social entrepreneurship (like Uniquease) never felt and tasted this good.

 

 

Saturday gave me back into nostalgia as I walked around Makati again and I couldn't help but take a picture of this humble hotel in Makati which serves as our home for 12 days during study tours.

Last Saturday was a free day for there was no VOA meeting but.. I still chose to go out, went to Makati and meet with a dear friend, Amechan. She was to coordinate our fair trade program with Uniquease, a social entrepreneur / restaurant in Makati and I tagged along. A pleasant surprise in learning was up ahead that I didn't know about.
 

(Humble signed board welcoming its customers.)

 

The restaurant serves organic food and hires as its staff youth from impoverished communities such as Payatas and who are then, beneficiaries of NGO (such as SALT and ICAN). I was warmly welcomed by the 19 year old staff of Uniquease and by talking with him, I could see his happiness in his work, his pride of being able to prove something out of himself and comfortable with the loving embrace that a person from the NGO world, Ms. Yachiyo Nakamura, has given them through the opportunity of self-reliance and personal development.

 

I told him.."when I first stepped in,I thought all of you were graduates of HRIM, for your quality of service is good." I was wrong. The youth have undergone trainings as staff. They also have other activities such as workshops on making pots to increase their livelihood capabilities. The staff also live in a quarters managed by themselves. "The objective of Ms. Nakamura for hiring us as staff, is for us to become empowered, to stand on our own", he humbly explained.

 

(People Tree: A picture of the activities of youth shown inside the Uniquease restaurant)

 

At the front of the restaurant, you'll be welcomed by Uniquease's fair trade corner. This corner cater the want and need of Japanese students and visitors from Japan to shop for souvenirs to be given to their friends when they come back home. The products in Uniquease's fair trade corner are from livelihood projects of different NGOs, such as ACCESS, ICAN, SALT, etc. Even, the pots made by staff / youth of Uniquease are sold here. 

 

(Mapayapa products sold in Uniquease's fair trade corner)

 

(Accesories made from pili by kids. Pili is a native food from my hometown, Bicol.)

Today I learned that business can be done with the multitude of opportunities for helping other people. I hope every busines could be practiced like this - without oppression of work hours and wage of employees and not hindering their personal development and self-reliance. Unique ideas for putting-up a restaurant and an enterprise, is what keep Uniquease close to our hearts. 

 
 

Uniquease made us very happy that day, that we decided to sing a song for them. And yeah, we'll perform it once Amechan, Hanachan and Makichan plays the guitar, which would be very soon!
 

(I'm happy that more and more people I know are getting interested with playing guitar.) 
 

Visit their website --> http://uniquease.org/

or follow their twitter account --> http://twitter.com/#!/UNIQUEASE

or add them in Facebook --> http://www.facebook.com/UNIQUEASE.Restaurant

ACCES VOA Blog has a new blog post about Perez:

--> http://ameblo.jp/acce-philippines/