THE BAG THAT BREATHES LIFE
by Reese Fernandez

Rags2Riches has recently launched the RIIR by Rajo Laurel Tree Bag Project. It is a project that has been inspiring our team for the past few months now (when we were still preparing it).

The RIIR by Rajo Laurel Tree Bag is an exquisite, limited edition everyday bag created by 3 communities from different parts of the country. It is created using scrap cloth (for the handle), scrap thread (for the body of the bag), and scrap wood (for the buttons). What makes it even more exciting is that we will be planting ONE TREE FOR EVERY BAG SOLD! We love how all of these causes came together into one amazing product designed by one of the Philippines’ premier fashion designers, Mr. Rajo Laurel (www.rajolaurel.com)!

This was our event’s invitation card. =)

photo credit : Ed San Juan

Yes, the bags are beautiful and very functional. =) But what makes it even more beautiful are the hands that made them. It is my honor to introduce them.

The Weavers of Bangued, Abra.

The Women of Payatas, Rags2Riches Cooperative

We don’t have photos of the wood carvers of Pardo Cebu yet but as soon as I get them, I’ll acknowledge them in this blog. =)

Special thanks to my new found good friend Anya Lim, a wonderful lady who heads a social enterprise in Cebu called Ant Hill. You can visit her site here: anthillfabricgallery.multiply.com.

Of course, the launch and the product would not be possible without the talents and passion of my team. Thank you Matt Pardinas (sales and marketing manager), Michelle Smith (sales and marketing associate), Nelson Baclayo (Production Director), Jing Ludovice (Community Relations Officer), Miguel Abrera (Community Relations and Communications Officer), Helen Guerrero (Finance and HR Officer) Cynthia Cabrera (Community Expansion Supervisor, Payatas Cooperative Member), Jhane Abris (Production Supervisor), Fencia Fonte (Off-Site Production Supervisor, Payatas cooperative member), Nhing Estabillo (Production Coordinator, Payatas cooperative member), Kuya Yam, Kuya Marco, and all the communities who participated!

For orders and inquiries, you may email r2r_matt@yahoo.com. =)

We’ll be coming up with an amazing campaign soon!

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Last December 2009, I attended INSEAD’s Social Entrepreneurship Programme in Singapore.

As part of ISEP’s ongoing efforts to create a vibrant community as well as advance the field, they are organizing their 4th Conference, aptly entitled ‘Social Entrepreneurship for Social Change’ in Istanbul, Turkey this coming June 4.

Hans Wahl, Senior Associate Director has extended an invitation to join – as well as participate on the Leadership Roundtable (which will be held adjacently to the conference) -  and as such I will be excitedly attending

You might want to join too! Check out the official conference website for more details.

—

“SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP FOR SOCIAL CHANGE” Conference

Today, social issues are being tackled through socially innovative approaches instead of traditional philanthropic methods.

Social entrepreneurship entails a comprehensive approach, which is both innovative and realistic, dealing with the core of social issues and trying to change conditions that create them; contrary to temporary solutions provided by philanthropic endeavors.

INSEAD Social Enterpreneurship Program (ISEP) is organizing an international social entrepreneurship conference and alumni meeting every year since its establishment in 2006. The 2010 Social Entrepreneurship Conference that will take place in Istanbul is ISEP’s 4th conference.

These international conferences are organized by ISEP and local partners. This year’s organization is a partnership between ISEP, three ISEP Alumni from Turkey, and Sabancı University (the details of organizing institutions and committee members are under the heading of “About Us” in the web).

The Social Entrepreneurship Conference includes interactive panel discussions and keynote speeches on major opportunities and challenges faced by social entrepreneurs around the world.

Inspiring speakers with compelling stories will definitely impress the attendees!

As the organizing committee, we believe that this conference is a great instrument to publicize the importance of Social Entrepreneurship in Turkey, discover new ways to tackle social problems and bring innovative models into light.

