Scottish Delegation Return from SEWF2022 in Brisbane, Australia

14/10/2022
Scottish Delegation at SEWF2022

A SCOTTISH Delegation has returned from Brisbane, Australia following their highly successful visit to play prominent active roles in the Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF 2022). It is at SEWF each year that all the leading players from within the Social Enterprise World-wide Ecosystem meet and this year there were 2,000 delegates present in Brisbane from 93 countries and another 1,000 delegates participating online. 

This is the biggest event of its kind in the world and Scotland was represented by a delegation of key change makers within the Scottish Social Enterprise Community by Social Entrepreneurs, Senior Management from Social Enterprise support organisations and Scottish Government officials, including: CEIS Group, Community Enterprise, Community Land Outer Hebrides, Edinburgh Social Enterprise, Glasgow Social Enterprise Network, Hey Girls, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, InspirAlba, Scottish Government Officials, Social Enterprise Academy, Social Enterprise Scotland and STAT SALUS: a blend of some of the best minds in the Social Ecosystem worldwide promoting Scotland as a centre of excellence in the social business environment. 

Scottish Entrepreneurs, supported by the Scottish Government, took full advantage of this opportunity to promote ideas and social business models to demonstrate their pioneering leadership qualities and expand their social benefits throughout the globe. Scottish Social Enterprises were also laying the foundations for their expansion to foreign markets and attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) in Scotland.   

Upon his return to Scotland from SEWF 2022 in Brisbane, I spoke to Cameron Campbell of STAT SALUS: a young entrepreneur who started and runs a social enterprise based in Scotland which sells Toilet Hygiene Products and in return freely and sustainably supports children with bowel disorders such as Crohn’s Disease, Ulcerative Colitis, IBS, IBD and Bowel Cancer. 

Cameron said that SEWF was enlightening. He had the privilege of being the Moderator at the Health Sector session. It was exciting to be facilitating challenging approaches towards contributing new solutions to traditional business concepts and their incorporation into the social community environment.

In addition to lectures, discussions, tours of social enterprises in the Brisbane area, and participating in gatherings of like minded entrepreneurs from across the globe, there were opportunities for him to attend the Youth Forum. Cameron’s opinion is that it is from this Forum where ideas presented and debated will be rolled out across the globe. This group represents the world’s entrepreneurial leaders of the future and will go on to disrupt traditional for-profit business models through their challenging minds and new business concepts.  

I’ve brought home many of my learnings from SEWF 2022 to apply them in the scaling of my own Social Enterprise, STAT SALUS.

Social Enterprises (SEs) play a key role in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) for the Scottish Economy and SEs can benefit from the tremendous support of the Scottish Government, its agencies and network of social enterprise support organisations; all there to help in the most appropriate way they can to develop a prosperous social economy. In particular, the International Social Enterprise Observatory (ISEO) offers invaluable support to any Social Enterprises looking to expand internationally both outward to foreign markets and inward to Scotland.

Cameron said, ”At the age of 13, I was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease. So, I know first hand what life’s like for children. STAT SALUS was set up as a result of my personal life struggles. As a result, our Mission at STAT SALUS is to help as many young people as possible with a Bowel condition. 

The concept of giving free Toilet Hygiene Products to children is unusual but the illnesses are common. Around 20% of the population have a bowel disorder. They just don’t talk about it. 

Away-from-home toilets expose these children to dangers through their suppressed immunity to germs as a side-effect of their medication. STAT SALUS gives them free on-the-go Toilet Hygiene Products to liberate them from the confinement of their own home so that they can rejoin their social communities and achieve their true potential in life.

So everything I’ve gained from SEWF2022 in Brisbane is about me learning how to help these kids in a bigger and better way. I know first-hand how these kids suffer and that puts me in the privileged position of knowing how best to help them. That’s our goal at STAT SALUS.

Much publicity has recently been given to Bowel Conditions through the wonderful work of  Bowel Babe (the late Dame Deborah James), Dynamo (Steven Frayne) the illusionist, Sam Faiers (television personality) and others. However, more needs to be done to support specifically children with bowel disorders. They become self-imprisoned in their own home to be near a clean toilet. This means their education and social development suffers too. Their future opportunities for education, work and happiness in life become extremely limited.

The Social Enterprise World Forum has given me so much more than you can imagine. I spoke with as many people as possible from the 93 countries in attendance and as the week progressed new contacts became friends. I’m already looking forward to SEWF 2023 in Amsterdam next year to learn more about growing a Social Enterprise and scaling Social Impact.  

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