25 Suzanne Ling

Empowering a Community

Managing a social enterprise she co-founded at the age of 25 comes with its fair share of challenges for Suzanne Ling. “I find myself struggling with how to manage people, how to manage but not micro-manage, how to trust and empower without making the team feel that I don’t care enough,” she admits. “It’s still a challenge to me and I’m learning still! Running a business with the community involves a lot of emotional moments. It’s all about failing, learning and going on stronger again and again.”

That is not an easy challenge indeed, as The Picha Project centres itself on people. The social enterprise empowers refugee families through sustainable food-catering and delivery services and has served around 80,000 meals to date.

“Our customers aren’t just customers – they’re change makers because each of their purchases is directly impacting the lives of the refugee families. We always focus on the big ‘why’ behind what we do and we let all our Picha Heroes know about the impact that they’re making. We believe that change can only happen when people from different backgrounds come together and share resources, and that’s the community that we want to build through Picha,” Suzanne explains.

The Picha Project places a huge importance in branding itself as an enterprise and not a charity, believing in rebuilding lives through business where they provide quality products and services to earn their own incomes. “This is more empowering and it gives back the dignity that the refugee community deserve because they can work hard for their own livelihoods.”