Thus, we INVITE you to join this remarkable event in the 4th of June 2010 that is the first international conference on “Social Entrepreneurship” in Turkey.

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While this is most certainly an award for my fiance’ (!) , it’s also a glowing testament of the work that Rags2Riches is doing. In fact, as Reese is the first to always mention – this award truly belongs to Rags2Riches, our Communities, our Nanays, our Partners, our Designers, our C0-Advocates, and of course – our country, the Philippines

With the award, Reese and Rags2Riches will be putting up RISE – the Rags2Riches Innovation and Social Enterprise Center (although other auxiliary names are being explored for it :p) which will be the livelab that will further scale our work in Eco-Ethical Style.

More details of this endeavor in the months to come – but suffice to say that 2010 continues to be an exciting year for this Social Business Enterprise.

Congratulations, Reese!!! We’re all very proud of you

ROLEX ANNOUNCES FIRST WINNERS OF YOUNG LAUREATE AWARDS

Five Pioneers Poised to Change the World

Geneva, 15 April 2010 – Five visionaries aged under 30 from Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, the Philippines and the United States have been selected as the Young Laureates in the inaugural Rolex Awards for Enterprise: Young Laureates Programme, Rolex announced today at a press conference in Geneva.

Chosen from a pool of nearly 200 candidates worldwide by an international jury of experts, these outstanding social entrepreneurs impressed the judging panel with their passion and conviction to overcome challenges in the areas of science and health, applied technology, exploration, the environment and cultural preservation.

The Rolex Young Laureates are:

Jacob COLKER, 26, United States – is changing the way people get involved in community service. His internet-based programme allows volunteers to use their smartphones to donate spare

minutes to charitable and scientific organizations.

Reese FERNANDEZ, 25, Philippines – is committed to alleviating poverty by training people to become social entrepreneurs. Her Rags2Riches enterprise has already empowered hundreds of women to earn a living by turning scrap materials into elegant fashion accessories.

Nnaemeka IKEGWUONU, 27, Nigeria – intends to boost the living standards of millions of Nigerian farmers through his interactive, mobile radio network. Hundreds of thousands of rural listeners are already receiving and exchanging information on sustainable farming practices and health issues.

Piyush TEWARI, 29, India – has set up a foundation to train a network of police officers and volunteers to respond quickly to road accidents and administer rapid medical care. By providing immediate assistance to victims, he hopes to stem the thousands of fatalities that occur on Indian roads each year.

Bruktawit TIGABU, 28, Ethiopia – is building on the success of a television programme on health that she and her husband are producing for preschool children and their parents.

—

“Rolex is delighted to support these exceptional young men and women who represent the best of their generation,” said Rebecca Irvin, director of philanthropy at Rolex. “In tackling the problems that face humanity, they do not think in traditional ways or stick to old ideas. Their innovative projects have begun to have a profound effect on their own communities, and potentially could improve the lives of millions of people.”

An expansion of the long-standing Rolex Awards for Enterprise, the Young Laureates Programme honours men and women between the ages of 18 and 30 with inventive ideas. Each Young

Laureate will receive US$50,000 over the course of two years. During the first year, funding of

$25,000 each will give the recipients time to focus on their pioneering projects, while the second instalment will help them move forward in implementing them. The Rolex Awards international network of innovators, comprised mainly of former Laureates, is available for guidance and to help the winners take the projects to another stage.

“In this sound-bite world of ours, Rolex is giving a message to these motivated young people to take time to think things through and do their projects right,” said American ecologist Margaret

D. Lowman, one of the 10 jury members who chose the winners. “The younger generation really gets it when it comes to the planet and how the machinery of the earth works. We only need to empower them to act and Rolex is doing this by providing the gift of time.”

Another jury member, Singaporean explorer Khoo Swee Chiow, agreed: “Rolex is giving the Young Laureates time to mature. I think preparation is important. That is why, I guess, it took me

ten years before I finally climbed Everest.”

