SIAO, Kristan Mario B. Feb.

20, 2021
BS IE-2 Elective
TOA: Pre-midterm

1. Cite three social issues present in your barangay and explain

I am currently living in Talamban, Cebu. Three social issues that I think are evident in my
barangay are (1) traffic, (2) waste management, and (3) flooding. First, I have noticed that
there is a certain lack of traffic lights and/or enforcers to manage the traffic along the roads in
the barangay. I experienced this during pre-COVID, wherein there would be heavy traffic in
the area early morning and other peak hours. Second, I have also noticed a lack of public
trash cans in the area, as well as an overall lack of promotion of proper trash segregation. I
believe our local officers should implement stricter rules to try and encourage our citizens to
throw their trashes properly, as trash in the streets can still be observed even up to this day.
Last, I think that flooding is a consistent problem my barangay faces annually. Especially
during the rainy season, I notice that there is often a flooding problem along the streets of
USC-Talamban Campus. Although this has been improved in comparison to before, there is
still room for improvement to further minimize the flooding problems in this area.

2. Cite your ideas on common home on Laudato Si

The Laudato Si invites our fellow brothers and sisters to have a unified care for our “Home”
– the mother Earth. With this in mind, I think it is important that everyone should play a role
in the betterment of our environment. First thing that I would suggest is to promote
sustainability within our society. I can achieve this by influencing my family members and
peers to do “little acts of kindness” for the environment such as (1) reusing our plastics, (2)
reusing and recycling paper, (3) minimizing the use of electricity within the household, (4)
saving water, and (5) segregating my trash properly. I believe that these little acts of kindness
will go a long way if and only if everyone else deems to do the same as well. Collaboratively,
these “little acts” will have such a huge impact on our environment, as well as being able to
influence the people around us to do the same.

3. Describe common home that we have now

I think that as society is starting to lean towards going green, efforts have already been made
within individual households to try and maintain sustainability. I believe that families now
are more aware of the environmental impacts of their actions, as well as the implications
these have on everyone. For instance, I know some families who prefer “carpooling” now
instead of driving individual cars to try and reduce carbon emission to the atmosphere. Also,
I know of some families who have strict rules on the time limit they use for their air
conditioning units. As someone who tries to look at things with “a glass half full” , I believe
that our generation has become more aware of the environmental damage that has been done
on our planet and are more committed on caring for the common home.

4. Give 2 definitions of Social Entrepreneurship by Chahine and Pomerantz and how you
will define social entrepreneurship
According to Chahine, social entrepreneurship is “the act of pioneering new methods,
processes, products, and services that address social and environmental challenges through
the creation of new organization or initiatives”. Furthermore, Pomerantz defines social
entrepreneurship as “the development of innovative, mission-supporting, earned income, job-
creating, or licensing ventures undertaken by individual social entrepreneurs, nonprofits, or
nonprofits in association with for-profits”. With all these being said, I would simply define
social entrepreneurship as a business venture that seeks to solve societal concerns regarding
the environment, injustice, climate, human rights, etc,, while earning profit at the same time.
Through social entrepreneurship, one is able to provide a solution to a problem for society,
while making a living out of it at the same time.