A Call to Social Entrepreneurship in Lebanon
As the recent TEDxBeirut event aimed to bring us
‘From Limitation to Inspiration,’ it followed the TED mandate to
spread ideas that would inspire action, by encouraging social
entrepreneurship in Lebanon.
One speaker,
Yorgui Teyrou, conveyed the idea that you can turn adversity
into something positive, particularly powerfull. He emotionally
spoke of how it feels to cause a fatal car accident, the effects of
his subsequent stay in the infamous Roumieh prison, and how this
led to his aspiration to ‘do something good every day’ after
getting out. On his fifth day of newfound freedom, he realized one
way that he could immediately make a difference: his victim’s
grandfather was in the hospital and needed a blood
transfusion. After donating blood, Yorgui realised Lebanon’s
lack of blood donation facilities, so he set up Donner Sang Compter to raise
awareness about the importance of voluntary blood donation. Since
its inception three years ago, the blood donated has saved 12 000
lives.
Nothing so dramatic was necessary to inspire
Hala Fadel. A simple question posed by her husband: ’Are you
happy ?’ caused an existential crisis for the then 27-year old
banker. She decided to quit her job and pursue an MBA at MIT.
Inspired by the internet frenzy of the 1990s, she used her insider
knowledge of the excessive costs incurred by the banking industry
to set up Booleo. The MIT Business Plan competition recognised the
idea’s potential and allowed her to succeed. In return, she decided
to extend the thrill of entrepreneurship to other ambitious
youngsters in the Arab World by joining the MIT Enterprise Forum
and becoming the Chair of MITEF in the Pan-Arab Region. The
resulting MIT
Enterprise Forum Arab Business Plan Competition has since
received thousands of applications from 17 different countries.
Following the electricity jolt of the Arab spring, let’s replace
political role-models with entrepreneurs, Hala challenged the
audience. (To find out how you can follow Hala’s advice read
Wamda.com’s interview with Hala here.)
This was the undercurrent of the day: finding new ways to tackle
Lebanon’s social issues. Thus Katia Saleh passionately conveyed the
potential of the first Arab web based soap opera Shankaboot to get people talking
about intersectarian marriage and homosexuality, and Joanna
Choukeir promoted the establishment of ‘Imagination
Studio’, a brainstorming space where different groups will be
brought together to solve issues of sectarian interaction. Ziad
Abichaker, CEO of Cedar
Environmental and the final speaker, strung these two threads
together in his imaginative narration of his love affair with
waste, and how to dispose of it in an environmentally friendly, and
profitable, manner.
Off the mainstage, TEDxBeirut also
aimed to be the first TED platform to get people to do immediately
do something with their ideas. TEDxIdeaLab took ideas
tweeted by participants and organised impromptu brainstorm sessions
to see how they could be implemented. Of all of the ideas
presented, the top two ideas- one for pop-up urban gardens around
Beirut, and one for a blood donor recruitment initiative- are
currently awaiting a decision to see who will win two months
‘incubation time’ at Berytech. Hopefully with this support, the
creators will transform their ideas from paper into reality,
demonstrating that no social issue is too big to tackle in
Lebanon.