothes which makes it easier for the survivors to find what they need. Relief 2.0 also engages volunteers to redistribute food among the shelters.

Post disaster, Relief 2.0 works on getting the communities to help one another to rebuild their economy. Relief Business to Business (Relief B2B) is the practice where we interview shopowners of the damaged stores asking 4 simple questions; “What happened during the disaster?”, “What did you lose?”, “How much do you need?”, and “What are you going to use the money for?” We will record this in a video to bring to the next town and gather business owners to come and give interest bearing loans instead of donations to help the affected business restart. This process of getting the communities to support one another has proved useful and we get students in the local universities to carry out what we started.

The motto that we work with is “Never Help; Engage, Enable, Empower and Connect.” We try to get the locals and the community to solve their problems and work with them to come out with sustainable solutions, or connect them to the help they needs to get it done.

Finding working solutions and solving problems is satisfying; however, there are also many frustrations that I face. From time to time, communications will stall and my contacts will simply stop communicating. When you work on projects, the locals in that country will miss the timeline or simple stop working without giving any feedback.

This problem is not just for developing countries, but my experience in Singapore is also very similar. Working with the recipients of the support may be frustrating as they sometimes do not turn up for free trainings, and simply not come to work when you hire them and no reasons are given. In some cases, they are just not professional, but sometimes, there are a lot of other pressing issues that the marginalized communities face which they either assume you know, or they are too ashamed to share.

I’ve once worked with a farmer which I funded to support him for farming, and when I found that all the vegetable seedlings died even when the weather was good, I got frustrated with him for avoiding me, but later found out that he contracted dengue fever and was sick for weeks and too ashamed to contact me for losing everything.

In some cases, the communities you want to create are not as enthusiastic as you. I want to create an entrepreneurship eco-system for kids in Singapore, and I’ve started Dreamity Entrepreneurship bootcamp. Many parents are interested, but studies always come first and everything else is secondary. The kid’s business will be halted for exams and homework, and in most cases, a long pause usually means that the business will be discontinued.

For many social projects, finding funding is very hard. The government may have schemes, but your project has to fit exactly into their scheme before they consider funding, and application takes a long time. Corporates and business may be interested to be sponsors, but many want to know how the project will benefit them.

I’ve worked on several projects where funding and free venue was agreed, and a month before the event, everything was cancelled without giving any valid reasons. Sometimes, volunteers will have all sorts of excuses for not showing up, or bring their drama to the projects.

In the field of social innovation, the financial gains usually is relatively low and the frustration is high as few people see the work as a low priority – and these people include the recipients of the support. Some  people over commit themselves. They give not only time and effort, they take on financial burdent to get things done. When things do not work out, these people burn out.

For me, I see this as a learning journey. I learn about different cultures, behaviors and people. I look at different solutions and share them between communities. I see myself more as a facilitator and a catalyst for change, and encourage the marginalized communities to want to change from within. I am not their savior, and without me, these marginalized communities still continue to exist. Although I may face a lot of rejections and failures, I put in my best effort but not take more responsibility that I can commit. I know that if I do have progress, many will benefit, and if I fail, I can still start over.

-- Robin Low

Religion and Morals

Beliefs change, Values change, Morals change but in many cases, the Holy Book remains the same.

It is also interesting that something like the bible, where it should be consistent throughout the world, you can find that the interpretation differs as you visit different churches.

With the invention of Mega Churches, Prosperity Gospel, and many other different variants, I realize that many things evolve, and in many religions, there is such evolution which turns out bad.

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“I like your Christ,” said Mahatma Gahndi, “but I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” 

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I could say that the values of our culture is changing and are sometimes different from the values of our faith. This is not new as in bibical times, owning a slave is totally fine. Like politics, religion does have a certain view of things, and picking your religion means most of "your team" feel in a certain way.

When Paul addresses important issues related to sexuality in his letters to the Corinthians, he is speaking to the Church and seems unconcerned with society as a whole:

“I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral … In that case you would have to leave this world … what business is it of mine to judge those outside the Church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. ‘Expel the wicked person from among you’” (1 Corinthians 5:9. 12-13).

