Hilary Clinton once said "it takes a village to raise a child." In our case, it takes a community to create a book. Our heartfelt thanks goes to Harvey Keh for planting the seed for this project, Fr. Ben Nebres and Dean Tony Lavinia of the Ateneo de Manila University for supporting it. We are indebted to the social enterprises who told us about their journeys: Kamay Krafts, Rags2Riches, Pathways to Higher Education, Hapinoy, Gawad Kalinga, Conti's Specialty Food Multipurpose Cooperative, Venture for Fundraising and CARD-MRI. Thank you to the writers - Harvey Keh, Chona Sandoval, Tyl Senajon, Renee Ortega, Kimmy Yao, Kai Pastores, Vanessa Villaluz, Brian Velasco, Tess Que, Tere Adriano, Kat Wy, Mavic Cortez and Leland dela Cruz. Special thanks to Renee and Kimmy for sheperding this project and to Maricor Baytion of the University Press for publishing it. To our other colleagues in Ateneo CORD and the Ateneo Psych Department -thank your for the moral support!
Making the book was already a reward - the award is just icing on the cake. But perhaps an even greater reward for us is if the book can inspire others to action. We who have heard the stories of these social enterprises have coming away feeling awed and hopeful that ordinary people like us can make an extraordinary difference in the lives of others. We hope others who read the book feel the same way.