Social Enterprise Category
Emily Teng, 25
Radio DJ
By day, Emily Teng often works up a sweat at the gym and by running around the city for her non-profit project, 'Blessings in a Bag' (BIAB) and social enterprise, 'OKRA'. By night, she's the voice of 'The Hot Date' on Power98 FM.
Raised in Jakarta, Melbourne and Singapore, Emily was inspired from a young age to serve the needs of the community around her and since 2007, she's been juggling a full-time job and a full-time passion.
OKRA began humbly in 2009 with the realization that in order to help the children there had to be something that provided a support system for the caretakers, too. So an idea was hatched to empower women and enable them to supplement their family income, usually earned by the husbands.
Most of the women are mothers who wish to provide food on the table and send their children to school but there are also women who were sold to the human trafficking trade and have since left that chapter of their life. Products are hand-made by the women and tap onto their local skills and the community’s resources.
A big believer in the saying, “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are”, Emily is known for encouraging everyone to believe in owning their potential and becoming ‘World Change Agents’.
With products currently selling at local retailers, there are plans to set up an online store by end 2012.
Read about her here