Finding myself in the midst of 11 different nationalities with hope for achieving a common goal was an eye-opening for me in Tilburg, the Netherlands for DYPALL’s Social Entrepreneurship programme in October.
As a young person and social entrepreneur, this was a perfect program for me to attend as I learned and understand the different mechanism of young people on how to start a business.
The first couple of days was learning from different organisations that work with young people and social entrepreneurs on how they can either start their business or develop it further.
This experience was amazing as it helped me to reflect and see room for improvement on social entrepreneurship.
My take away will be.. to become a social entrepreneur, you need to have a purpose behind your actions. Test the project/idea within an organisation. Have short and long term plan. Collaborate with different organisations to help achieve your goal. Be prepared for setbacks.
by Ahmed Mohammed
Sharing a space with a group of practitioners who all have the same interest in social entrepreneurship and youth participation meant that we all had a shared goal; to refine the tools we use in our community work. At the same time this group came from all over Europe, from Turkey, to Hungary, to Portugal, and some worked within their local municipalities and others with the UN.
This meant that despite our similarities, the differences between us provided opportunity to learn and grow not only as practitioners but also as individuals. I often find that, it is the conversations with colleagues outside of the classroom where a lot of my education takes place. This, for me, is one of the things I look forward to when embarking on any journey outside of my comfort zone, and Tilburg, and my colleagues for the week, provided this type of education in abundance.
My highlight of the week would be undertaking Joshua Daniels’ ‘Challenge Yourself 365’ programme. His session included an engaging and interactive reflection session which set the tone for the rest of the week. We were asked to think about our own values and goals, and we were challenged to act on them. This, he emphasised, was all part of being an effective social entrepreneur and it is a message that definitely resonated with me.
by Saadadeen Monajed
