A “field day” with UBS 20/20

Being a member of the Group, The Associates was invited to present to the UBS 20-20 Social Impact Leaders Group, with our flagship responsible investment ChickenSoup as a case study, on March 17th.  The UBS 20-20 Social Impact Leaders Group brings together emerging next generation leaders who have a passionate for philanthropy and social investment for joint discussion, exploration and collaboration.

Together with the Foodlink Foundation, we designed an all-day workshop starting with a panel presentation and discussion in the morning.  The theme was about the application of basic business principles of “Operating Leverage, Sustainability,& Impact Measurement” in building charitable organizations, with an emphasis of doing so with both the brain and the heart.

Then we moved offsite for lunch at the legacy Kowloon City neighborhood, which is highly populated with low-income families.  Each participant was given a HK$20 bill as the only budget, which in fact was a generous one, to experience the cost and conditions of living of underprivileged families.

Our “street-smart” participants quickly navigated off the main roads, which were populated by the pricier restaurants driven by real estate prices, into the one-way streets with mixed foot traffic.

They did spend time to read through the menu before walking into the restaurants, which was a brand new exercise to most.  They did survive in either a walking lunch with bread and water on their own, or pooling their budget to share a sit-down lunch with half a meal per person.

A visit to partitioned flats in To Kwa Wan was scheduled after the lunch.  The group had to be split into team of three so they can squeeze into the tiny units for a dialogue with the family.  Participants had seen photos and videos of these so-called apartments,yet it was shocking to personally witness such living environment and picture the daily lives of these families.

There was much tensity among the next generation leaders in their conversations with these innocent children.  When asked about his career aspiration, a boy replied with the typical four professions under the Chinese culture: “Accountant, Architect, Engineer and Doctor,” yet little does he know most of them (historically 60%) will remain below the poverty line in their adulthood.

With regard to most pressing needs in conversations with the single mothers: “I want to be able to buy more fish and meat for my kids to eat.”  “I hope someone can help taking care of my kids’ homework and exam preparation, as I am not educated enough.”  “On weekends, I hope they will have a chance to go out of the apartment or best our neighborhood to see more of the outside world.” The focus of parents was all about their kids and none about themselves.

After the emotional home visits, our ChickenSoup “solution” was presented at our flagship Sham Shui Po center, which provides comprehensive after school care services to underprivileged children – home tutorials, hot & fresh meal,counseling, mentoring, and weekend life-skills workshops.  And with a perfect timing we arrived at the same time when the Foodlink van was delivering food to the many families waiting at the Center.Participants got to see how a ChickenSoup center was operating on a typical weekday in terms of meals and tutorial services.

After an action-packed day, we concluded the event at Catalunya with a debriefing dinner.  Everyone shared their thoughts and experiences for the day, and related them to our conceptual “commercial approach” into charity discussed in the morning.  To conclude, this group of leaders plannedahead to see how this day of due diligence and learning could apply to improve their current and future charity effort.

The Associates were pleased to see this indescribable impact for the day on the UBS 20/20 Social Impact Leaders Group.