Sabah, S'wak social woes differ from p'sula
Published on: Tuesday, October 13, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: Social problems in Sabah and Sarawak are different from those faced in the peninsula, said Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC) Social Entrepreneurship (SE) Executive Director Ehon Chan, here, on Sunday.Chan said, in both states, one of the main problems is lack of basic infrastructure like access to electricity and transportation."In the peninsula, it's more developed. Most of the people already have access to electricity and the transportation is we smooth as well.
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"Due to the social problems that we see in Sabah and Sarawak, we see a lot more innovative social entrepreneurs in both states. We've supported a few of them as well," he said after the launch of Sehati 2015 programme, here, on Sunday. He added, one of the social entrepreneurs supported by MaGIC SE is Adrian Banie Lasimbang who developed Tonibung – a social enterprise which provides affordable micro-hydroelectric systems to rural villages.A social enterprise is an entity that achieves a social mission by using a business model. Social enterprises combine elements of NGOs and for-profit companies. "Tonibung also train the locals to build the system and it would be installed in the river so that the villagers can get electricity for free as it is only using water to generate power.
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"The villager only have to pay a small amount of money to Tonibung so that they can use that money to raise the fund needed to build micro-hydroelectric systems in other villages as well."We see this kind of things a lot in Sabah and Sarawak, whereas in the peninsula, the social entrepreneurs solve different problems such as education and so on… so they are not similar to the ones in Sabah and Sarawak. And we want to see that we could inspire the ideas that come out of this programme in both states."
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As such, Sabah became the third pit stop out of six for the Sehati programme, aimed at creating awareness and interest for social entrepreneurship in East Malaysia.The two-day programme offers information and basic understanding of social entrepreneurship is, knowledge sharing sessions with local social entrepreneurs as well as hands-on workshops providing useful basic skills set needed in order for the locals to venture into such entrepreneurship.Officiated by Deputy Permanent Secretary to the Youth and Sports Ministry, Ag Damit Ag Anak, Sehati is one of the core initiatives under MaGIC SE's community and education platform.Successful applicants for the grant will be given a one-off fund ranging from RM30,000 to RM150,000, depending on the state of their enterprises."It's a one-off grant but we are not giving them the whole amount at one go. We used a system called milestone-based funding… when they've reached a certain milestone, we'll give them a certain amount of money."We'll discuss on what milestones that they want to achieve and we give them the funding based on that," Chan said. He further said, they don't want too give too much grants, if so, "then everyone becomes 'grantrepreneurs' where they keep on relying on grants." "We want to connect them with other investors as well. With the grant given, we hope they can build the enterprise and reach a stable level and they could convince other investors to inject money into their enterprise."MaGIC SE, according to Chan, is also setting a goal of discovering or training up to 200 social enterprises this year and by 2018, they are hoping to see 1,000 such enterprises in Malaysia.Meanwhile, Chan disclosed, plans and discussions are made to open a MaGIC's office in Sabah and Sarawak.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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