“MESSY BESSY”

The social enterprise operating in the Philippines that I chose is Messy Bessy. It is
a social enterprise based in Philippines that focuses on producing personal care, home
care, baby care, and industrial cleaning line that are sustainable, green, biodegradable,
and non-toxic. An example of their products are their Messy Bessy Head to Toe Wash
and Big Little Warrior Bergamot which are a mild baby wash and a sanitizer which are
said to be 100% organic and includes ingredients that came from nature.
They have the mission, together with their partner foundation HOUSE, to
rehabilitate at-risk and disadvantaged young adults ages 18-30 years old through a
working student program. While they focus on making products that are sustainable,
green, biodegradable, and non-toxic; they also encourage their buyers to return their used
bottles and then they would transform them to emergency shelters and other charitable
products. They help those who are in poverty by giving them jobs such as their working
student program, they also give them scholarships, give financial assistance, and online
mentoring. Aside from this, they also encourage 100 other businesses to allow them to
hire 10,000 working students in the next 10 years.
One of their beneficiaries are those who are less fortunate enough to be able to
find a job or to be able to enter to college due to their life setback such as poverty and
those who lack the opportunity to be able to find a job specially during the pandemic. In
2020, they provided employment and education to their 72 youth scholars.
An example of their success story is Ariel and Arjay, who lived in poverty in their
life and was unemployed. Their families cannot afford to send them to college, luckily,
they were found by Messy Bessy and was given the opportunity to go to a college free of
fee and were given part time jobs in Messy Bessy. By 2019 they both graduated and are
now employed in a well-paying job and is no longer considered living in poverty.
In 2020, there were a total of 72 students from poverty that they were able to help
to graduate in different colleges and 56 students that were enrolled in the 2020-2021
school year giving them a chance to pursue the course or career they wanted from
different colleges in Manila. This means those students would be able to find a well-paying
job not just helping themselves but also helping their family escape poverty. They also
gave a total of 20,00 USD (approximately 1,000,000 pesos) worth of student loans with
no interest.
Aside from those students who were stripped of their privilege to education
because of poverty, Messy Bessy also actively helped those who were affected by the
natural calamities of the Philippines. One example is Mark, who was affected by the super
typhoon Haiyan, who went to Manila where he was working in a port carrying a 100kg
sack who was paid 2 USD a day (approximately 100 pesos). Messy Bessy found him and
was recruited by them and was given a chance to study in a five-year college course. He
is now working in a non-profit organization in Manila.
 Messy Bessy, first identified the main needs of these students in order for them to
focus in their studies or in order for them to live in a poverty free life, in which they
discovered 5 namely; Family stability, financial stability, wellbeing, education and training,
and employment.
With these different approaches they are doing which are researching the needs
of the community, planning for different strategies in order to tackle the different need of
the community, applying what they learned, making products in order to generate income
and employment, and generating privileges to these less fortunate people of our society.
Now they are currently looking for more business partners and school institutions who are
willing to help them provide more opportunities in approximately 5 million youth who are
in need of a decent job and study. With these strategies it is seen to have a long-term
impact to the community as they were able to address 4 SDGs specifically; 1 No Poverty,
4 Quality Education, 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth, and 10 Reduce Inequalities.