[Cyber Kopitiam] Regarding our project's objective

[Tam Pham]

Dear Samuel and Chitra,

Thank you so much for helping our project Cyber Kopitiam till now :) I was away overseas for a short business trip with my intern company so I couldnt be around for the presentations and address your questions directly. Jocelyn told me that you have some concerns regarding the true purpose of our projects, whether it is to serve the senior citizens or to make profits. Let me answer this question via this email alright :)

Definition of Social Enterprise

I would say both are our objectives, just as any other Social Enterprises. Social Enterprises are for-profit enterprises which serve the social mission. Some examples of the current social enterprise are Food For Thought http://www.foodforthought.com.sg/, 18 Chef http://www.eighteenchefs.com/v2/, Bizlink Cafe http://www.bizlink.org.sg/social-enterprise/food-a-beverages, Estatebuzz, Blockpooling http://www.estatebuzz.com/ etc and they are all for-profit entities. 

Nonetheless, the primary objective of the social enterprise remains solving a social problem. However, we want the enterprise to be profitable as it is the way we can sustain ourselves in trying to solve the social issues. This is why social enterprise offer a more long-term help than Charity organizations (which merely just gives financial help to the people), is more sustainable than a VWO (which relies a lot on the financial help of other organizations), and is more humane than a purely profitable business (which can compromise on people's welfare for the sake of making profits)

Why senior citizens can benefit, rather than being benefited from, when they go through our CK platform

• The missing piece in the current system of support for the senior citizens in Singapore is the private sector: If we look at the whole ecosystem of support for the SCs now, more than 80% of it is funded by the government. And in next 3 decades, the number of SCs in our country is going to be 25% of our population. My team believes that Singapore is not prepared to carry the financial support for the aging population by purely relying on the government's help, which comes from increasing taxation. The private sector, up till now, is still unwilling to develop products to aid the lives of SCs, and they are not speaking to the SCs, or making any effort to help the lives of SCs to be easier. Most of the efforts by the private sector till now is largely discounts. I think it's time the private sector should stop thinking that what SCs need is just cheap stuff that many times are not designed and created for SCs' needs. It's also the time that the private companies who already have stepped on the path of creating solutions for SCs receive the help they need to bring their products to the SCs. We have wonderful products for the SCs like Health apps which help SCs to reduce heart attack risks, to reduce the need to wait and queue at the hospitals, and yet we cant make SCs aware of those wonderful IT products that aid their lives. It's time that we view our SCs differently, and treat them with dignity, not casting them aside from any development of today's world, not treating them as poor customers who always in need of financial help and support, and be more patient to bring them closer to what is happening now. And doing this requires us to be more creative in bringing them other solutions rather than just financial help and free/ cheap stuff. 
  
  
• Helping SCs is not about sheltering them from things that they can spend on, but it is about making them fully informed of different alternatives available so they can be empowered and make the informed choices for their lives: Our SCs are not even aware of the wonderful thing that IT can bring to them to even have any other choice for their lives currently to begin with. For instance, they must make a phone calls and not using Skype or anything, to contact their grandchildren. And maybe, among SCs, they have the real interest for IT but have not been realised because they have not experienced IT. Of course, in CK, we purely just teach them about things and make them experience IT and help them when they have problem using it. We do not hard sell, we do not push them to buy, and this is what my team has agreed on. The project started off as merely wanting to help the SCs, and we will stick to this core, and from time to time, remind ourselves of this. 
  
  
• Of course, we need to charge corporates. We want corporates to set aside budget to create something for SCs and receive the benefits from it. We need to understand corporates' profit-driven mindsets to be able to make them fully commit in something. Corporates need to answer to their Board of Directors and investors and thus will not do something for a long term if it does not bring profits to them. We definitely do not want to portray CK as a platform for Corporates to take an easy solution to help SCs by just pumping in money and brand it as their CSR effort. CSR is short-term, and it wont motivate Corporates to be innovative enough to create things to aid SCs lives. We need Corporates to see the Cost-Benefits (in monetary terms), and take the Silver-haired industry seriously and create solutions for the SCs proactively, not just relying on the government alone. One typical examples of how a Monetary Cost- Monetary Benefit approach can motivate corporates to create innovative products would be the (RED) campaign http://www.red.org/en/eat/. The key here to get Corporates to get on board to help us relieve the problems of aging population is to speak their languages

I used to volunteer at Ren Ci hospital. I come to visit the SCs there every Saturday and saw the SCs struggling with their illness (and many times, with family abandonment) on their bed. And I really asked myself "wouldnt it be great if they have some IT app as their friend and help them to monitor their health everyday, or maybe companies can create some products to prevent their fall risks? The SCs wont have to go through all this emotional and physical pain on their beds like this"

Dear Samuel and Chitra, I hope that this long email answer your questions regarding the true purpose and motivation of our project :) We truely really want to help our SCs and we want to contribute some of our thoughts in how we can make lives much easier for our SCs. And thank you so much you both for helping us and giving us the opportunities as well :) 

Do let me know if you have any other questions alright and I'll make sure to get back to you as soon as I can. My phone number is 8430-8637 if you prefer to text/ whatsapp me :)

Wish you both a great weekend ahead.

Blessings,

Tam