On 11 November 2010, Rolex will mark the accomplishments of the Young Laureates at an event at the recently launched Rolex Learning Center, a hub for educational exchange, at a highly respected Swiss university, the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). Experts from

related fields, including some former Laureates, will join the celebration.

For further information, visit: young.rolexawards.com, or contact:

Mary O’ Mahony
Head of the Rolex Awards Young Laureates Programme
The Rolex Awards for Enterprise, P.O. Box 1311, 1211 Geneva 26 Switzerland
Tel. +41 22 302 2179, Fax +41 22 302 2585

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thank you to Rags2Riches Partners Cream Silk and Manny Angeles’ no.twentyproductions for making this video possible.

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Rags2Riches wanted to start the year strong, and we did so with aesthETHICS – the launch of the RIIR Aranaz Spring/Summer Collection Launch.

Held in Fort Bonifacio High Street – a strategic partner of Rags2Riches – the event was brilliantly conceptualized and executed by another R2R partner, ActivAsia (special mentions to their President Manny de Luna, Direk Pogs Mendoza, Rachel Tan-Tuason, and Chuva Cruz). After sharing with them the spirit of R2R and our vision of launching both the Spring/Summer Collection and Eco-Ethical Style in – pun intended – absolute style, they came back to us with aesthETHICS – an event that fully embodies what we stand for.

And what Rags2Riches is really standing for now is the triumvirate-advocacy of Eco-Ethical Style. It’s the fusion and perfect union of the three elements Eco (environment, upcycling, organic materials), Ethical (fair trade, community-based enterprises), and Style (fashion and beauty).

I can think of no better way to share what this means than through Rags2Riches’ Eco-Ethical Style Manifesto, which we started communicating in our 2nd year Anniversary last November.

Now on to aesthETHICS, which formally started with this opening AVP :

After the introduction, Rags2Riches President (and my, ahem, fiance’ , Reese Fernandez – shares our new vision on Eco-Ethical Style, of embracing empowerment, beauty, and the planet.

To emphasize this new space, we unveiled R2R’s new official video – made possible by the passion and eye of director/producer Manny Angeles, in partnership with Cream Silk. Of course, this also features Rajo Laurel, the design genius and spirit which really set RIIR into motion. Truth to tell, with this video is getting closer and closer to the look and feel of the Rags2Riches’ Designer Line in our heads.

We’ve always said that Rags2Riches is the intersection of Social Cause & Fashion, and this AVP testifies to the latter. Beauty with meaning, indeed :

—

Now, on to the launch of the new RIIR Aranaz Spring Summer Collection, designed by none other than Amina Aranaz-Alunan  :

After the fashion show, Reese, R2r Cooperative Chairperson Cynthia Cabrera, and Becky Aranaz (Amina couldn’t go as she’s currently pregnant), and of course the Nanay Artisans of Payatas go up to stage after the launch reveal of the new collection. This is what we mean when we say that The Back End is the Front End.

After the Spring/Summer Collection reveal, Reese then revealed Rags2Riches’ new partner and Eco-Ethical Style Ambassadress …

… none other than Ms. Chin-Chin Gutierrez, a Filipina woman that is the absolute manifestation of Eco, Ethical, and Style.

—

Whew! What an intensely awesome event aesthETHICS was.

But I guess what made it most meaningful for me wasn’t just the glitz and pomp and glamor of the whole show.

It boiled down to a text that we received from our friend, Jason Tan :

“Hey guys, saw a couple of payatas girls weeping with joy and pride during the show. That’s the ultimate sign of success right there. Congratulations! ”

He totally got what we were launching that night. Because it definitely wasn’t just about our new line of bags. It goes way beyond that.

And if YOU do get it, then we’re more than happy to welcome you into this new world of Eco-Ethical Style.

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In Rags2Riches, we have a term which reflects one of our core philosophies : “The Back End is the Front End”.

You see, ‘The Back End’ is the aspect that customers normally don’t see; They only see the fancy advertising, the glitzy images, the seductive storefront, the alluring posters, the massive billboards.

