Recently I met a Jesuit Priest, Father Pedro, who has worked for 25 years in the poorest regions of the Philippines. In general conversation he mentioned that he needed treadle sewing machines so that he could train the women of the area to take up the traditional crafts of their people to perhaps start a cottage industry and make some sorely needed money. There is no electricity and the men have no work, all their farms being washed away by landslides a few years ago.

I got to thinking, I know people who know people in the Philippines. We contacted three large international banks with operations there and this resulted in one sewing machine being donated from a staff member, which we thought was fantastic at the time.

Many months later a friend was going to the Philippines and I mentioned the sewing machines to him. He has an English friend who runs a family engineering business there. Without any more prompting or discussion I found out that this small family company had sent their employees out far and wide to locate sewing machines. They found a tiny shop (see photo) in the back streets of Manila where they placed an order for TEN sewing machines, 50 bobbins, heaps of cottons and spare parts. They have also arranged the shipping to the remote location in Mindanao. As you can imagine Father Pedro is amazed at how a conversation in Sydney has resulted in the realisation of his project in Mindanao!

What I have learnt from this story is that there are people in small businesses all over the world putting back into the communities in which they operate, they don't have Social Charters plastered all over the walls, don't advertise their activities, they receive no tax breaks and go about it in a quiet , no-thanks-required way.

PS: This small company has also donated and delivered 100 bicycles to a missionary project in Uganda!

Do you have any stories about people in small business helping their communities in this way ? We would love to hear them.