Sauder Africa Initiative is looking for additional traveling team members as we have lots of interested students to attend our classes in Kenya! 
This is a repost from the Sauder d.studio
Sauder School of Business is full of passionate individuals and innovative ideas. I have had the privilege to be a part of two groups at the school: Sauder Africa Initiative and Sauder d.studio. It seems that the paths of both have crossed a little at the moment.
Many of the business students know IDEO. We have been presented with their approaches and have watched a number of videos on how the company proceeds with finding innovative solutions. For years, the company has been considered the leader in the field of innovation and design. Some time ago, IDEO came out with a great initiative: OPEN IDEO. It literally opens the door to thousands of people who are interested to cooperate on the most pressing problems. The initiative enables the caring individuals all over the world to share their ideas and most importantly, come up with possible solutions. The challenge is developed in 5 phases: Inspiration, Concepting, Applause, Evaluation and Winners Announced.
Open IDEO recently posted a new challenge: How might we improve the maternal health with mobile technologies for low-income countries. And this is where the Sauder Africa Initiative comes in. The 2010 Kenya team was presented with a great business idea from one of our students, Absalom Kiragu Gathaiya. His company is to provide the pre-natal and ante-natal care information services (PACIS) to subsribers (presumably mostly to mothers-to-be and young mothers) via short text messages.
The subscriber will receive short message services that will deliver information about stages in pregnancy, what to expect and how to deal with the pregnancy. These are to be sent once a week as a 160 character message available both in Kiswahili and English. Each of these messages will be charged a nominal fee of KShs 10 (about 12 cents). The business plan has been completed is now awaiting for financing.
When I asked Absalom how he came up with the idea, he simply told me: „Because of our family´s experience.“ I hope that all of the mentioned initiatives will help him to make his project a reality on a large scale.
It is that time of year again, when UBC’s top students compete for a place on a project that changes the lives of African youth. Do you think you have what it takes to make the Sauder Africa Initiative team? It will change your life too. In the Sauder Africa Initiative we believe that business is a driving force for economic growth, locally and globally. We see logic in sound business plans, ambitious marketing strategies and positive cash-flow projections over aid. We want to be successful and measure that succe
ss by how many companies we help establish, how fast our companies grow and how much economic benefit they create. In the Sauder Africa Initiative, we are social entrepreneurs... and I emphasize the word entrepreneurs. We are passionate individuals who want to help others escape poverty. Knowledge is our strategic competitive advantage and we ‘walk the talk’ by passing it on to the youth of East Africa’s largest slum, Kibera, located in Nairobi, Kenya.
Each year we select a passionate, creative, and dedicated group of students to learn about social entrepreneurship, business planning and Kenya; to spearhead our fundraising efforts; and to have the opportunity to spend the summer teaching the Kenya youth. Our work directly helps combat the extreme poverty that strikes at Kibera’s 1.2 million inhabitants, where unemployment exceeds 80%.
We set out to empower, not give out handouts. We teach financial independence and
how to use your strengths and skills to your advantage. We challenge our students to be successful entrepreneurs and change agents in their own community and country. We learn about each other, about our culture, and about the challenges our Kenyan friends face. We learn about ourselves.
If you want to be one of us, be a change agent, create friendships that will last a lifetime and above all, make a difference in the life of others, we would love to meet you at our info session on November 16th at 1 pm in SCARFE 201.
