The Philippines is replete with young, aspiring entrepreneurs with brilliant ideas but they usually lack the right avenue to transform their creative thoughts into reality, said Esther Santos, president of non-governmental organization (NGO) PLDT-Smart Foundation.

"A lot of our youth, after graduation, actually wind up unemployed," she pointed out.
To help young people who want to help, the foundation recently joined forces with other NGOs like PLDT KaAsenso, The Outstanding Students of the Philippines Alumni Community (TOSP-AC) and RFM Foundation in launching Project Pagsulong, a competition that challenges the youth to work on a "project of a lifetime" by coming up with the best business concepts that can be transformed into future social enterprises.
"Project Pagsulong is part of PLDT KaAsenso's thrust of contributing to nation-building by advocating entrepreneurship," said Patrick Tang, head of HOME Marketing for Voice and Micro-business. "We want to promote youth-preneurship and take it a notch further by providing an opportunity for them (the youth) to make their entrepreneurial ideas a reality, and at the same time become social movers."
Six years ago, when Bam Aquino and his team put up their social enterprise Hapinoy that provides livelihood trinings to sari-sari stores, he recalled that nobody knows about social entrepreneurship. "It was very challenging for us to do business and do good at the same time," he confessed.
Project Pagsulong, however, is a way to support social enterprises, he said.
"This is a big step in the business sector, in saying that the youth has a big role in social enterprise. If this becomes successful, it will develop more youth leaders. Our belief is that social entrepreneurship will only work if it's a sector because right now it's still a cottage industry. The goal of a social enterprise is to help people get out of poverty so newcomers are extremely welcome to legitimize social entrepreneurship as a sector," he explained.
According to Santos, this program affirms their commitment in the social enterprise approach as a means to help reduce poverty in the country. "We believe in investing in our youth and their ability to take part in finding novel solutions to our (social) problems, some of which, in fact, were the same problems encountered and remain unsolved by generations before," she enthused.
The youth challenge is open to a team of three to five young adults, 18 to 30 years old, from all socio-economic status, regardless of educational attainment. Out of school youth are welcome to join, Santos stressed.
Participating teams are expected to submit a business idea that can potentially solve a societal issue or need. Organizers are drum-beating this competition as an avenue for the youth to take a more significant civic role and be the "change makers" that will benefit future generations.
Interested participants have until the end of August 2012 to submit their entries. After the initial screening, short-listed teams will go to the next round where they will be asked to submit an expanded version of the proposal for another round of evaluation.
Ten teams will be selected for the final round where mentors and coaches will guide them in concretizing and executing their business plans. These coaches represent some of the country's "social movers" from different fields like entrepreneurship, sports, governance, technology and the arts. Among them are Rags2Riches Inc. founding partner and president Reese Fernandez-Ruiz; conceptual photographer/visual artist and HIV/AIDS awareness advocate Niccolo Cosme; and TV personalities, athlete and entrepreneurs Japoy Lizardo and Chris Tiu.
"Sharing our entrepreneurial experience to young people, and helping motivate them to dream bigger, is truly a privilege," Aquino said in a statement. "We hope to spread the strong message that young people can be enablers of change and contributors of poverty-alleviating solutions."
"It's an honor to be a part of a project that can help our youth. I believe that every Filipino has an innate heroism in him. You can start nation-building by being a good citizen. This project is a way to commit to nation-building," added another mentor, singer-songwriter Noel Cabangon.
From the entries, four winners will be selected. The top three teams will respectively win P500,000, P300,000, and P200,000, while a special People's Choice winner will receive P100,000. For the plans to be sustainable and impact-oriented, grants will be awarded in tranches depending on project milestones achieved.
According to Tang, they want the project to be regionalized to answer a specific need in that region. If there are more proposals good enough besides the winners, there is a chance for these to be also pursued, he assured.
Noorain Sabdulla, TOSP 2008 alumna and program officer for social enterprise Gawad Kalinga, said regionalizing the project will greatly benefit poor regions barely touched by social enterprise.
"We are surrounded today by young social movers who dream big not just for themselves, but for their communities and nation at large. That's why we firmly support this campaign which hopefully can help surface latent nationalism among the young Filipinos. This will be a vehicle for them to share their talents, to learn and deepen their involvement to nation-building," Asis-Layugan affirmed in a report.
"Our youth today are more inclined in being part of a growing culture of national concern by proactively contributing their skills to nation-building," said Marie Young, President of RFM Foundation. "Project Pagsulong is a very timely nationwide challenge where they can show the world the greatness of the young Filipino spirit."

For more details about the youth challenge and to download the official form to join the contest, visit www.projectpagsulong.ph.