and three social enterprises

For this discussion forum titled "Who's Afraid of Citizen Society'' I didn't mess up with the location or the room, as it was held at the one and only conference room in the basement of a well marked building (a university extension) in mid-town Taipei that's just a few minutes' walk away from the subway station I got off.

As I signed in and entered the room, a young lady was standing at center stage explaining how her organization uses a two-prong approach to help farmers in Taiwan: Setting up farmer's markets and online stores to sell farm products, and a news medium devoted to protecting and promoting farmers' rights that are constantly being violated and ignored by various interest groups in the island.

​Some ironies she observed and shared with the audience in reviewing her work through the years since she started the organization in 2011: Political allies that used to fight with them turned into enemies once their party got elected and became in charge of government agricultural policies; the gravest threat to farmers today comes from the green energy industry, whose cause she supports, but who, with the help of the government, is fast taking over and converting precious farmlands into solar fields that wreak havoc on the environment.

The next presentation was from a young man who went back to his hometown at the far-flung corner of metro Taipei and has built a self sustaining micro village that includes a folksy restaurant, an organic tofu factory, a travel service, art studios, a tutoring house, and a job training school over a ten-year period.

​"Education is the key: Many young people today return to their hometown with great dreams and passion to transform the community, only to find they can't even survive there themselves, while local youth continue to leave town because they can't find worthy jobs to keep them there."

"Our tutoring house, job training school, and art studios combine to provide year-round care and develop practical skills for the underprivileged children that prevent them from falling through the cracks, while helping to preserve local artisan traditions such as woodcrafting and metalworking for the community."

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The third presentation was from an even younger man whose non-profit organization is dedicated to helping migrant workers–there are over 700,000 of them from Southeast Asia currently in Taiwan–adapt and advance their lives and livelihoods in Taiwan and beyond. They provide Sunday schools and online teaching for language, communication, and even business skills so migrants can start sustainable businesses when they return to their home countries, cultural events to facilitate mutual understanding between migrants and local people, and legal counsel and public advocacy for migrants' rights.

"Migrants help build our infrastructure, give care to our elders, and provide comfortable living to many in Taiwan. They are not just laborers, but also individuals who live in Taiwan alongside us."

"Social progress depends on how we engage people with different ethnicities, languages, cultures, and backgrounds. Let's make every migrant's journey worthy and inspiring in Taiwan!"

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Aren't you proud of these young men and women and what they are doing?! 

* Taiwan has been the second time in a row ranked the top performer among 18 Asian economies in providing enabling environment for philanthropy and private social investment by the Centre for Asian Philanthropy and Society, an independent non-profit research organization based in Hong Kong that promotes positive system change in the social investment sector across Asia, in their biennial "Doing Good Index" report: