Three Entrepreneurs from Ghana, Cameroon and Rwanda are applicants to The Anzisha Prize. The prize aims to support young, African entrepreneurs who have created innovative change in their communities by addressing social issues or starting successful small businesses.
Twelve of the finalists win a free, week-long trip to South Africa to participate in entrepreneurship workshops and conferences at the African Leadership Academy campus near Johannesburg. The grand prize winners are then selected from the top twelve and receive $75,000 dollar prizes that will give their small businesses a jump-start as well as publicity.
In 2015, the organization selected winners from a pool of around 500 applicants. The amount of applications this year is a record—but only 27 percent of them were women applicants.
Despite the low number of women applicants, there are many women entrepreneurs in Africa. However, they are often forced into innovative solutions out of need, rather than a desire to do so. How We Made it In Africa described in an illustrative example, “This means that they might be self-employed by selling fruit on the side of the road, but the opportunity for them to grow beyond the informal stage may never present itself.”
African women usually lack access to education on financial and development skills; this is due to the fact that males are typically sent to school more often than females.
Still, the following Anzisha Prize women have overcome the odds and made positive, impactful changes in their communities through their entrepreneurial innovation.
Mabel Suglo: Assembling Shoes to Employ the Disabled
Mabel Suglo is a 21 year old woman from Ghana, a co-founder of the Eco-Shoes Project. The initiative helps disabled artisans assemble desirable, marketable shoes out of used tires and recycled clothing.
The Project began in 2013; today five people work for Suglo.
“There are millions of discarded car tyre stockpiles and waste materials in Ghana which pose an environmental and health hazard. Eco-Shoes rescues some of the millions of tyres and other material waste creating an environmental nuisance, to make fashionable and comfortable shoes.” said Suglo, according to How We Made it in Africa.
If Suglo wins the Anzisha Prize, she plans to invest in more sophisticated machinery to increase shoe output. She also wants to create an e-commerce site and give her workers improved training in technology.
Vanessa Zommi: Tea to treat Diabetes in Cameroon
In 2013, when Vanessa Zommi was only seventeen, she founded Emerald Moringa Tea in Molyko, Cameroon. The company treats the moringa plant, transforming the raw substance into a healthy tea that treats diabetes.
“The World Health Organisation’s research estimates 190 million people suffer from diabetes worldwide. This research further estimates that by the year 2025, there will be about 330 million patients in the world. Studies show that drinking moringa tea after a meal can ease digestion, and after two hours of intake, sugar levels in the body drop.” said Zommi, according to How We Made it in Africa.
Zommi plans to expand her company in the future; she currently employs six people and sales are limited to Molyko, Cameroon. She hopes the prize money will assist her in this expansion.
Chantal Butare: Milk Cooperative to help Farmers Sell
Chantal Butare, a twenty-one-year-old graduate of the University of Rwanda founded a dairy cooperative that aids farmers who produce milk in accessing markets.
Butare started the Kinazi Dairy Cooperative in 2012; she noticed farmers, especially women farmers, often struggled to sell all of the milk they produced.
The Cooperative, to date, has helped over 3,200 farmers. It employs twelve milk collectors who supply Rwanda and Burundi.
“My vision is to help eradicate poverty and hunger among vulnerable people in my community,” said Butare, according to How We Made it in Africa.
– Aaron Andree
Sources: Anzisha Prize, How We Made It in Africa
Photo: Clinton Foundation
Women Entrepreneurs Aim to Improve their Communities in Africa
Three Entrepreneurs from Ghana, Cameroon and Rwanda are applicants to The Anzisha Prize. The prize aims to support young, African entrepreneurs who have created innovative change in their communities by addressing social issues or starting successful small businesses.
Twelve of the finalists win a free, week-long trip to South Africa to participate in entrepreneurship workshops and conferences at the African Leadership Academy campus near Johannesburg. The grand prize winners are then selected from the top twelve and receive $75,000 dollar prizes that will give their small businesses a jump-start as well as publicity.
In 2015, the organization selected winners from a pool of around 500 applicants. The amount of applications this year is a record—but only 27 percent of them were women applicants.
Despite the low number of women applicants, there are many women entrepreneurs in Africa. However, they are often forced into innovative solutions out of need, rather than a desire to do so. How We Made it In Africa described in an illustrative example, “This means that they might be self-employed by selling fruit on the side of the road, but the opportunity for them to grow beyond the informal stage may never present itself.”
African women usually lack access to education on financial and development skills; this is due to the fact that males are typically sent to school more often than females.
Still, the following Anzisha Prize women have overcome the odds and made positive, impactful changes in their communities through their entrepreneurial innovation.
Mabel Suglo: Assembling Shoes to Employ the Disabled
Mabel Suglo is a 21 year old woman from Ghana, a co-founder of the Eco-Shoes Project. The initiative helps disabled artisans assemble desirable, marketable shoes out of used tires and recycled clothing.
The Project began in 2013; today five people work for Suglo.
“There are millions of discarded car tyre stockpiles and waste materials in Ghana which pose an environmental and health hazard. Eco-Shoes rescues some of the millions of tyres and other material waste creating an environmental nuisance, to make fashionable and comfortable shoes.” said Suglo, according to How We Made it in Africa.
If Suglo wins the Anzisha Prize, she plans to invest in more sophisticated machinery to increase shoe output. She also wants to create an e-commerce site and give her workers improved training in technology.
Vanessa Zommi: Tea to treat Diabetes in Cameroon
In 2013, when Vanessa Zommi was only seventeen, she founded Emerald Moringa Tea in Molyko, Cameroon. The company treats the moringa plant, transforming the raw substance into a healthy tea that treats diabetes.
“The World Health Organisation’s research estimates 190 million people suffer from diabetes worldwide. This research further estimates that by the year 2025, there will be about 330 million patients in the world. Studies show that drinking moringa tea after a meal can ease digestion, and after two hours of intake, sugar levels in the body drop.” said Zommi, according to How We Made it in Africa.
Zommi plans to expand her company in the future; she currently employs six people and sales are limited to Molyko, Cameroon. She hopes the prize money will assist her in this expansion.
Chantal Butare: Milk Cooperative to help Farmers Sell
Chantal Butare, a twenty-one-year-old graduate of the University of Rwanda founded a dairy cooperative that aids farmers who produce milk in accessing markets.
Butare started the Kinazi Dairy Cooperative in 2012; she noticed farmers, especially women farmers, often struggled to sell all of the milk they produced.
The Cooperative, to date, has helped over 3,200 farmers. It employs twelve milk collectors who supply Rwanda and Burundi.
“My vision is to help eradicate poverty and hunger among vulnerable people in my community,” said Butare, according to How We Made it in Africa.
– Aaron Andree
Sources: Anzisha Prize, How We Made It in Africa
Photo: Clinton Foundation
Burundian Child Refugees Flee to Tanzania
The remote Nyarugusu refugee camp in Western Tanzania has seen a sharp rise in child refugees from the neighboring country to the east. Children have been flooding over the border to escape violence surrounding the recent elections in Burundi.
The amount of Burundian child refugees arriving to the camp increased from about 1600 at the end of May to approximately 2600 by July 19th.
The children are not just arriving in larger numbers according to Lisa Parrott, interim country manager of Save the Children Tanzania, but they are also reaching the camp in much worse shape physically and mentally, most having walked for days with nothing but the clothes on their backs and no food or water. Many have witnessed atrocious acts of violence in their homes and along the way to Tanzania. Some of the children have even seen their own parents or other family members murdered by militia.
On July 21 2015, Burundian President Pierre Nkurunzizain won re-election after running for a third term. In the wake, violence erupted and gunfire rang out. These elections had been hotly protested with President Pierre Nkurunzizain’s opposition claiming that he was not eligible to run again. After the elections, the opposition boycotted the vote and fighting in the country intensified.
The child refugees arriving at the Nyarugusu refugee camp are not eating properly and are having terrible problems sleeping and interacting with others. About a fifth are infants with severe signs of malnutrition, anemia, malaria, diarrhea and other conditions.
The Nyarugusu camp has become one of the biggest settlements in the world comprised of mostly the Congolese who have lived in the camp since the 1990s. At 60,000 people, the already overcrowded camp has more than doubled with almost 80,000 Burundians entering over the years and the recent influx of children has only made the camp more strained.
The overflow of the population is being housed in churches and schools, causing fears that schools will not be able to operate, starving more children of a valuable education. Competition for resources such as food rations, shelter, cooking facilities and firewood, clothing, health care, and clean water intensifies every day with tensions running high.
