LoVE (Laboratory of Ventures and Enterprises)

LoVE is a grant facility that unleashes the genius of the poor by funding their creative and innovative ideas. It is part of SEED Philippines’ movement to raise social-agripreneurs from the bottom of the pyramid by launching sustainable and disruptive solutions that will create shared prosperity for all.

Poverty remains the biggest problem of the world, and the biggest solution is the poor.

SEED Philippines is the first Farm Village University in the world, building the next generation of leaders, changemakers and social-agripreneurs from the bright poor.

We are fighting the war on poverty, and our weapon is love.  LoVE (Laboratory of Ventures and Enterprises) is a grant facility that fosters applied intelligence, and fuels our scholars with resources to incubate social enterprises, ending poverty for themselves, their families, communities and country. 

Millions of people are living in dire poverty in the Philippines and do not have access to quality education. Only 50% of high school students go to college while only 14% graduate, most from diploma mills that do not equip them with the education and skills needed to compete in the job market. Meanwhile, the best and the brightest students leave the countryside to pursue employment in urban cities and abroad due to lack of opportunity.

LoVE is a solution started, built and sustained by the poor. It was born out of the genius of our SEED scholars (16-23 years old students from the poorest communities of the Philippines).

For the past 6 months, LoVE has been incubating 32 social-agri enterprises.  Out of the 78 grants, 88% proved to be successful and 12% were our greatest sources of learnings. Astonishingly, the fund grew by 25%, solely from the scholars’ returns/donations.

Because of the power of LoVE, the sons and daughters of poor farmers garbage collectors, construction workers and jeepney drivers, are now business owners.

SEED Philippines is now on its fourth year. We have a total of three batches (150 scholars) and just recruited the fourth batch (60 more incoming scholars) from the poorest communities all over the Philippines.  

Our target is to hone more social entrepreneurs, to support existing SEED enterprises and to develop more social enterprises through LoVE.

Scholars who were awarded with LoVE, are required to submit learning reports such as financial documents and reflection papers, and to return the LoVE proceeds accredited as donations. - LoVE incubates scholars’ social-agri enterprises, supporting it in three main areas: product development, operations management and asset acquisition.

LoVE is solution made from and for the poor- a technology that is started, built and sustained by the poor. It is not heavily dependent on wi-fi, smart gadgets, codes or apps, making it simple and accessible to the poor. 

From start to finish, LoVE creates, delivers and captures entrepreneurial and experimental learning. The model fosters rapid prototyping and the lean start up model of build-measure-learn cycle.

In addition, the LoVE fund is kept alive by the combined generosity of the partners of SEED Philippines, Gawad Kalinga and Enchanted Farm, and the grateful giving back commitment of grant recipients.

SEED commits to raising the bright poor who are entrepreneurial, experimental, experiential, excellent and ethical.  The scholars/ recipients are guided by a team of dedicated SEED big brothers and sisters (mentors) all throughout the LoVE learning process.  LoVE fosters not just the entrepreneurial skills of the scholars, but more importantly, their entrepreneurial behavior.

LoVE is open to all aspiring social-agripreneurs from the poor communities, who have identified a business opportunity or/and running a SEED enterprise.

 LoVE is accessed through a LoVE Application Form and an Agreement of Values Form. It provides learning opportunities for the poor, without them worrying about collateral and guarantees.

SEED Philippines, alongside GK Enchanted Farm, will be replicated throughout the Philippines and Malaysia starting this year.

LoVE is currently funded and sustained by the (1) scholarship funds of SEED from donations, and by (2) the returns/donations of

LoVE grant recipients.  In addition to these, we just soft-launched this May 2017, (3) a crowd sourcing facility to engage more people in our mission.  Ultimately, our goal is for the LoVE fund to be sustained by the poor, (4) by requiring registered businesses who graduated from LoVE/SEED to contribute part of their proceeds and greatest learnings to LoVE.

SEED is a team of 10 dedicated full-time workers alongside Gawad Kalinga community.  Our mission to end poverty for 5 million families by raising 500,000 social entrepreneurs by 2024.  The greatest factors that limit us are our ourselves, our poverties, fears and insecurities. That’s why we hold on to the miracles of solidarity. We are not going to do it alone. We are going to do it with our most amazing partners, the poor. Walang Iwanan.

http://www.gk1world.com/home

https://web.facebook.com/Gkenchantedfarm/

https://web.facebook.com/SeedPhilippines/?_rdc=1&_rdr

Because of love. Because we love the poor and each other.

Because we believe that the time is now. It’s time to tell and to show to the world how inspiring, amazing, and loving our SEED scholars are.  

Because we believe that the poor is not the problem, they are the solution.

Because we believe that love can change the world. And because we believe, then we are already changing it. And because we believe, we are spreading the love so others will believe in it too.                                                                                                         

Gawad Kalinga Community Development Foundation, Inc.

Gawad Kalinga Enchanted Farm

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