In the introduction section about “Social Entrepreneurs 2009” program on 30th September, CSIP highly acknowledged the 7 projects that received support from the organization this year. They were carefully selected from 79 project proposals to the program. In the meeting, CSIP also provided significant guidelines in terms of financial support, technical assistance, communication and planning for honored social entrepreneurs. Among seven best projects this year, Ecolife was appreciated as the most feasible project.and one of the two social enterprises at implementation stage this year.
Ms. Pham Kieu Oanh, Director of CSIP stated “Social enterprises as well as social entrepreneurs are new concepts in Vietnam. CSIP focused on those projects with similar objectives of benefits for the civil society and social development. It is also great opportunity to establish and access to a variety of organizations. The organization hoped that, those funded project would contribute to popularize the concepts of social enterprises – entrepreneurs in Vietnam and also take active roles in community development”
The idea of the social enterprise “Ecolife” was raised from MCD’s desire to continue supports for local communities in the Red River Delta, where MCD has provided significant assistance to establish a community-based ecotourism model in the last four years with remarkable achievement as identified from the beginning.
Besides, Ecolife also aims to assist other coastal communities to set up a network for community-based ecotourism in coastal areas in Vietnam, in order to provide tourists opportunity to experience and get better understanding about lives and challenges that people living in and around areas of high biodiversity values.
In the case that tourism companies are sharply growing, marine tourism activities and coastal resorts are strongly developed but benefits for local community are limited, Ecolife endeavors to bring new ideas approach to businesses and entrepreneurs , who are investing and exploiting tourism resources in the country to improve living standards for local communities and conserves biodiversity at the same time.