It is almost time for the 1%EVENT – only 2 weeks to go! – which brings together innovators, young professionals, entrepreneurs and change-makers. They invest one day of their time, expertise, talent, network and energy to work on new innovative approaches towards International Co-Operation 2.0. At the event there will be some interesting guests who want to tell you their story. But in the upcoming weeks towards the 1%EVENT we are going to tell you theirs in regular blog posts.
Today’s guest is Marlon Parker from Cape Town, South-Africa. Marlon is what you call a Social Entrepreneur, and he’s one of those people who is using the potential of Social Media. I asked him to do the interview in his own chatting platform called ‘JamiiX’, but more on that later.
What does being a social entrepreneur mean to him, and what makes him different from the rest?
Marlon: “My understanding is to come up with solutions that benefit people, make a positive social impact. I use the bottom-up approach, identify champions on the ground who basically drive the initiative! I have learnt that to sustain something you first need people before you need money. When you have people who are passionate and believe in the cause then anything becomes possible.”
When I ask him to give me an example, he starts telling about the ‘Reconstructed Living Lab’ that he founded. Marlon: “RLabs was started to provide basic training to ex-gang members and drug addicts, but from there we realised that there are other people in the community who also wanted to be equipped in using Social Media to share their stories. So what we did was use the same people (ex-gangsters and ex-drug addicts) to equip the women and children that they used to disempower”.
JamiiX
To better help these people he has developed a program called JamiiX. Jamiix is a platform in which multiple chat clients (mobiles, internet messengers, chat programs) can be combined and be displayed in the same way. Now he can reach a network of almost 150.000 people. Did he expect this? Marlon: “No, we just wanted to help the kids in our community who spent lots of time on their mobile phones”.
His project has caught a lot of attention throughout the world. In South Africa he’s been on national television and recently an article was printed in the Dutch newspaper ‘De Pers’.
We think he is both innovative and refreshing in the world of Social Media, so we’re really glad he is coming to Amsterdam for the 1%EVENT! Do you also want to hear what Marlon has to share, then come to the 1%EVENT!
YOU make it work!
Related posts:
