What is Social Entrepreneurship?

Today, social entrepreneurship (SE) is one the rapidly developing fields worldwide. In the United States of America, 22% of the social enterprises have over $2 million in revenue while in Australia, an estimation of 20,000 social enterprises constitutes 2-3% of the country’s GDP. As for in Malaysia, the industry is still undergoing development and has increased in numbers steadily.

So what is social entrepreneurship? 

Social entrepreneurship is the act of combining innovation, resourcefulness, and opportunity to focus on critical social and environmental challenges. A social entrepreneur is able to generate innovative ideas to solve social, cultural or environmental-related issues through their enterprise. They act as independent changemakers that use entrepreneurship principles to develop and manage their businesses.

The best example to illustrate social entrepreneurship is Bangladesh’s Grameen Bank which is founded by 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Professor Muhammad Yunus. Grameen Bank provides loans to the rural poor to stimulate businesses and reduce rural poverty in Bangladesh. Another example is British celebrity chef, Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen Project. The project aims to help disadvantaged youths by creating better futures for themselves through the art of good food. 

In Malaysia, social entrepreneurship field is growing rapidly with the involvement of many Malaysians who wish to build businesses with the potential to impact the society positively. There are about 70 registered social enterprises in Malaysia which are mostly consumer-based associations, youth programs, animal protection bodies and publications. As social enterprises are mostly philanthropic, they grow rather slowly.

Hence, several bodies in Malaysia including Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC) and Genovasi are established to provide support to these social enterprises. The Malaysian Government has allocated RM20 million in the Malaysian Social Enterprise Blueprint 2015-2018 to support local social entrepreneurs.


Social Entrepreneurship in Gift Shops


In the Social Enterprise Corner of Petrosains’s XPLORASI Gift Shop and PETRONAS Twin Towers Gift Shop, we have been featuring several local products from social enterprises which are available to the public for purchases which are available to the public for purchase. The products are from, Simply Cookies (home-baked cookies), Earth Heir (jewelry, bags, and scarves) and Magicbird (children’s books).

Projek 57 (locally made cotton T-shirts and merchandises with meaning messages about Malaysia)

Green Yards (eco-cleaning products and eco-candles), Seven Tea One (chemical-free herbal infusion teas)

Biji-Biji Initiative (furniture made of recycled materials)

Social Enterprises’ Workshops

We, Petrosains supports social entrepreneurship by collaborating with social enterprises through our project, The GOOD Workshop series. The GOOD Workshop is an all-new after hour program to bring life-centric learning experiences to the socially conscious community. These workshops are held fortnightly on Wednesday evening. Petrosains had conducted several interesting workshops with several social entrepreneurship. For example, in collaboration with Biji-Biji Initiative, Petrosains had organized Mereka Workshop which focused on creating a motion sensing light with basic coding. Apart from that, along with Green Yards, Petrosains organized a DIY Eco-Soaps workshop where participants learned on making soaps made from used cooking oils. 

Shared by Celine Woon

Guest Blogger

Magic In Your Kitchen!

Let's do magic by using something that you can get from your kitchen! But is it really magic or is it science? Science magic tricks look like "magic," but there is a secret behind the special effects. The secret is a scientific principle or concept from maybe chemistry or physics that makes it look like a 'magic' trick. The great thing is these 'magic' tricks can be used to demonstrate or teach a scientific concept like chemistry in a fun way. Here is a science magic trick using 'red cabbage juice' as a natural pH indicator that changes colors according to the acidity and basicity of the solution! 

But how do you do it? Just peel off six red cabbage leaves and put them in a blender filled half full with water. Then pour the purplish cabbage liquid through a strainer to filter out all of the big chunks of cabbage. Keep the red cabbage juice in a bottle and store it in a refrigerator.

Red cabbage contains a water-soluble pigment called anthocyanin that changes color when it is mixed with an acid or base. The pigment turns red in acidic environments and turns bluish-green in alkaline environments. In chemistry, pH is a measure of the acidity or basicity of a solution.

Now comes the interesting part! Take a small container and fill it with lemon juice. Add red cabbage juice to the container and notice the colour change to red, which indicates that lemon juice is acidic. Watch the video! 

Next, try doing the same with soap solution in a separate container. Add red cabbage juice to it. Notice how the liquid turns to bluish-green, indicating that the soap solution is alkaline. 

Repeat your experiments! Try it with other solutions like detergents and vinegar. You'll find the answer immediately, as to whether it is acidic or alkaline. Usually, an acid is a substance with a sour taste. It also has a pH value of less than 7. However, an alkaline tastes bitter with a pH greater than 7.

Did you know that plants that have colours have pigments in them? Some plants' pigments can react with acid and alkaline and will change colour accordingly. There are many other plants that can be a natural pH indicator too. Next you can try making natural pH indicators using dragon fruit, black berries, grapes and hibiscus too!  



You can also try this at Petrosains and have fun with our current theme, Nature's Kingdom!

Posted by Ayu
Learning Specialist, Petrosains