I know Luna since at least 5 years, probably more. I do remember some brainstorming sessions at Change Fusion Office that used to be located in a small room at Baber Mahal Revisited.
I was a bit the outsider, the guy earning good money (it was long time ago, now I dream that money) working for an INGO and a bit the “conservative” dude as I was really inclined to grant making ( call it donor dependency syndrome).
Luna was leading her A-Team (for those who do not know what it is an A Team, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_A-Team) , an incredible group of people that included also Rafael that is now working with Teach For Nepal but also he is busy launching his fantastic venture. There was vibrancy in the air but also tension and fear of not making it.
Along the years Luna did a lot. Since those days, the days where she basically launched the social entrepreneurship movement in Nepal, Change Fusion reached several milestones including working with the Soros Foundation on the Youth Action Fund, organizing two successful social entrepreneurship awards in partnership with Surya Nepal, starting Journey for Change, an innovative social entrepreneurship oriented touristic company and more recently she is working on establishing a social entrepreneurship hub in partnership with another incredible company called Seeing Hands where together they set up shop in Bakundole.
Ops I am forgetting that even more recently Luna started again a new “smart” shop, A Shop with a Story at Baber Mahal Revisited a place where high end souvenirs are sold. Be clear, we are not talking about normal or standard souvenirs but products manufactured with a strong social component.
Despite Luna is a strong believer in profit making, she is as well a strong believer in social justice and fairness. Luna does not pursue the logic of profit just in order to become rich. Quite the opposite actually!!!
I believe that Luna is in reality in “loss” because what she really loves is helping others rather than helping herself making money.
On this Luna is a real SOCIAL entrepreneur, not like many others who pretend to care about others but actually are just keen on making money.
Last Saturday Luna addressed the ENGAGE Corps members in our monthly class. She spoke about her life philosophy, why she is not against I/NGOs but rather she prefers the more effective, “value for money” social entrepreneurship approach that does away with all the wastes too often generated by traditional development work.
Luna, on this regard, is very pragmatic and absolutely not radical: she is not dead set against traditional I/NGOs or grants but, through her own experience, she realized how beautiful is to be independent and sustainable.
Grants are not bad according to Luna but too often they are not used in the right or proper way. Having instead a more business kind of approach, allows a person to rely just on her/his idea and product. In short being a social entrepreneur, you do not have the luxury of the “parachute”.
During the lecture with the ENGAGE Corps, Luna talked about some tenants of the social entrepreneurship.
First the idea, you need to have a good idea, you need to do research and you need to test it and be courageous enough to drop it if you see it is not working.
Second you need be clear about the purpose, what you want to achieve. No one should be ashamed at making only money without having any social impact but the same person should not claim to be a social entrepreneur doing some good at society level. Being a social entrepreneur is actually more than just hiring persons or giving them trainings.
What you are actually doing must be somehow measured against some social benchmarks that prove your impact on the ground. Importantly it is indispensible you are good at “connecting” and transfering your passion.
You need to use your heart and have tons of passion; you need to be good at making sure that the persons working with you are able to share your dream. They need to feel “owner “as well of the venture.
Third impact: A social entrepreneur must do care about making money, doing profit but, equally important, s/he must be extremely serious about creating social impact, changing or improving the lives of the people because of your product or your service.
Being able “staying” on the market means, for Luna, being sustainable. Sustainability allows you the freedom to be just yourself without compromising because your donor wants you to change something. Of course being good at staying on the market does not come easy, you are, after all, an entrepreneur and being such, you know that you have to take risks and also learn to fail.
Last but not the least, always try to be innovative, thinking something fresh, anew, something that no one else is doing. Being innovative means also doing a lot of piloting, learning by doing.
Luna is a very pragmatic person. She knows well that you can also be innovative and achieve a great social impact by being a traditional charity. Ultimately it is up to the person, either a social or a civic entrepreneur, to try to maximize the work done in order to achieve the highest impact. Using the market or charity money is just a medium.
Money, either from the “market” or coming from traditional charity, are at the end, always money. It is up to the person to choose the right platform and use them in the right way.
Luna shows that success is not about having a huge office or a big staff, success stems from the happiness of being able to do something good for the others. Even a small drop of help counts a lot.
By the way Luna is not just a great friend of mine but also a friend of ENGAGE. She has been helping us in many different capacities since the beginning and she continues to be a great fan.
I am not writing this story because I own something to Luna. It is not actually the first time I write something about her. I just feel she deserves this and I will keep writing about her as long as she will continue to be a source of great inspiration and be sure that she will keep being that forever.
About Luna’s latest venture:
A Shop with a Story’ is an initiative of ChangeFusion Nepal which aims to promote social entrepreneurship in Nepal through establishing the identities of the social ventures along with giving them a marketplace to showcase their products. The exclusive store is solely owned and run by social ventures namely Friend Handicraft, Kakani Himalayan Natural Dyes, Kevin Rohan Memorial Eco-Foundation, Newa Decor and The Candlestick women.
https://www.facebook.com/shopwithastory
If instead you want super massages, please visit http://www.seeinghandsnepal.org/
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