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Terminology |
What is the meaning behind
Ki-Rin?
‘Ki’ is a fundamental concept of traditional Chinese culture.
Ki is believed to be part of everything that exists, as in “life
force” or “spiritual energy,” It is most often translated
as “energy flow,” or literally as “air” or “breath”.
Also, the Japanese language contains over 11,442 known usages of 'ki'
as a compound. As a compound, it may represent syllables associated
with the mind, the heart, feeling, the atmosphere, and flavor. The
spiritual concept analogous to Chinese Ki appears mainly in the martial
arts, such as Aikido. The term ‘Kirin’, or even ‘Kiran’,
is derived from the Sanskrit traditions, meaning ray of light or energy
from the sun. |
| At the core of what we do is to energise
individuals and organisations by providing them with the tools and
processes to help achieve transformational and sustainable social change,
enabling the delivery of support and value to the most marginalised
and disadvantaged in our communities. |
What
are the UN Millennium Development Goals?
The United Nations Millennium Declaration,
signed in September 2000, commits the states to: |
| 1. |
Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger |
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- Reduce by half the proportion of people living
on less than one U.S. dollar a day.
-
Reduce by half the
proportion of people who suffer from hunger.
-
Increase the
amount of food for those who suffer from hunger. |
| 2. |
Achieve universal primary education |
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- Ensure that all boys and girls complete a
full course of primary schooling.
- Increased enrolment must be accompanied
by efforts to ensure that all children
remain in school and receive
a high-quality education |
| 3. |
Promote gender equality and empower women |
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- Eliminate gender disparity in primary
and secondary education preferably by 2005,
and at all levels by
2015. |
| 4. |
Reduce child mortality |
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- Reduce the mortality rate among children
under five by two thirds. |
| 5. |
Improve maternal health |
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- Reduce by three quarters the maternal
mortality ratio. |
| 6. |
Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases |
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- Halt and begin to reverse the spread of
HIV/AIDS.
- Halt
and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases. |
| 7. |
Ensure environmental sustainability |
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- Integrate the principles of sustainable
development into country policies and
programmes; reverse loss
of environmental
resources.
- Reduce by half the proportion of people without
sustainable access to safe drinking
water.
- Achieve significant
improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers,
by
2020. |
| 8. |
Develop a global partnership for development |
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- Develop further an open trading and financial
system that is rule-based, predictable
and non-discriminatory.
Includes a commitment
to good governance, development
and poverty reduction—nationally
and internationally.
- Address the least developed countries’ special
needs. This includes tariff- and
quota-free access for their exports;
enhanced debt relief for heavily indebted poor
countries; cancellation
of official bilateral debt; and more generous official
development
assistance for countries committed to poverty reduction.
- Address the special needs of landlocked and small island
developing States.
- Deal comprehensively with developing countries'
debt problems through national
and international measures to make
debt sustainable in the long term.
- In cooperation with the
developing countries, develop decent and productive work
for youth.
- In
cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable
essential drugs in developing countries.
- In cooperation with
the private sector, make available the benefits of new
technologies—especially
information and communications technologies. |
|
What do we mean by Social Entrepreneur?
A social entrepreneur is someone who recognises a social problem and
uses entrepreneurial principles to organise, create, and manage a venture
to make social change. Like business entrepreneurs, they also work
in an entrepreneurial manner, but for public or social benefit, rather
than to make money or profit. Social entrepreneurs can be found in
ethical businesses, governmental or public bodies, and the voluntary
and community sectors. |
| While entrepreneurs in the business
sector identify untapped commercial markets, and gather together the
resources to break into those markets for profit, social entrepreneurs
use the same skills to different effect. For social entrepreneurs,
untapped markets are people or communities in need, who haven’t
been reached by other initiatives. They are pioneers, who tend to draw
on their excellent understanding of their given field, but who bring
new insights to solving social problems. |
| Social entrepreneurs are not a new
phenomenon, in fact they have existed for centuries. Florence Nightingale,
for example, was the founder of the first nursing school and developer
of modern nursing practices. Another is Vinoba Bhave, considered by
many to be the spiritual successor of Mahatma Gandhi. Bhave started
a land gift movement, called Bhoodhan. He walked all across India asking
people with land to consider him as one of their sons and so give him
a portion of land which he then distributed to landless poor. |
What is Philanthropy?
Philanthropy is the act of donating money, goods, time or effort to
support a charitable cause. Most ‘philanthropists’ do this
over continued period of time and in regard to a defined objective.
More fundamentally, philanthropists get involved in altruistic activities
with the intention to promote good or improve quality of life. |
What
is Diaspora Giving?
Diaspora giving is an increasingly part of the global philanthropic
landscape, but perhaps the least exploited or well understood. Diaspora
communities are those communities who have migrated from their countries
of origin but who often maintain strong familial, cultural, economic
and political ties to their homelands. Many of these communities are
relatively prosperous compared to their communities of origin and often
wish to ‘give back’ to those communities. According to
the World Bank, Diaspora communities transferred over $100 billion
to their home countries in 2004. Whilst much of this goes directly
to their families, a large portion goes towards philanthropic purposes. |
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What does Ki-Rin do in this area? |
| Ki-Rin works with Charities
to develop Diaspora Giving strategies, helping to diversify its
funding portfolio, and tap into a broader base for support. |
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What is Corporate Social Responsibility?
Companies that have a dynamic Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
strategy are considered to be value driven, visionary and dynamic,
viewing growth and sustainability through innovation and due regard
for the economic, social and environmental impacts of their activities.
Those companies act to address the key sustainable development challenges
based on their core competencies wherever they operate – locally,
regionally and internationally. “Today, corporate social responsibility
goes far beyond the old philanthropy of the past – donating money
to good causes at the end of the financial year – and is instead
an all year round responsibility that companies accept for the environment
around them, for the best working practices, for their engagement in
their local communities and for their recognition that brand names
depend not only on quality, price and uniqueness but on how, cumulatively,
they interact with companies’ workforce, community and environment.
Now we need to move towards a challenging measure of corporate responsibility,
where we judge results not just by the input but by its outcomes: the
difference we make to the world in which we live, and the contribution
we make to poverty reduction.” Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the
Exchequer. |
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What does Ki-Rin do in this area? |
| Ki-Rin works with individuals
and organisations to help identify core competencies that will
support
CSR strategies. |
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What is Aikido?
Aikido, translated as “the way of harmonious spirit”, is
a Japanese martial art developed by Morihei Ueshiba as a synthesis
of his martial studies, philosophy, and religious beliefs. Ueshiba’s
goal was to create an art practitioners could use to defend themselves
without injuring their attacker. Aikido, as envisioned by its master,
is not only the synthesis of the founder’s martial training,
but also the expression of his personal philosophy of universal peace
and reconciliation. |
| Aikido emphasises joining with an attack
and redirecting the attacker’s energy, as opposed to meeting
force with force. In addition to physical fitness and technique, mental
training, controlled relaxation, and development of “spirit” (ki)
are emphasised in Aikido training. |
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