Nadaa Taiyab - Acumen Fund Fellow

During my stay at the 2007 Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship I had a huge honour and pleasure to spend few days and talk with Acumen Fund Fellow - Nadaa Taiyab.

Nadaa is and extraordynary Canadian (originally half Sri Lankan/half Persian). During her stay in India she was worked for Medicine Shoppe, an internationally recognized pharmacy chain that has recently launched a new store format called SEHAT Clinics targeting low-income people. Nadaa was the project lead for the first low-income store rollout, and she assisted in the opening of eight new clinics aimed at serving the urban poor.



Her experience and reflections about creating the network of those pharmacy shops, in the context of long term project sustainability can be very easly compare with our experience in creation of 7 Community Computer and Education Centers in Podlasie.

Paradox on which we reflect is that the time invested on the beginning, for the research and comparing all possible options, can save a lots of mistakes in the future. To big push for the scale and the results from the donnors side on the beginning in opening centers, can easly push out the smartest possible solutions and just give access only to the fastes to implement. This can kills project long term sustainability.

SriLanka: "Nikkan Awa" - I just came...

Sri Lankans, Buddhist have one expression that can be named the philosophy of their lifes - Nikkan Awa. Literally, "I just came" or "came without any reason" in English does not catch the flavour and mood of the Sinhala original.

Deep down, the Sinhala people are for being rather than for doing. They would rather be, just be, than do. Doing or action is marginal to their existence. Their unarticulated philosophy of life is to live leisurely, unhurriedly, doing nothing as far as possible - to just be (nikan innawa).

"In Ceylon, as elsewhere, vegetating signifies a form of existence which proceeds without effort, but then effort is superfluous here; everything succeds without it. Here vegetating becomes the form of all life, even of mental life; the mind becomes rampant, like tropical plants... In the tropics - I feel it already - it does not occur to one to judge psychic phenomena by diffrent standard form physical ones; it never enters one's head to take them seriously metaphysically. Everything that happens in me, develops in me as the plants develop out there. It is not I who think but somethink thinks in me, it is not who whish, but something wishes in me. Actually this is what happens everywhere, but in Ceylon where Nature does everything essential, claiming with emphasis for herself all that belongs to her so that man shall not misunderstand himself, everyone becomes conscious of this truth. For the most mediocre native, Buddha's doctrine of cognition must be a matter of course, while the most cultured European very exceptionally perceives its truth. The latter is conscious of action precisely where the Oriental recognises inaction.."
- Hermann Keyserling, The Travel Diary of Philosopher

* Nikan Awa - implies you do not need a reason for coming or for doing anything. If there is any doing that is its own reason, or being and doing coincide. There is no special "doing" outside being.

2007 Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship

In the March 26-29, I had pleasure to attend the 2007 Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship, on Said Business School in Oxford University. I meet there hundreds of great social entrepreneurs, many Ashoka Fellows, MBA Students, Social Investors from all over the world.

The biggest pleasure make me the opportunity to talk with my favourite management author and social philosopher, Charles Handy who had speech during the opening ceremony at the Forum.



Handy gave some of the stories from his new book dedicated to new generation of practical philanthropy: The New Philanthropists. The speech like most of the thoughts from his books was really inspiring for me.

I like the way of his thinking about the world through the metaphore of paradoxes. During that speech he bring us more closely to paradox which is changing the way how we use to think about philanthropy, business and thetwo percent of the richest people on the world.

Handy: "Wouldn't it be nice if one day all businesses saw themselves as social enterprises?"

I was just delighted...