The customer’s interface with the enterprise, if you really think about it, is really only with marketing and sales. After all, nobody really cares about the Back Office – the people in HR, Accounting, and Legal.

Moreover, the true Back End – Production – is more often than not nameless workers in a nondescript factory. You don’t really give a damn where the product you bought was made and who made them – as a customer, your role in the universe is simply to buy.

But it’s on this point wherein Rags2Riches shares a different paradigm.

Because we do want you to care.

We want you to care who made the products you buy. We want you to give a damn about the artisans who painstakingly crafted the product you so wholeheartedly bought.

slide taken from the Rags2Riches Manifesto

And that’s why our Back End – the Payatas Community – is delicately woven into our Front End. The Nanays are at the spotlight of Rags2Riches – in our events, in our communication, in our collaterals. We proudly wear our advocacy on our sleeves.

But we also deal with this Back End-Front End integration very delicately, especially because its subject to misinterpretation and – shudder to think – exploitation.

We’re cognizant that the community is NOT a marketing tool. That’s a trap that’s just way too easy to fall into. In fact, sometimes it’s downright preadtory and lessens the dignity of the marginalized.

The reason the Rags2Riches Nanays are at the forefront is not a marketing tactic; Its actually our vehicle of spreading the advocacy – that our social business enterprise isn’t in the business of selling bags, it’s in the business of empowerment. On a deeper level, the reason they are at the forefront is because it gives them pride in the work that they do. The R2R Nanays aren’t laborers or workers; They’re artisans.

In fact, they’re artisans AND entrepreneurs. Because when you buy an RIIR Designer Bag, you’re not donating to beneficiaries; you’re purchasing from an empowered community of business owners.

This coming March 24 we are again launching another chapter of Rags2Riches – aesthETHICS : the RIIR Aranaz Spring/Summer Collection Launch, wherein the empowered community artisans have again collaborated with designer Amina Aranaz-Alunan, and proudly share their work. The text of our invitation says it all :

—

We Celebrate Beauty.

The hands that make them.

The advocate that supports them.

And the life that continues because of them.

Join us for One Beautiful Night.

—

One beautiful night, indeed! Message me directly ruizmark@gmail.com if you want to go

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As a staunch advocate of social entrepreneurship in the country, the Ateneo School of Government is yet again hosting Forum on Best Practices in Social Entrepreneurship on 17 April 2010, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. in Ateneo Professional Schools, Rockwell Center, Makati City.

This forum aims to instill deeper appreciation of social entrepreneurship as an innovative means to solve social problems using entrepreneurial skills. It will feature several successful social enterprises in the Philippines and around the world through the inspiring stories of individuals who envisioned a new and better Philippines for Filipinos.

Registration fee is only P2, 500.00. Less 15% will be given to those who will register on or before 31 March 2010. Groups of three or more will get 10% discount and 20% discount for those who sign-up early as a group.

If you would like to make a reservation and register, please send us an email with your complete name and contact information to cristylsenajon@yahoo.com or call 426-5657.

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Last weekend, Reese Fernandez – President of Rags2Riches, Inc and my other/better half – conducted a transition workshop with the Rags2Riches Cooperative’s Board of Directors. The main content of the workshop was – and stay with me here – finance and managerial accounting.

To appreciate the concept on why it’s a transition, one has to understand first our philosophy and business model.

I’ve often said that the easiest thing Rags2Riches could have done – in order to impact the community – was to have set-up a Rags2Riches factory and hire the Payatas Nanays as laborers. The Nanays would have ended up with a production area, they would clock-in time in/time out from 9-to-5, get decent wages, and live a slightly more financially secure life.

It would have made things absolutely simpler than our complex arrangement right now — the Nanays as part-owners/shareholders of Rags2Riches Inc., and also fully owning – independently – Rags2Riches cooperative. In fact, it would also make things simpler on the business and production side — if the Nanays were hired employees, then we could demand specific work-hours, impose targets, and let all hell break loose if production wasn’t up to speed – quite unlike the current experience wherein production and time commitments are continuing negotiations.

