Since arriving in India 8 days ago, our group has engaged with a tremendous range of individuals, each with their own interpretation of the words "social" and "enterprise".
For me, it has been a roller-coaster of emotions, opinions, discussions and evaluation plus an incredibly steep learning curve since much of the language used has been alien to my background working in product-led marketing and communications.
I have learnt so much in a short space of time about India, its people, and culture, its vast social issues and traditions, economic challenges, bureacracy and daily frustrations with simply getting anything to happen. I have even managed to understand the complex world of micro-finance, micro-credit and all those other "gorgeous" words that seemed so alien until my very patient travel companions explained their significance to the world of social entrepreneurship.
Inspite of the multitude of unique experiences and the opportunity to learn a new language, there has been something worrying me. A constant question about what does all this mean and how can we start to process the energy, enthusiam and passion that we have been so privileged to witness.
This feeling started to fade this evening when we visited the highly prestigious Indian Business School, located in impressive grounds in Hydrabad. After yet more words about the value of social enterprise and the challenges facing today's change-makers, I witnessed a poignant moment between one of our group and a highly motivated but, in my opinion, confused social entreprener we had met earlier today. Names aren't important for this story, as the individual in our group who spoke these powerful words will recognise them:
"I would like to offer you one hour of my time every month in order to mentor you".
The look on the face of the social entrepreneur who received this simple but concrete offer was certainly one of the highlights of my journey.
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1 comment:
Absolutely fantastic blog!
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