I read another 2 chapters of "How to Change the World." The first chapter was very interesting. It showed me that many social entrepreneurs do not get the attention for the work they have done. Even if they make some of the biggest change in the community, they will not get any acknowledgment or recognition. This idea that people who enter this field will never be well known for the change they have created might not enter the field because they want someone recognize their work. For me I feel that getting recognition will not make the work that these social entrepreneurs better but it could make it worse. When some people get recognition, they stop trying to improve which stops change because problems will while they stay the same. I feel that I could make it in this type of work because I do not need the recognition to be happy with changing the lives of others.
The next chapter was about a mom in Hungary who wanted to have her disabled son to get the best quality support. In Hungary, the government had not made laws or reforms to help people who have disabilities. The treatment that these people were very dehumanizing, sometimes at these centers that help disabled people, the people were locked up in cages because some people they think are a danger to everyone around them. When this mom saw this treatment, she knew that she would not want her son to be treated like that. So she started her own center for disabled people, where they are treated like normal people. She could not get any funding from anyone but still kept on working at it. When the Hungarian government created laws that helped the disabled, she was making huge leaps and bounds to improve her center. I was very touched by this story. She was able to make huge changes for many people in the country for the purpose of helping just one person. It might seem selfish but she still made the lives of so many disabled people better. If she did not have a disabled son none of that might have happened. When the people that are closest to you are affected by a problem, you try your best to change that problem. I feel that causes some of the best work to be done.
My sense is that social entrepreneurship is starting to come to the forefront. There's more and more interest in working to solve our problems, and there's a greater sense that the government (alone) cannot do this...and this is where social entrepreneurs come in. I think there will be tons of jobs in this sector of the economy in the upcoming years.
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