Ministry Leader: Social Enterprises Can Alleviate Global Poverty

Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2009 Posted: 6:04:52PM HKT

(Photo: OHF)

Singaporeans can do their part to reduce global poverty by starting social enterprises, according to Robert Kee, who founded Operation Hope Foundation.

They can also contribute by developing appropriate technology for the rural poor.

Kee was speaking at a dinner organised to raise capital for a bakery to provide employment for orphans living in the OHF orphanage in Prey Veng, Cambodia.

More than 140 guests attended the September 27 event, conducted at Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel, according to a monthly update from the ministry.

The charity raised $30,920 for the social enterprise.

During his speech, Kee communicated the urgency of the situation by telling the tragic story of a Thai woman he met in Chiangmai who despite her best efforts could not escape the poverty cycle simply because she did not know how to conduct a business.

Seeking a better life, this young woman turned to prostitution to earn some money to start a clothing retail shop.

Unfortunately, the business failed and she went back to prostitution. After scrimping and saving for a few years, she started a beauty saloon.

Again, the business did not take off and she returned to prostitution.

She thought that the food and beverage industry offered some prospects and started a Japanese restaurant but that failed miserably.

Kee suggested that the story for those like her would turn out differently if OHF could start a ‘Village Business Academy’ to teach the prostitutes and rural poor to do business.

If the rural poor could grow enough food on their small plot of land for consumption and trade, they would not need to migrate to the cities to look for better paying jobs, he said.

The OHF founder encouraged Christians to think and work hard to bring ‘first-world’ solutions to third-world countries.

Edmond Chua
edmond@christianpost.com