56p in my purse, 1 American Cent and 5 Euro Cents I`ve found. But I am richer than the rich, learning about the gift of living by faith. I so desperately needed to buy tissue, which is £1 in Iceland. I prayed, Lord you know I`ve got a cold and haven’t got a pound to by tissue, please I need that pound. And a couple of hours later I looked down on the ground by the entrance of the little park and there it was a £1. I am so happy with my Kleenex. I also got some posh lip gloss, face cream and bath salt from Diana`s goody bag, which made my day!
Monsieur Thesis was very gentle to me today. We only spent a few hours together before and after work, but it was really fruitful. It also helped a great deal I suppose that I stopped drinking coffee and rather opt to decaf tea whenever I can. I read through 26 pages and tomorrow finally I am going to start refining the discussion part. That is the longest. I managed to write a couple of chapters on stuff that I originally cut out, but at the end I had to put it back to make sense.
Supplementary Reading
Following up the research findings, some of the areas looked at became less evident due to the historical and cultural shifts. The three main outcomes of the Sanderson interview: the church as an existing organisation to help social enterprises, the role of microfinance in entrepreneurial activity within a chosen group to create sustainable livelihoods and raising funds for micro finance were looked at.
The role of the church in entrepreneurship in Hungary:
Religion had played a significant role in the history of Hungary up until the communist takeover in 1948. The fact that communism was against religion especially in the 1950s and 1960s (Tomka, 2004) to lessen its direct influence on education and on the whole nation (Kenez, 2006) resulted in a considerate shift in its role in the community’s well-being by the decreasing number of the congregations. Therefore opposite to Five Talents’ example in Africa, the church in Hungary is not in a situation to play a significant role in the communities’ social entrepreneurial activities. To be able to use its network for job creation it needs to increase its role in the community by increasing the number of the congregations which is a lengthy process due to the distrust the communist regime created between the citizens and the church. This was to decrease and disable the power of the second biggest organizational body, the church next to the government where people have the same voice and could potentially question the ideology of communism.
Microfinance in Hungary:
Microfinance activity in Hungary is relatively low. The first programs started with Nest in helping projects which were funded for the disabled using craft as a mean to express and produce. The EU’s micro finance programs targets SME`s which already have to show economic activity and a lengths of registration at least one year.
Ideas based on similar principle to micro finance, helping the local community can be found in Hungary. The conservative government initiated the `Shop of the Poor’, where locally produced food is sold for a lower price by cutting out the middle-man. This helps both the producer and the customer to sell and buy locally and to keep the money within the community.
The role of the civil sector in supporting job creation Social Enterprise:
In a society where everyone feels vulnerable craft projects employing the disabled get exemption from paying the high monthly fees after employees, which makes artisans even more vulnerable as their products are higher priced due to these fees they have to pay (Kocsor to Fodor, 2009). This vicious circle of tax creates a discomfort between enterprises and social enterprises.
Fundraising for Social Enterprise:
The level of distrust in Hungary towards fundraising and charitable financial activity is high. The number of companies who would donate to help the unemployed back to work is low. The main factors holding back fundraising activities in Hungary are the lack of guarantee in trustworthiness and credibility of those who request support and the lack of regulations for the ethical forms of fundraising. The Corporate Strategy of Philanthropy (Corporate Donations in Hungary) Research project on Nonprofit Organisations, Budapest, 2005 (Eszter Harsanyi, Eva Kuti, Mihaly Laki, Eva Revesz, Marianna Torok). During communism fundraising and charitable activity became centralised and when it revived after the fall of communism in high number of cases it was used for money laundering, which increased the level of distrust between potential donors and those who request support.
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