But mere employment, strictly speaking, wasn’t – and isn’t – the goal of Rags2Riches.

It’s about a psychological/cultural upheaval; A directed transition from dependence, patronage, and entitlement – into independence, participatory equality, and empowerment.

And this is something that will only happen if there’s a conscious movement to the community having, owning, and running their own business. And this will only take form once the community becomes their own Rags2Riches cooperative. It’s a necessary, albeit potentially difficult, step.

This is a much harder route to take, but one that we feel is more sustainable and long-term; After all, this is what differentiates us as a social business enterprise as opposed to a traditional business.

Through time and experiences of success, the community – through running their own business – will discover self-confidence and a can-do attitude. And that paradigm shift leads to a luxury a lot of people take for granted — the belief that you can indeed control your own destiny.

When this happens – this psychological shift towards empowerment – the community’s culture fundamentally changes. And this, we believe, is the true goal and challenge. It’s not just about putting more money in marginalized communities’ pockets (although indeed, providing livelihood is an undeniably important factor), it’s really about working with the community so that they can eventually stand on their own two feet.

And so, this leads us to Rags2Riches Inc’s business model.

Other schools of thought position the social entrepreneur’s philosophy as making oneself obsolete. Find a social problem, come up with an innovative solution, disappear, and move on to the next problem. While I can imagine how this would be true for certain cases – climate change, human trafficking, spousal abuse, prostitution, to name a few – our particular context in Rags2Riches (and indeed, Hapinoy) points us towards a difference perspective. Given that we’re in livelihood, we see an ongoing business relationship with the community, even – and actually, most especially – after they have been set-up into their own cooperative.

This is the business model we’re looking at :

What we’ve essentially done is look at the entire value chain, and ask ourselves fundamental questions : Which portions of the chain would the community of Nanays be best at, that we at R2R inc wouldn’t be able to touch with a ten-inch pole? And what could R2R inc be potentially best at that could deliver value to the R2R cooperative?

Which leaves us with this equation : R2R Cooperative would focus on production, while R2R inc would focus on product design & development and marketing & sales, thus creating a configuration that would allow for a continuing business relationship. A business partnership between equals.

How do we ensure it is indeed a partnership of equals?

Well, here’s a peculiar fact – the R2R cooperative is not exclusively tied to R2R inc – meaning that the cooperative could choose to “fire” R2R inc and do business with another organization, if they choose to do so.

With this arrangement, we can then truly say that the cooperative can determine its own destiny.

Some people who’ve seen this model have asked us if we were crazy. After all, why expend so much energy and effort into organizing the community into their own cooperative, and then not lock them in to your system?

It doesn’t seem to make any sense to a lot, yes. But for us, it does.

After all, the goal of community empowerment is at the core of what we’re doing, and this is the route, the decision, that increases our chances at achieving that. But furthermore, there’s also business rationality here. Given that the R2R cooperative can choose to work with any organization it wants, this then forces R2R inc to continuously strive to give the coop the the best deal (in fact, the Nanays negotiating with us for the best deal is a welcome and good thing — it spells equality!); it also forces us to make sure that we are indeed the best business partner, keeps us on our toes, and creates a healthy tension and pressure for us to innovate.

And so this is what brings us back to the workshop that Reese and team conducted.

The whole exercise was working with the Nanays in crafting the financials of their cooperative. There was most definitely a managerial view — as they saw first-hand the relationships between wages, product-costing, and overheads – and how all this affected the selling prices of what they produced. And since this is a partnership of openness, R2R coop also saw how their decisions affected the financials of R2R inc.

Summa total, the cooperative took an important step to managing their business from a financial perspective — from simple things such as what ongoing expenses should they rationalize, to more sensitive topics such as how much they want to pay the members and in what schemes. It wasn’t a light conversation, but it was definitely something that had to be done.

