Varacco Inc. recently partnered with USAID and RTHSN-Lakan to conduct a training event that aims to enhance the entrepreneurial capacities of RTHSN-Lakan. An Empowerment Through Enterprise: Building Essential Entrepreneurial Skills for the RTHSN- Lakan Community held in Los Baños Larocca held last July 7 to July 9, 2023. 

RTHSN-Lakan is a nonprofit organization that pursues a mission of eradicating TB and AIDS in central Luzon. Through funding and donations, the organization has been able to provide services to TB and HIV positive people for the past seven years. Recently, Lakan took the initiative of devising a system which sustains its support to its beneficiaries, to rely not solely on fundings, but rather on an enterprise whose profit is allocated for Lakan’s beneficiaries. 

By immersing the participants within a setting of the industry arena they choose to play in, and providing them a glimpse of the science behind establishing and continuing a business, Varacco aims to set up an advantageous platform to enable the participants to take intentional steps and smart decisions throughout their journey of running a social enterprise. With an all-star lineup of speakers, Varraco was able to provide the Lakan participants an in-depth and interactive learning of the basic functions of a business– human resource, marketing, finance, and operations. 

This project is in pursuit of Varacco’s vision for itself of being a company that takes on social challenges for the betterment of society, one community at a time. Aligning with Varacco’s advocacies and stand on responsibly offering services and products– responsible enterprising, this training event serves as a starting model for the company to eventually establish a standardized system that capacitates service-oriented organizations to unleash their entrepreneurial potentials, and explore how these can be used as means to offer a stronger and steadier support to those in need. The initiative taken by RTHSN-Lakan opened an opportunity for Varacco to play a role in this scene; an arena where each player is driven by a heart for communities. Through this, we revisit our purpose of making profit, for what and for who. — LOIS ABIGAIL MENDOZA