Pharmaton Archives - The Philippine Beat

Several months ago, I attended the launch of the search for Pharmaton’s newest Life Changers. Pharmaton was looking to award PhP 1 million to the best social enterprise idea that would have a significant life-changing impact on the community it aimed to serve.

Recently, I attended its Finals Night and watched as 9 inspiring social enterprise groups made their final pitches to the judges before the final decision was made. That honor, with PhP 1 million seed money for their social enterprise idea, went to Oras Na Para sa Alpabasa – a group of 3 young lady educators with a huge vision but needing funding support. Congratulations!

Continue reading “Alpabasa is the winner of the 2015 Pharmaton Life Changers’ Challenge” →

Over 99% of all businesses in the Philippines are small and medium-sized enterprises and a great majority of that 99% is micro- or small social enterprises. Social enterprise is a big thing here and we should encourage it. We’ve seen cottage industries spring up for several decades now. Then as more Moms opted to leave the work force and stay home, the community of mompreneurs began to grow.

But one big factor has kept these micro to small social enterprises from really growing and taking off.

Funding

This is where Pharmaton seeks to close the yawning gap with its campaign, Life Changers’ Challenge: Success in Numbers.

An online, video-driven, nationwide competition, Life Changers’ Challenge seeks to find exceptional Filipinos whose social enterprise ideas can cause positive change in society. This challenge is open to social entrepreneurs, advocates and other relevant groups of people spearheading high-impact projects. A microsite will open up on May 12, 2015 is already up (http://life-changers.ph) where social entrepreneurs can upload their videos.

Tell your friends and family who may have social enterprise ideas that they can start conceptualizing their videos starting now, even before the microsite opens up.

Continue reading “Join the Search for Pharmaton’s 2015 Life Changers (Updated!)” →