"Social Entrepreneurship - Beyond Learning How to Fish"
A Note from the Founders

We have all heard the Chinese proverb "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime". From an international aid perspective the "giving of fish" is what we know as traditional "relief" assistance. "Teaching someone to fish" is what we would call "development" assistance. Relief assistance is most appropriate in post- conflict, natural and manmade disaster situations. Effective relief assistance strives to "get people on their feet" and is concerned with providing primarily emergency food, shelter, healthcare and clothing resources. Intelligent development assistance directly follows relief assistance (although the relationship is not always linear) and provides appropriate resources to communities/individuals at the appropriate time and in the appropriate way so as to support them as they work to achieve ever higher standards of living over the short, medium and long- term. Development assistance by and large concerns itself with supporting education, income generation and community/civil society mobilization. In short, relief assistance is about providing critical assistance for communities/individuals who need "help" whereas development assistance is about providing compelling opportunities so that communities/individuals can "help themselves".

Social Entrepreneurship, in our work in rural Guatemala, is that next step in the evolution of development that goes beyond teaching individuals "how to fish". To expand on the proverb, intelligently designed social entrepreneurship initiatives, in the most basic sense, provide the "fisherman" with the opportunity to further improve his/her standard of living by selling "extra" fish to neighbors at the price, in the place, and using the promotional techniques that are econimically, culturally and environmentally appropriate. In addition, as our fisherman encounters success he trains others to become fisherman to help him with his enterprise. Thus, effective social entrepreneurship creates an amazing "multiplier effect" that can result in a profound and growing impact for a relatively small up- front investment. What budding "fisherman" (in our case entrepreneurs selling reading glasses, stoves, health products, seeds and the like) in Guatemala need more than anything are passionate and motivated individuals who will help to teach and support them as they endeavor to create success. Come and join us and learn how you can become a part of this "evolution"!

Greg Van Kirk & George B. Glickley
Co-Founders, Social Entrepreneur Corps