It’s hard to find words to express how I feel following this amazing conference in Singapore.
Back in 2017, my marketing agency, Brandlective, joined forces with B1G1, Business for Good. This is a platform that allows us to contribute in the manner we desire. It’s our way of making a difference and helping the world take smalls steps towards the 2030 United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.
We do things like:
Each time we sign a new client we give 2 days of business training to woman in East Africa
Each time we complete a 30 day contract we give 30 days of clean water to families in Cambodia
Each time we celebrate a birthday we plant a tree in Borneo to support Orangutans natural habitat
We choose to align everyday business activities with small giving impacts though B1G1 so when they announced their annual conference dates, I booked to attend the event in Singapore immediately.
The 2-day conference featured talks from other small business owners, disruptive entrepreneurs and philanthropists, who highlighted the impact of their own charity and CSR endeavours. The event also featured a charity auction, where many prizes were donated by small business owners – and often in their areas of expertise.
Underpinning this was a serious discussion and progress report relating to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals – also known as SDGs – of which all in attendance had committed themselves to implementing. B1G1 act as a platform for businesses and their owners to commit to the UN’s SDGs. It is because of this that the company has seen endorsements from a variety of sustainable business leaders – namely Unilever’s CEO Paul Polman.
At the launch of the SDGs, Sir Richard Branson famously said, ‘this is the first time ever that the World Body, the United Nations, has acknowledged that it’s not Governments who make the real difference in our world, it’s business’ – a stance we as a business have thrown our full support behind.
For me, the conference has fully destroyed the myth that only big world players make the meaningful contributions. It has reaffirmed my belief that SMEs will be instrumental in ending extreme poverty around the globe, after seeing other science and politics largely fall short.
THE AMAZING MOVEMENT OVER A 2-DAY CONFERENCE HAS LED TO:
The creation of 257,840 GIVING IMPACTS as follows:
95,645 days of tuition classes to disadvantaged girls in Cambodia
38,258 days of support to keep a family together in times of poverty
19,129 days of education and training given to children at risk
76,516 days of business training to women in need in Malawi
4,404 days of access to life-saving water to families in Ethiopia
1,679 days of access to a safe house for a child saved from sexual abuse in Nepal
It was amazing to meet so many small business owners who are doing incredible things around the world just by committing to making these micro impacts as a result of their everyday business actitivies.
There was a phenomenal lineup of speakers who bought me to tears almost every few hours.
The Human Library®
The most memorable event was The Human Library…. wow! What an incredible experience. The Human Library® is an international organisation and movement that first started in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2000. It aims to address people’s prejudices by helping them to talk to those they would not normally meet.
The Human Library® is, in the true sense of the word, a library of people. At this conference, we were the readers who borrowed human beings serving as open books allowing us to have conversations we would not normally have access to. Every human book, represents a group in our society that is often subjected to prejudice, stigmatization or discrimination because of their lifestyle, diagnosis, belief, disability, social status, ethnic origin
We rotated tables throughout the session to learn from; ‘a Migrant Worker’, ‘a Person with Spinal Injury’, ‘a Person Living with Aids’, ‘a Transgender person’ and many more. It was such an enlightening session that really did open my eyes to some of the incorrect assumptions I make about people based on my own background and experience. I can’t express how much of an impact that has had on me.
If you would like to ‘Unjudge’ someone, please visit: https://humanlibrary.org
To learn more about B1G1, visit their website: https://b1g1.com/about-us
If you would like to become a member, please use my referral code to receive a free gift: GIVING103