Empowerment Projects - Girls in Business Incubation Program (Part 1)
Innovation Day
What an amazing day out we had at the Philippi Center with future female leaders and change makers. We had the honour of participating in an amazing initiative organised by Oribi Village which gave 100 girls in the Western Cape a platform to identify problems in their areas and create solutions. It challenges young girls to be the front-runners of change, to see problems as opportunities and to create social impact businesses around these issues they face on a day to day.
Split into teams of 4-6, each team, with the support of their learning facilitators and mentors were tasked to sharpen their problem statements and ideas to create a business around these issues.
Each team had the chance to pitch their ideas to their fellow students, mentors, learning facilitators and potential investors. The best 5 teams and ideas were chosen to go through to the next round. Here they will conduct market research, develop a product/service and develop their final pitch and present at a final competition. Two winning teams will be selected from the final pitch, where they will be provided with funding, ongoing mentoring and support and put through an incubation period to build their venture and make their social businesses a reality. Here were some of the ideas that came out of this day (we were blown away at all of these ideas and ones which were not selected):
Dream Team: Opening an area of the Stellenbosch Museum for young kids to showcase their talents through arts and crafts.
Change Makers: Open the construction economy to women by providing training centers and courses.
Kosikona - Tuckshops run by young students and school kids.
Kid4Change - Upliftment /Peer space centers set up for kids in surrounding communities for kids to explore their creativity and support one another.
Embrace - Upcycled manufacturing; reusable pads, inclusive wear for plus size and differently-abled bodies.
Being Alive Again - Mental health support chatbot.
Pothole power girls: a design for change, smart hacks for filling potholes.
There are some amazing ideas and even more incredible young girls behind these ideas. What a privilege to be part of this program as mentors and learning facilitators. We are determined to turn these ideas into social impact businesses.
People before profit is the core value at Kitchen Republik which guides our mission to empower people through food. We can not wait to work with these amazingly driven, smart and committed young ladies who share the same values.
“We can not simply rely on NGO’s and Charities to fill the void where society and government fall short. We need to find sustainable solutions, businesses and organisations which solve some of society's biggest issues and ones which are revenue generating and self-sustaining. Smart, forward thinking, people centric business models which drive revenue is the way forward to a more equitable and inclusive economy”.