SOCIAL BUSINESS SUMMIT 2013: More fun and fulfillment in Phl

SOCIAL BUSINESS SUMMIT 2013: More fun and fulfillment in Phl


The Enchanted Farm: Attracting bright minds from around the world

According to 21-year-old Clemence Tricaud, it is not even necessary to go to a beach – this particular Parisiene has found true equilibrium and meaning in the traffic and chaos of Quezon City.
I met Clemence, a Business Management student from the top Paris-based business school HEC, at the Enchanted Farm in Angat, Bulacan. The Enchanted Farm is home to a growing contingent of young, socially engaged visitors who have come to the Philippines to become involved in social tourism, or “volun-tourism.”

The Enchanted Farm is both an incubator-hub for social entrepreneurship as well as home to a thriving rural community of former urban squatters. For many foreigners, it is the gateway to discovering the genius of the poor.

Clemence had first heard about the Gawad Kalinga Enchanted Farm during a forum at her school and soon became curious about a prototype for sustainable development the likes of which she had never encountered before: “It wasn’t just the holistic program or ideas themselves that I found revolutionary, but rather the fact that these ideas really seemed to be followed through with actions