Join us in the Journey to Transformation: A new series
MENU
[fve]https://youtu.be/jLhYr8nk98I[/fve]

5 Lessons of Hope from a Social Entrepreneur Who was Jailed

May 21, 2015

By Sally Kassab

Cecilia Flores-Oebanda and some of her children were jailed for four years for fighting against the Marcos regime of the Philippines. (Former President Ferdinand Marcos was removed from power in 1986). Her organization, which helps stop human trafficking in the Philippines, was “strained and challenged” two years ago.

But she made it through. And she learned a lot. And today, she’s sharing those lessons with other social entrepreneurs.

“I thought life was in prison was the worst life,” she shared during the “Down is not Defeated” panel at the 2015 Skoll World Forum. “But after I began working with women and children, I realized my life in prison was nothing compared to what they endure.”

Here are 5 learnings from Cecelia:

  1. Don’t lose your endurance. “Fighting slave traders is a game of endurance. I am a very stubborn person and don’t run in a fight.”
  2. Stay inspired. “The children that I serve are the air that I breathe. I am energized by them, and become more proactive and strategic because I need to ‘gather the troops’ to support our fight. Otherwise, I am alone, and traffickers can easily kill you.”
  3. Know your weaknesses. “I am very honest with myself. I know what I am capable of—and not capable of—and that makes me more humble and grounded.
  4. Don’t lose sight of the larger goal. “I am always focused on the big goal: freedom. That the day will come that Filipino women, men and children will be free to explore opportunity without the fear and risk of being sold and enslaved. That gives me hope.”
  5. Your employees are not a family that you manage. “Sometimes my professional relationships suffer with my staff because I have personal relationships with them. I want everybody to be happy, but that also has a negative impact. Invest in a system within the organization.  You need transparency and structure.”

Listen to more of her wisdom in the video, above, and read her firsthand account:http://archive.skoll.org/2015/03/16/we-stand-for-freedom/

Related Content

173200
Highlights from the Social Progress Imperative 2017 Summit
Zach Slobig - The Bridgespan Group , May 1, 2017
“What if sociologists had as much influence as economists?” That’s the provocation with which Bjarni Benediktsson, Iceland’s 46-year-old Prime Minister of Iceland, set the tone for recent global summit of…
172811
Skoll Awardee Kola Masha of Babban Gona on His One Regret
April 5, 2017
Kola Masha was unable to attend Oxford’s New Theatre in person this evening, because he was waiting for the imminent arrival of his second child. Appolo Goma, Babban Gona Executive…
172538
The Inner Path to Become a Systems Entrepreneur
March 27, 2017
By: Katherine Milligan and Nicole Schwab As the world grapples with increasingly complex and seemingly intractable challenges, a new answer is gaining momentum: systems change. But what is systems change?…