Noreen Bautista: Young Innovator

"[Filipinas are] so creative and we're so resourceful that we could really create amazing products for enterprises that will eventually help our country."

"[Filipinas are] so creative and we're so resourceful that we could really create amazing products for enterprises that will eventually help our country."

A business degree, a drive to create change for the Philippines and a deep love for country were the building blocks of a business venture.

Noreen Bautista, one of the young innovators behind Jacinto and Lirio, the social enterprise known to fashion high-end bags and journals from water lilies, asked herself, “Life is so short, and if you have the opportunity to create change, why wait?”

And wait she did not. Noreen chased her dream, took the bull by the horns and founded, at just the young age of 20, Jacinto & Lirio. Now, this social enterprise not only showcases Filipino innovation and ingenuity through high-end leather bags, journals, and gadget accessories, but also helps community partners all across the Philippines through sustainable livelihood.

Her ventures beyond Jacinto & Lirio led her to her role as program officer and General Manager for Consulting and Business Services of the Benita & Catalino Yap Foundation Institute for Social Enterprise & Development. Noreen joins the growing number of passionate pioneers that prove to the Filipino youth that, no matter what age, one can successfully build a business that is not only sustainably profitable, but is also socially significant and directly helps uplift the poor communities from poverty.

For Noreen, this is the best time to be an entrepreneur in the Philippines, and not just any entrepreneur at that, but a social entrepreneur.

Members of a Jacinto&Lirio partner community making plant leather products out of water hyacinth

Jacinto&Lirio Gabriella Collection