I see a lot of calls when I'm in Singapore from religious groups judging performers like Madonna, calling for bans, and intolerant towards gays. Even Obama's speech on Gays was censored by Singapore Media.

In the US, I've seen religious groups protest abortions and are "pro-life" and after meeting several of these people, and sharing some of my disaster relief stories and asking them to support survivors of disasters, I realize that it is much harder to get donations from Religious Fundamentalists than Atheists. Many of them do feel that after going to church or tithe to their church, they do not need to do any other "good". And the survivors in a disaster, which is "God's will" are given a challenge which they will overcome if they have faith.

In Malaysia, I've seen groups taking offence to buildings with a "Cross Shape" on the roofs, asking the developers to repaint them. I have never thought of Muslims as a religion that were easily offended by mere architecture.

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Religion is never a bad thing, and sometimes, people following a bad religious leader will do nasty things which are totally uncalled for.

Non-religious people can also do good things, and not all good deeds come from religious roots. Even by making these comments, many religious people will be offended.

I believe religion is a good thing, and religious people should be more tolerant on issues which seems acceptable by society, listen to the other views and be open to new ideas. If not, you may fall to the slippery slope of extremism.

-- Robin Low

Who does urban renewals benefit?

It is a known fact that the gentrification push out the poor community. Most of the poor people rent their homes or live in public housing. They work locally in low wage jobs and have barely enough to get by.

When the neighborhood gets nicer, residential rents go up, more expensive “quirky” stores open as there is more street lighting and parking spaces and the commercial rents go up. Food gets more expensive, the landlords may renovate their homes and residential rents go up more, making it unaffordable for the poor to stay.

This disruption not only cause the poor to lose their jobs as it is too expensive to travel from their lower cost areas to the now “nicer” part of town, their children may also not go to school as it may now be too faraway.

The end result usually see a lot more middle income people move to the area, and less lower income people remaining, and not the lower income people getting more opportunities to move to middle income earners.

-- Robin Low

The different challenges faced today.

I was working on a project with a friend to share the benefits technology bring to society, and I was trying to list out the benefits as well as the challenges.

What would life be like when we do not have information on our fingertips, when we do not have the Internet, search engines, when air travel was not so accessible... And that describes the world where I grew up in.

Blackouts occur from time to time, the TV had 4 channels, we had to search the encyclopedia for information we need. There were no text messages, emails to answer, kids do not have "ADD" and you never hear about "Gluten Free" or "Vegan" diets.

I used to be a techie, building my own computer, writing programs to help me search the internet for information, and building my own amplifiers and remote control cars. I could learn all the latest software and computer languages and it is so hard to keep up with even the latest wearable gadget today.

I am also writing a book on social impact, and the shifting of values and beliefs over the years is simply astonishing. In this digital age, people get influenced with what they read about or see online.

My generation used to get their information from the newspapers and when we hear other information which we have not read about, we have to think critically about the extent of the credibility. Yet today, when the Paris bombing happened, the rapid spread of misinformation on social media is creating a lot of conflict between people online.

What's worse is, today, on social media, you may have many friends that think alike, and a piece of misinformation that may concern you may get repeated so much that you believe that it is true.

Even in the Boston Marathon bombing, many people were speculating about who these bombers were, and there is rapid spread of misinformation and it seems that people further away from Boston gets more outraged by some of this information than the locals in Boston who experience the truth.

Today, a lot of knowledge is stored online. People use search engines to find answers, and many of the answers that are presented are not even good. However, with this convenience of technology, there is a danger to treat what you read and what you find online as your beliefs, and when many of your friends have the similar beliefs and share their views online, it reinforces your belief. What's worse is, today can filter away people you don't agree with.

The danger comes from the people who outsource their thinking. When people use technology filter sounds they disagree with, they allow technology to make their choices or to further divide them. This can lead to ideological intolerance, and people today get easily offended by too many things.

Today we are faced with a bombardment of misleading or inaccurate information. We must develop the skills and ability to distinguish the credibility of this information, and we should be more tolerant and receptive to the views of others.

There is a lot of challenges today brought on by technology, and problems cause by technology today. I hope in time, society and culture can catch up and address the ever changing technology, and people can be more tolerant and use technology to find out what they don't know and not reinforce their ideas.