The Face of Social Entrepreneurship

The Face of Social Entrepreneurship

Recently, I did a financial request presentation to our student society, and for the first time, understood the difficulty in accessing publicly available funds for our venture. The idea of entrepreneurship is quite different in Africa than in North America: people here become entrepreneurs by choice; people in Africa become entrepreneurs out of necessity. Many of these young entrepreneurs come from the slums, and have learned the hard way, that they cannot afford to sit around and wait for the government to do things for them. That is why there is tremendous significance in supporting a social program designed to help entrepreneurs of these developing countries, but unfortunately this idea still relatively far back on many priority lists.

Most of Africa’s growth in the last several years has been stimulated by entrepreneurship. Young people are seeking to become entrepreneurs rather than finding employment, either tempted by overnight millionaire stories, fueled by a passion to succeed, or driven by the determination to improve conditions around them. Therefore, business ideas pitched by these youths seems to gravitate towards several patterns:

• Businesses are clones of pre-existing ones.
• The business is intended to “make a name” for the owner.
• The business has a valuable and viable idea.

 

Our mission is to work with young entrepreneurs of all backgrounds and goals to help them develop a viable business plan, with a strong emphasis on social entrepreneurship ideas. The objective is to look for more than just monetary profit, but innovative answers in social problems. These entrepreneurs will represent the upcoming faces of Social Entrepreneurship in Africa, and in a way we, as North American students of higher education, are also the grassroots social entrepreneurs of the West. There is no accounting profit to be had in our initiative, but the value that it generates for each student involved is immeasurable.

I feel like there are several important aspects to nurturing entrepreneurs in Africa:

• Mentorship: Ensure that the entrepreneurs have the education and assistance they need to run their business sustainability.
• Localization: Think “local”. Encourage the youths to establish businesses that are for the benefit of the local people, that would solve local problems, and would employ locally available resources.
• Financial Assistance: Start-up financing for social initiatives, as well as micro-financing (for a must-read on this topic check out Muhammad Yunus' book "Banker to the Poor").

With the emergence of international programs, academic interest, and workshops in Africa, mentorship and idea generation is becoming less of a burden, whereas finance assistance is still heavily sought after. I hope that in time, more people would realise the importance of social entrepreneurship in developing countries, understand why students and volunteers choose to dedicate their time to these initiatives, and consequently be more willing to invest capital into programs like ours, so that our teams in 2013, 2014, and 2015 will have better luck securing the necessary funds to expand the Sauder Africa Initiative.

SE101~ IN RETROSPECT...

I am back in Vancouver, having spent atleast a month of my 2007 summer in Nairobi participating in the Sauder SE101 project. SE101, a great project through which I met many new fantastic people and learnt alot; about myself and certain aspects of life and society. Alot can be said of the project and Kenya in general. The project is a great opportunity for all participants offering alot of learning experiences with potential for more growth in terms of ideas and delivery.

Fortunately, this year we had two sites that we facilitated and I would not be wrong to conclude that these two different groups of people had had different experiences and challenges. The background information, we (Bahati team) received from KIC-our facilitators on the ground, about our (Bahati) participants was immensely helpful. It also provided the Bahati participants a chance to reflect and comprehend the task that lay ahead of them for the next three weeks. Our participants as already mentioned were really great students who actively participated in the activities we prepared for them. However, I feel a greater emphasis needs to be made to enable participants understand their responsibilities as students. Of course, this being a voluntary project that might be hard to enforce!

All participants, more so those from Canada will/would benefit from fully understanding all cultural issues, interactions and differences. Above all, facilitators need to try and grasp the problems and challenges of the participants to make the lessons more meaningful and effective. For, how can one provide a 'solution' to a problem one does not fully comprehend! Above all, this aids and minimises misunderstanding which can greatly affect efficient project delivery. We carried out a class survey midway through the project and I am sure these will be beneficial to future participants. I also feel this project would benefit magnanimously by having a reliable partner on the ground. This partner would play role similar to that played by KIC or Henry i.e follow up, initiation and coordination of the project before and after facilitators arrive and leave.
More sponsorship and support from student associations(e.g CUS, AUC, AMS, SUC, African Awareness etc) Sauder, UBC, family and friends will/would be a big boost to preparations for a succesful implementation of the project.

It was great being part of the second SE101 team to Nairobi and I look forward to contributing my humble two cents to the project. Business, in my opinion is a great self-empowering activity that has great positive externalities and spill over effects. It is my hope that this project rolls outs to different countries and regions and that Sauder continues to facilitate similar projects.

Posted by Jim Atamba

NAIROBI......Party Like the Sun Don't Rise!

Jimzy In.......

Would it be fair if we, young energetic able bodied youth visited a new city and did not taste/tempt the party scene or did not write about it? I think not! So, what does Nairobi city look like when the shops close, bankers go home, and children are safely tucked in? A few members of the SE101 team (names witheld on request, and my writing this should/does not insinuate that I am the party animal of the team. It so happens that tonight the blogging duties fall to me) will take you on a tour of the Nairobi party scene.

TACOS: Location-CITY CENTRE. The music is great, some of the tracks were similar to those played in Canada and I clearly recall two memebers of the team singing along to some of the songs being played. This is where Alvina, Kevin and Steven took to the dance floor-details of which may be found in an earlier blog.

PAVEMENT: Location-WESTLANDS. An extremely great and a must go-to club in my opinion. Had what it takes to make a great club scene. Nice music, perfect ambience, crowd that seemed to be made up of passionate club goers and party people. I noticed the crowd was mixed (not unlike a Vancouver club scene) and was clearly a favorite for tourists/foreigners/expatriates or it was probably the theme night that seemed to attract everyone. It was a 2 in 1 club. With one section of the club playing main stream hip hop music and the other playing techno/garage sounds. The only hustle was getting into the club and the line up stretched about a block. Club cover was about 400Kes, beers 120Kes, a gin shot 300Kes.

QUEUES: Location-WESTLANDS. Also a 2 in 1 club establishment. Despite the flight of steps one has to climb to get to either, it is a fairly descent party place. Both clubs play similar genre of music but are manned by different D.J's. The top floor is an open air club/bar/pub allowing you to party alfresco. With the another club on the 2nd floor where you could relocate if you wished for warmer temperatures.

REZEROUS(not too sure of the spelling): Location-WESTLANDS. A 3 minute walk from QUEUES. Extremely jam packed on all occasions one of the team went there. A wide range of music, pocket friendly prices and great crowd. Other than the line up to get into the club, all is well at this location.

CARNIVORE: Location-CLOSE TO NAIROBI NATIONAL PARK. Yet to be tasted/tested.Though it is well known for its theme nights.

K1: Location- WESTLANDS. Excellent ambience and decor. Wood and grass thatch is the predominant architectural design theme. In essence there are close to three different pubs at this location. Fortunately, there is nyama choma and othe fast food should belly make demands for food. Beer and nyama choma is definitely big in Nairobi and a great combination too experience has proven. Highly recommended you carry along a sweater or jacket. Also a great spot on Tuesdays for Karoke lovers.

And that is it for now. Please note more venues may be added to this list in the near future. So incase you wish to stumble home at 5am the next time you are in Nairobi like........................ you know where the adventures lie.

.................Jimzy Out!

Posted by Jim Atamba