Social Enterprise & the No Name Cousin

       So this weekend I've attended a press conference offered at my university and the event was called UBC Social Enterprise Conference. I found this event through advertisement on the university's main website and I was intrigued to learn more about social enterprise and businesses that aim to make profits sustainably while making positive impacts in communities. The question/theme raised in this press conference was can social enterprise be the missing piece to solutions for solving some of the worlds biggest problems? Various guest speakers were brought onto the stage and shared meaningful knowledge and wisdom that has really empowered myself and I'm sure many others who were there.

     Attending this conference was worthwhile because it exposed me to a little bit of the business world and the logistics of it. Numerous business that aim to make positive changes in the world exist. Like many other things (e.g. technology) in the world, we can use business as a tool for social change. 

     I've got a lot out of this conference and the big points I've gotten out of it is...

★ Cultivate curiosity
★ Failure is the secret to success (don't be afraid to fail!)
★ Interdisciplinary collaboration is the key to making real change



      Now I know this does not relate to much to my travels but it has gotten me brainstorming ways in which I can bring about positive, sustainable changes in developing communities such as Vietnam and contributions I can make to make that happen one day.


                                                                                                                                                             

Mystery Identity.

      This picture was taken probably around the late 80's. Photos like these were usually sent along with letters from my family on my father's side. While I was growing up, my family on my fathers side was always kept a mystery from my brother and I. My father was very vague when it came to talking about his side of the family. Over the years, we got tidbits here and there of information on our family members in Vietnam. Hearing our father speak about his family was a big deal to us because we wanted to know more about them. On rare occasions my father would share with us stories of his childhood growing up and describe to us the characters of many of his brothers and half-sisters. He was not particularly close to his father (my grandfather) or some of his other siblings as the family was very fragmented.

    The original plan was to find my family with one of my best friends in the one week I had left after my volunteer placement which is only 3 weeks long. I asked my dad for information on where he lived, the address of his old home/other places they may be, and the names of the family members. What I received in the mail from him were two pictures. One is the one you see at the top, the no name cousin (I can't believe he doesn't even know the name of his own nephew! But then again... he doesn't know my birthday or my brothers...or even our age sometimes) and the second was a cute little picture of two year old me and him on the beach. He admittedly told me he couldn't remember the address of where he lived and was unsure if some of our family members where still alive. Due to many complications such as the limited time frame to find my family, venturing into the unknown where locals may not speak English at all (I do not speak Vietnamese), the possibility of being lost/scammed, and the lack of information to find them at all, I've decided to scrap searching for them myself and come back with my dad one day (hopefully soon).

Surrey, British Columbia. White Rock Beach 96'.

 

Evonne's Adventures in Ho Chi Minh

Photo by IVHQ