Innovations, social concerns and trade ideas in new TV reality show
While there are many social issues, problems in business entities, new innovations coming from young millennials and brand new business ideas emerging, there is no proper platform to publicly raise these issues and find solutions.
Though these issues and ideas have been brought to the notice of the government, necessary steps have not been taken to resolve or recognise any of them.
This was stated by Eranda Ginige, founder of Social Enterprise Lanka (SEL), speaking to the Business Times on the sidelines of the media briefing of ‘Ath Pavura’ held at the OZO Hotel in Colombo on Tuesday.
‘Ath Pavura’ is a reality TV show for Social Entrepreneurs which will be telecast once a week on Independent Television Network (ITN) from September this year on Saturdays at 7.00 p.m. The show will be conducted in Sinhala and Tamil languages with reciprocal subtitles. Lanka Impact Investing Network (LIIN) and SEL is the joint brainchild of the show in partnership with Horizon Campus as the education partner.
Mr. Ginige said, “There are many innovations coming from millennials and we want those to be brought to public view, it may be a solution to any business or social issue or an innovation.” Minimum age to apply for the ‘Ath Pavura’ reality show is 14 and “we will recognise ideas that will bring about a change and ideas that makes sense to any business or social enterprise”, he added.
The programme is a 30 minute TV show where three selected entrepreneurs will pitch their ideas and interested investors will make the decisions then and there. “People know about business and social issues but the solutions for those is what we are trying to tell them,” noted Mr. Ginige.
LIIN Chairman, Chandula Abeywickrema, at the briefing, stated that entrepreneurs are the backbone of the country’s economy and social entrepreneurship is what can generate employment more towards a sustainable and scalable initiative for Sri Lanka. Any enterprise should focus on social development including all stakeholders in the public and private sector not only in a micro level but on a macro scale on the entrepreneurs and investors, he added.
‘Ath Pavura’ is an initiative of a ‘game change’ in the financial services market in Sri Lanka directing entrepreneurs towards more sustainable, scalable and commercially viable enterprises that can impact the society and the environment. The show will be a platform for meeting social entrepreneurs and investors of Sri Lanka, said Mr. Abeywickrema.
Mr. Ginige, at the event, noted that, “our vision is to build a thriving social enterprise sector in Sri Lanka by 2025. The purpose of ‘Ath Pavura’ is to find and promote social entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka. It’s the best opportunity for entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka to promote their innovative solutions on social and environmental problems on television and inspire many more aspiring future social entrepreneurs.” The target is to reach one million viewers watching every episode and Rs. 10 million impact through investments from the project, he noted. He also stated that the show will be available on YouTube and other social media platforms for viewing.