Rags2Riches co-founder is Rolex Young Laureate

As a child, Reese Fernandez wanted to be Darna. Growing up, she wanted to be a superhero after getting exposed to Third World suffering as she moved from place to place with her missionary mother. While studying management at the Ateneo de Manila University, however, she took a Business Innovations class that changed her life. Along with other students, Fernandez visited the rug-weavers of Payatas. Often described as one of the Philippines' largest dumpsites, Payatas is home to some talented mothers engaged in an informal cottage industry of foot rugs woven from discarded scraps of cloth. Despite their hard work, they earned very little - one peso per rug, a pittance considering they could only make eight to ten rugs daily. The reason: middlemen were sourcing scrap cloth directly from factories, so the weavers could no longer find them around the area and would have to buy the raw materials.

Fernandez and her classmates identified some of the problems, embarking on a project that would eventually change hundreds of lives. What began as a framework designed to link the rug-weavers of Payatas to buyers eventually became an internationally recognized social business enterprise, most recently by the Young Laureates Program of the Rolex Awards for Enterprise announced last April. The Young Laureates Program fosters innovation in the next generation. An expansion of the original Rolex Awards for Enterprise, the program provides visionary young men and women with funding and encouragement to implement their inventive ideas and gain the experience to become tomorrow’s leaders. Fernandez is one of this year's five Young Laureates, who were selected from 308 potential candidates from around the world. The jury of 10 international luminaries with expertise in the fields of Exploration, Environment, Science and Health, Applied Technology and Cultural Preservation met in March to select the five inaugural Young Laureates out of 27 finalists from 16 countries. "Reading through the projects was extremely inspiring - there are people out there who are willing to change the world, from a very young age," said veterinary surgeon Gladys Kalema-Zizusoka, a member of the jury. "Some of them are so magnificently qualified, they could be going off working for some big companies and making a ton of money... but no, they want to go on to be able to help in other parts of the world," added philanthropist Vijay Amritraj, another member of the jury. The comments from the jury were posted on the Rolex awards website. Amritraj might as well be talking about Fernandez, an honors graduate of BS Management 2007 from the Ateneo de Manila University who has chosen to become committed to the rug project. Fernandez and nine other founding partners set up Rags2Riches Inc. or R2R, a social business enterprise that empowers the women by creating high-end designer fashion masterpieces and home accessories. They recycle scrap cloth discarded by garments factories around the Philippines and work with renowned fashion designers including Rajo Laurel and Amina Aranaz-Alunan, runway models, fashion directors, marketers and entrepreneurs. "We want each buyer to buy the product, open it, feel its beautiful texture, and know that he/she just contributed to a good cause. Each product comes with the Rags2Riches story of transformation and a handwritten signature of the mother who made the product," according to the official site of Rags2Riches. Fernandez has become one of the most prominent advocates for social entrepreneurship in the Philippines today. In 2008, she was one of the International Youth Foundation's 20 Global Young Social Entrepreneurs. Among the grants that Rags2Riches has received include ₤10,000 from The Body Shop Foundation, ₤20,000 from the BID Global Competition and $24,000 from Starbucks Grant. The enterprise itself has grown from three community members to a 52-member women's cooperative, and expanded into nine communities around Metro Manila with over 300 women weavers. They went from having just one to over fifty institutional partners, and from 15 to over 100 expert volunteers. Jumping from 15 to 800 tons of upcycled scrap cloth, the community enterprise literally went from rags to riches in just two years. With the $50,000 grant from the Young Laureate awards, Reese and Rags2Riches will be putting up RISE – the Rags2Riches Innovation and Social Enterprise Center that will further scale up their work in "Eco-Ethical Style." Fernandez may not have become Darna, but she has become a big part of a Cinderella story of heroic proportions. - YA, GMANews.TV