A Very young Ha Sub, Kwon and truly beauty Jae young Jin from Korea are in quest tour for 5 countries i.e. India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Canada and America to learn best practices on Non Profit organizations/Non-Government Organization and social enterprise.
Ha Sub, Kwon and Jae young Jin are in India in these days and visiting various historical and cultural cities and interacting various social entrepreneurs to understand donation culture in the country.
They also visited INDIACSR and met Rusen Kumar, Founder of INDIACSR (www.indiacsr.in), the only and largest CSR (corporate sustainability and responsibility) news portal in India.
In an exclusive interview with INDIACSR, Ha Sub, Kwon and Jae young Jin said, “Our dream is to make a great social enterprise in Korea. Below is the edited transcript of the interview:
Q. What is the aim of your quest tour?
A. Our main aim is to visit NPO and social enterprises, to know necessary of donation, meet brilliant people and learn about creative donation skills. We also want to write a book on traveling experiences and donation culture in the various countries.
Q. How many organizations did you visit in India?
A. We have visited six organizations, including Goonj, Hiwel, LEDeG, Barefoot College, Don Bosco, and INDIACSR. We met lots of brilliant people in these organizations and are impressed by their passion for local society.
Q. Please share some thing about ‘Benefit Media & Marketing’ in Korea?
A. ‘Benefit Media & Marketing’ is leading organization that publishes Benefit Magazine in Korea that highlights CSR, business ideas, best practices in NPO and NGO and Social innovation which are happening in the country.
Q. Why you both are traveling so many countries? Please share your vision and mission with travel?
A. Ha Sub, Kwon : I am 23years old and student in Yonsei university. And I work at ‘Benefit Media & Marketing’ as a marketing team manager. I would like to experience the reality of donation field and get some information about creative organizations. So I planned this travel for my whole life’s vision. I want to learn all things slowly but deeply. That’s my hope in this travel for my precious 1year.
Jae young Jin : I’m 22years old and studying graphic design in Hongik university located in Seoul capital of Korea. I thought that I want to work for society and I know it’s not easy thing. So I wanted to test myself that I have the potential to work for better society through this travel. I am meeting a lot of creative people who work for better world. And I think I am finding the passion in my self, meeting them.
Q. INDIACSR is also eager to know about your “Travelidge” project ?
A. ‘Travelidge’ is the first step to give the shape our dream. It’s a combine words ‘travel’ and ‘bridge’. It means that we want to be a bridge that connects between traveler and local people. So we’re traveling with people and their precious stories. So we’re doing 2 projects. One is visiting organizations like social enterprises and NGOs. And the other is interviewing local people in the world. We’re uploading our stories and activities on our facebook page (http://facebook.com/travelidge). We request readers to press ‘like’ button and keep look our activities.
Q. What kind of challenges Korea is facing these days and in your opinion what kind of social innovation is required in the country?
A. In Korea, a lot of people are worrying about the transparency of social enterprise, because social enterprise was usually made under the leadership of government at the first. Some social enterprises do not make innovation for society and social innovation well, because government supports social enterprises financially. This is a kind of challenges in Korea. So we need creative innovations to overcome this challenge. And so many graduates can not get the job. They tend to hope to work at major companies. So if social sector will get brilliant innovations and give a lot of money for employee, then unemployment will be solved. So this is the ‘Benefit Media & Marketing’ work for introducing social innovation field to graduates and helping make creative innovation by these graduates.
Q. What is your opinion about CSR in Korea in present context?
A. We are just students who are interested in CSR. And we are also studying about CSR and social innovation sector. Carefully, we think that the CSR department in company should be disappeared. This is related with CSR 2.0 by Dr Wayne Visser, the founder of CSR International. We mean CSR has to be included in company’s vision and profit activities naturally.
Q. What are your plans beyond social innovation Quest Tour?
A. Ha Sub, Kwon : By traveling to visit lots of organizations and meet brilliant people, I would like to grow into a fine person internally. After this travel, I want to share my story and work in the social sector as a Fundraiser who will take transparency for society. If I have ability, I also want to make my own social enterprise as my style.
Jaeyoung, Jin : I am meeting a lot of good people and listening a lot of good stories. I convince that this experience will make me do meaningful work in future. I should learn many things and I am not sure what I will do, but I want to do great job for society that satisfy me and other people in future.
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