Charity work doesn’t mean having no economic construction or achieving no profit

Minister of Social Development, Chairperson of the Board of Directors of Al-Osra Bank, Dr. Fatima Bint Mohammed Al Bulooshi asserted that the 2nd Forum for the Social Enterprise Week is considered a completion for what had been started last year. The minister highlighted that the organizing committee of the forum had followed up, during this year, the recommendations of the first week of the forum. The minister pointed out that during this week, they started implementing those recommendations including carrying out a study on the most important social issues of which the social entrepreneurs could use such ideas, in addition to launching a competition in cooperation with Bahrain Development Bank to encourage people for entrepreneurship. Minister of Social Development stressed that a framework for a national plan would be developed to activate the social entrepreneurship till it becomes part of the Bahraini local economy. The minister pointed out that a lot of the available works and projects in Bahrain have been reviewed, asserting that through the economic and social work standards, a number of projects had been discovered of which could be named social projects that achieve profit, in addition to a social goal and benefit for people. In a statement for Bahrain News Agency (BNA) the minister asserted that the charity work doesn’t mean that it should not be based on economic foundations, or do not achieve profit, highlighting that the charity work may achieve profit and sustainability, in addition to supporting the human being, which is considered the basis for the charity work. The minister reinforced that the selection of University of Bahrain for holding the second forum for Entrepreneurship kicked off out of their desire to attract university students to start a number of projects which are based on such goal. The 2nd international Forum was inaugurated this morning under the patronage of Deputy Prime Minister Shaikh Mohammed Bin Mubarak Al Khalifa "The week of social entrepreneurship 2013," which is organized by al Osra Bank in cooperation with the Ministry of Social Development for the second consecutive year and it will last for four days till 31 October 2013.