Invest in Yourself to Fulfil Your Dream
I've haven't always been a socially conscious person.
It wasn't until a community service trip to Bago City in the Philippines during my university days that I experienced the vast difference in life circumstances from Singapore, where I am from.
At the same time, I felt such trips were unsustainable in truly impacting the poor in the long run.
This stayed etched in my mind.
During a year-long overseas internship at a startup, I honed my skills and learnt about social entrepreneurship and started to connect the dots with my experience in the Philippines.
Together with Zhihan and Ivan, we started Bagosphere, a social enterprise tackling rising youth unemployment by offering an affordable job preparation programme for high school and college graduates that helps them to find jobs as call centre agents.
I believe poverty can be resolved through a sustainable business model.
I believe that one day, as Muhammad Yunus says, "our grandchildren will go to museums to see what poverty was like".
It will be a difficult journey, but I love the challenge and want to play a part in bringing the world towards this ideal.
Bagosphere is one of three winners of the 2012 edition of the Singapore International Foundation's Young Social Entrepreneur programme.
