Be a Social Entrepreneur and Make Change Happen

How to start changing people’s perceptions for things? If you find the answer to this question, you can start changing things in your community. You need to start listening carefully to people in order to find out what are the concerns and fears that drive their opinions, beliefs, and actions. Listening, understanding, asking and answering questions are key to making the first step towards dialogue. Dialogue is a process with huge potential when it comes to social change. Good communication is a tool for social change and development.
Think about a problem in your neighborhood. Try to find the root cause of the problem. If you identify it, try to understand why it still happens.

Let's take an example. If girls in your community are denied the right to education, you can start by asking: Why these girls are not in school today?
Is it because they live in poor families that can’t afford to buy books and instead they need to work to help their families?
Is it because of the long distance from the house to the school? Is the school a safe or a violent place? Does it have proper sanitation?
One can ask numerous questions while identifying a problem and its root causes. All the information collected will help to define the right approach to address this issue or many other issues that you or your organizations try to tackle every day.
In your case, the social entrepreneur’s approach can be the best option for problem-solving.
The advantage of the social entrepreneurs is that they think in an innovative way that it is appropriate to local needs. Differently, from the traditional entrepreneurship model that is driven by profit, the market demand, and competition, the social entrepreneurs are driven by one or more causes. They are seeking for creative and innovative solutions based on local community needs and they want to solve the problem in the most effective way and improve the quality of people’s lives. In order to become a successful social entrepreneur, you need to see a problem from different perspective or angle, to think about a new and innovative solution that can generate revenues without depending on donors. Your solution must have a social impact and also the potential for growth. You may start locally and grow or implement your solution in other communities that share the same context.

The free training courses provided by the Entrepreneurship Campus can help you learn how to start with an entrepreneurial idea and at the same time, you can grow it into a concrete initiative by joining the Youth Citizen Entrepreneurship Competition.