And personally, I can’t help but say that it was indeed quite fulfilling to have seen this whole thing unfold.

While the Rags2Riches model is definitely a work-in-progress, it seems more and more that we’re along the right path.

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I would like to invite you to become part of Rags2Riches, Inc.; a social business enterprise (Corporation) creating Eco-Ethical fashion bags and home accessories, created by empowered women from Payatas, who upcycle scrap materials discarded by factories around the Philippines. We create Eco-Ethical lifestyle products with our partner designers Mr. Rajo Laurel and Ms. Amina Aranaz-Alunan.

Rags2Riches is the recipient of the 2008 Social Enterprise Award from the University of San Francisco Business Plan Competition, the Body Shop Grant, and the Business In Development Challenge, Philippines, and Business in Development Challenge International.

We are looking for dynamic, creative, and Eco-Ethical Partners-In-Change who could join us in enriching the Rags2Riches Social Business Enterprise!

Are you interested in Sustainable Design? Do you believe that the world could be changed by designing Eco-Ethical lifestyle products? You could be our next Product Development Manager (Full-Time)!

Job Description:

• Manage the entire product line life cycle from strategic planning to field implementation, customer training and product suppo
• Work closely with  multidisciplinary experts to ensure effective, efficient, and Eco-Ethical Product development that meets the customers’ needs
• Interface and work with Production and Community Product Development team to properly and effectively communicate product development processes
• Develop partner and customer specific product service plans covering troubleshooting, product repair and field service strategies over the product lifetime
• Develop guidelines for product development and quality control that comply with local and international Eco-Ethical standards (e.g. Cradle to Cradle)
• Continuously search for innovative products and product processes that follow Eco-Ethical and Sustainable Principle

Qualifications:

• Bachelor or Graduate Degree in Industrial design, fashion design, or sustainable design (preferable but could be evaluated further depending on the qualifications of the applicant)
• At least two years experience in sales, marketing and/or product management in fashion, sustainable design, or industrial design
• Excellent written and verbal communications skills including public speaking, and the ability to communicate with openness and transparency
• Interest in social entrepreneurship, Sustainable Design, and/or Eco-Ethical Businesses and processes

Are you into advocating for Eco-Ethical lifestyle products? Then you could be our next Sales and Marketing Associate (Full-Time)!

Job Description:

• Coordinate public affairs for Rags2Riches, Inc and Rags2Riches communities
• Assist in the preparation, issuance, and delivery of sales materials, exhibits, events, and promotion programs.
• Promote positive relations with partners, vendors, and distributors.
• Recommend and administer policies and procedures to enhance operations.
• Assist the Sales and Marketing Manager in monitoring inventory, delivering goods on time, and managing Rags2Riches distribution outlet

Qualifications:

• College level (any business-related course)
• Interested in Social Entrepreneurship
• Willing and able to travel
• At least one year experience in Sales and Marketing activities such as handling bazaars, creating promo materials, organizing events, and interfacing with clients.

If you think YOU or someone you know could be an Eco-Ethical Change-maker through Rags2Riches, send your CV and cover letter to reese.fernandez@gmail.com and r2r_matt@yahoo.com on or before January 15, 2010.

Thank you very much.

Sincerely,

–
Reese Fernandez
President, Founding Partner
Rags2Riches, Inc.
Unit 3B Cubao Expo, Araneta Center Cubao,
Quezon City, Philippines

Phone: +632 6664520
Mobile: +63 9178040406
reesefernandez@yahoo.com
reese.fernandez@gmail.com
www.rags2riches.ph

“We see a world of abundance, not limits. In the midst of a great deal of talk about reducing the human ecological footprint, we offer a different vision. What if humans designed products and systems that celebrate an abundance of human creativity, culture, and productivity? That are so intelligent and safe, our species leaves an ecological footprint to delight in, not lament?”–Cradle to Cradle

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