BagoSphere awarded a grant from SIF's Young Social Entrepreneurs (YSE) program

For the past 4 months, co-founder Ellwyn Tan and our avid intern, Evelyn Lim have been participating in Singapore International Foundation's (SIF) Young Social Entrepreneurs (YSE) program. The program seeks to nurture a network of social entrepreneurs in the region and this year's program has attracted youths from Indonesia, Vietnam and Cambodia, Malaysia and Singapore. 

In the first round of pitching held in March 2012 , BagoSphere was selected as the Top 10 social enterprises. Following that, BagoSphere and the other 9 social enterprises were involved in networking and mentoring sessions culminating in study trip to Thailand. Ellwyn and Evelyn had an enjoyable time visiting Population and Development International and learning from fellow social enterprises. 

The program concluded with a final pitching event on the 4th of August at M Hotel. Ellwyn took the floor with a 8 minute pitch to judges. At the prize ceremony, BagoSphere was named as one of the three social enterprises (along side with STARTNOW and I.M.PAD)  to win the grant. The grant was kindly sponsored by Asia Philanthropic Ventures.

The grant from YSE will be used to purchase IT equipment such as uninterruptable power supplies (UPS) to complete our classroom. The 4 months spent building relationships with SIF, mentors and young social entrepreneurs has been extremely rewarding. To be able to win the grant is icing on the cake.

Photo Credits: Singapore International Foundation