Uniquease restaurant: It’s more than being green

The contribution that social entrepreneurs make to a nation’s social, economic, cultural, and environmental wealth is being increasingly recognized. In an environment where traditional providers, including charitable and voluntary sector organizations, have been criticized as bureaucratic and resistant to change and the public sector has become overstretched, social entrepreneurship has been identified as an innovative way of tackling unmet socio-economic needs (Mulgan & Landry, 1995 as cited in Nicholls, 2008; Leadbeater, 1997, as cited in Nicholls, 2008). One of the social entrepreneurs in the Philippines is Ms. Yachiyo Nakamura, a Japanese who always had a heart for helping others. This was demonstrated when she worked for a non-profit organization in Japan. Her love for helping others has crossed borders and led her to work for a non-government organization in the Philippines that provides training and livelihood programs. With her line of work, she was exposed to the impoverished and disadvantaged situation of Filipino children. Seeing this, she was faced with the problems of “How can she provide a sustainable solution to help improve the condition of the disadvantaged children?” and “How can she help more children?” It was then that she thought of opening a restaurant that would provide a healthy menu to Filipino consumers and at the same time hire employees who came from poor and disadvantaged areas like Payatas. This was the humble beginning of the Uniquease Restaurant