The annual Asia Philanthropy Awards(APA) 2018 took place at 25th April, 2018 at Seoul. With the slogan ‘to find hidden leaders of philanthropy who influence the society with the spirit of sharing and doing good and support their heroic action’, the award show took place to honour the leaders of philanthropy of this year. One of the winners was Chij Man Gurung, chairman of Sukhawati Foundation, who won the non-profit organisation (NPO) of the year. Living by the motto ‘Survive while saving’, Mr. Gurung said that he didn’t know that he would be getting an award and is overjoyed to receive such an award that acknowledge his foundation.
While working in ‘BEAUTIFUL SHOP’, a non profit organisation in South Korea for a short while, he developed an idea of wanting to start a social enterprise in his homeland, Nepal, as he realised that his source of happiness was not when he treated himself but when he helped others, along with the dissatisfaction that Nepal’s main source of help was from internationals countries for charity and support, rather than the communities helping each other. Taking the model that he learned back to his country, Sukhawati Foundation was formed. Now, as an social enterprise supported by ‘didis’ (a word affectingly used to call an older woman) as volunteers, they help underprivileged communities produce their own products rather than importing them and helps create a market where they can sell the products. They also have started campaigns with the slogan ‘one man’s trash is another man’s treasure’, where they go around communities and collect unused objects from homes and sells it to support improvised communities.
Mr. Gurung says that there is still much to do and hopes that since Nepal doesn’t have many social enterprise within itself, this award would hopefully draw attention and encourage people from his country to start a social enterprise themselves.
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