These are the Social Entrepreneurs: BABAJOB.COM
A social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to bring about a social change. Whereas business entrepreneurs typically measure performance in profit and return, social entrepreneurs assess their success in terms of the impact they have on society. While social entrepreneurs often work through nonprofits and citizen groups, many work in the private and governmental sectors too.
The term social entrepreneurs is quite contemporary but the philosophy has been shared by many great icons in human history. A list of a few historically noteworthy people whose work exemplifies classic "social entrepreneurship" might include Florence Nightingale, founder of the first nursing school and developer of modern nursing practices, Robert Owen founder of the cooperative movement and Vinoba Bhave (founder of India's Land Gift Movement).
In recent years, the likes of Mohammad Yunus, founder of Grameen bank(Nobel prize winner for peace,2007) and Vikram Akula of SKS Microfinance haven taken the mantle of bringing social change in their own modest means. I can also pull captain Gopinath into this league for reasons mentioned in one of my previous post. These are the mavericks who are slowly but surely bringing about a positive social change in the society and their efforts need to be hailed.
Joining this breed of social entrepreneurs is another shining star of hope, BABAJOB, a social intiative by Sean Blagsvedt, a former employee at Microsoft,Redmond.
(click to see a better picture)
Where else have you seen a maid uploading a resume at a job portal, a driver looking for better avenues online, a sweeper of 12 years wanting to be promoted to a better job role. Its all happening here at BABAJOB. This is what we call the real democratization of technology. We all love and admire technology, but these are the people who think technology is useless if it cannot serve the one's at the bottom of the social pyramid. BABAJOB attempts to connect the downtrodden by lending a hand to climb up the ladder. It is based on the premise that everyone deserves a better job. And it should not be the preserve of only the computer savvy elite. I will not be able to put it any better than International Herald Tribune. which carried an engaging full story on BABAJOB.COM.
I would urge every Indian to read this and take inspiration from this American whose heart stirred for the poor in India.
2 comments:
Hey Ravi, This was quite an interesting read. Very fascinating to know such Organizations exist. Just to see what and how they are, I checked out their website. I am now officially a part of them. I must say I sort of underestimated their network. Was surprised to see their network run into the US and Canada as well... What interests me the most is that now, people who wish to hire a maid do not have to depend on the local Maids' Union. They can just register themselves in 5-6 mins and choose the one they like... Almost like a Marriage Portal... I must say, this is the best that could have happenened in todays e-world. Today, more than ever, there is some hope that There could be Equal Oppurtunity for anyone who wishes it... Awesome read indeed!!!
Thanks Vinutha. I appreciate it. :)
-Ravi
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