Getting Beyond Better

Chapter 2

The Nature of Social Entrepreneurship

The 1970s were particularly tough years for Bangladesh. Monsoon floods and famine killed hundreds of thousands of people and devastated an already fragile economy. The country’s poor villagers were hit hardest. But they were already locked into a cycle of unremitting poverty, with little opportunity to improve their livelihoods; even before devastating natural disasters, they suffered profoundly.

Among these were the citizens of Jobra, a small community in southwest Bangladesh, near Chittagong. There, a number of women eked out a subsistence wage making furniture. In order to make their stools and other items, the women needed supplies, especially bamboo. The trouble was, they didn’t have the funds ...