By Manel Hamdi
Social entrepreneurship refers to the practice of combining innovation, resourcefulness and opportunity to address critical social and environmental challenges. Social entrepreneurs focus on transforming systems and practices that are the root causes of poverty, marginalization, environmental deterioration and accompanying loss of human dignity. In so doing, they may set up for-profit or not-for-profit organizations, and in either case, their primary objective is to create sustainable systems change.
The main elements of social entrepreneurship are: creating strategic plans, preparing for and running events, identifying fundraising opportunities, soliciting financial support, team building, networking and long-term sustainability. On the other hand, the function of social entrepreneurship consists of : creating and maintaining a stable level of employment, creating jobs and providing support to socially vulnerable groups, promoting development of entrepreneurial skills, reducing poverty risk. In this context, the AIC held a three days training sessions in the governorate of Tataouine, from the 8th to the 10th May 2014,where they encouraged the participants to pursue their dreams and explaining to them key elements to success. The training sessions on social entrepreneurship are part of the TOT cycle launched on May 2014, as a final chapter of ‘Tune in Tunisia program.’ T-I-T is a program that aims at increasing civic involvement, increasing citizen understanding of human rights/civic responsibilities and fostering a culture of social entrepreneurship. The training was led by Amna Tounekti, who is one of the leaders of the first version of Tune in Tunisia project (1.0) that was launched by AIC in 2011. This program is sponsored by MEPI.
Amna also invited Ines Amri to give a presentation about her successful story on her project ‘My Destiny in My Hand’ where she helped tens of rural women with raw material and later on marketing their handmade traditional craft. Ines also is one of the leaders of the first version of Tune in Tunisia project (1.0). In fact, this invitation shows the collaboration of different civil society components to achieve the AIC’s goal, which is increasing citizen understanding of civic responsibilities.
Other subjects such as financial management, employability and soft skills will be discussed in further trainings.
A group of motivated young women from Tataouine
Ines Amri, a guest speaker, talkning about her success story with rural women in Gabes and encouraging the participants to start their own projects.