Save the Children, an organization working in developing nations to inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children and to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives, believes that every child has the right to survival, protection, development and participation.
Save the Children is on the ground in Tanzania and, with the help of local partners, are setting up child health services such as constructing Temporary Learning Centers (TLC) and creating Child Friendly Places (CFP), expected to reach 1200 children.
Life in refugee camps like Nyarugusu is difficult for thousands of people already mired in extreme poverty, but with groups like Save the Children, those seeking refuge from increasing violence in surrounding communities can find some relief and access to basic human needs.
– Jason Zimmerman
Sources: Save the Children, Reuters
Photo: Flickr
Food Waste in America
Starvation has long been something many Americans associate with the “third world.” As a country, we sometimes become so engrossed in aiding other nations that we seldom take the time to look within our own borders and see the issues relating to food waste that we face at home.
While a façade of top-rated healthcare, strong innovation and an overall surplus of goods successfully hides the hunger, poverty and abuse, it is difficult to ignore the facts. Up to 40 percent of the food produced in the United States is going to waste before it even reaches the tables of hungry families. In 2013, 49.1 million Americans lived in food insecure households, meaning families were unsure of where their next meal would come from.
Starvation in the United States does not stem from a lack of food as it does in many developing countries. Instead, it stems from a lack of access to affordable healthy food along with a disregard for re-using and recycling materials considered to be waste.
There are many parts of the United States which are considered “food deserts”. These are areas where there are no food superstores like Whole Foods, Target or Acme, for example. Instead, individuals in these areas are forced to purchase food from gas station markets or travel over 10 miles to get fresh food. These “food deserts” exist even within our nation’s capital and force people to rely on food from shelters and food banks. Unfortunately, many of these food banks do not receive enough donations to keep up with the demand for food.
Much of the waste that inhabits our nation’s dumps comes from farms and supermarkets that were unable to sell produce. About 1.3 billion tons of food gets lost or wasted in the United States, with over 97 percent of food waste ending up in a landfill. Most of this produce is so fresh when it arrives at the dumps that people could have consumed it, had it not come in contact with other waste.
Food waste in America also arises from small households. A family of four throws away around $600 worth of food annually due to spoilage or fear of eating leftovers. When all of this food in the landfills begins to break down anaerobically, without access to oxygen, it produces methane gas, which is about 20 times more toxic than CO2 and can seriously harm our environment.
If supermarkets and households learn to use their food waste responsibly, imagine the world we would live in. Households can use food waste—even if it is completely spoiled—in compost pits, which in turn will help their plants grow better and help our environment. Supermarkets can donate their unsold produce to food banks and soup kitchens nearby and accept the profit losses in order to feed their less fortunate friends and neighbors.
When we live in a nation so devoted to helping others in poverty, it is hard to picture starvation in our own country. Most Americans have the luxury of being able to go down the road to pick up fresh produce every week and are unable to see the issue in throwing away left-overs, but if we just learned to eat and live responsibly, we could make a world of a difference beginning in our own neighborhoods.
– Sumita Tellakat
Sources: End Food Waste Now, NRDC
Photo: Flickr
Food Shortage In Venezuela: Supermarket Raids
Plagued by collapsing currency and the highest inflation rate in the world, Venezuelans are facing soaring prices and pervasive shortages in their nation. Although waves of food scarcity have troubled the country in the past, this time the food shortage in Venezuela has persisted for over a year and shelves are remaining bereft of many essential products. Citizens are unable to easily acquire food items such as corn flour, rice and coffee, as well as other basic products like detergent and toiletries. Forced to wait in line for hours on end for goods, middle and lower class people in Venezuela are reaching a breaking point.
An unfortunate consequence of this dwindling morale is a countrywide rise in supermarket raids. Videos shared on sites such as Youtube, Whatsapp and Facebook show looters ransacking local supermarkets when rare provisions like coffee and toilet paper hit the shelves.
If Venezuelan citizens wait in line for these products, there is a slim chance that they will be able to get them, making criminal actions extremely tempting. While some looters turn to violence in order to feed their families, others do so with the desire to profit off the crisis by selling the items on the black market.
Many find Venezuela’s predicament somewhat surprising, as it is an oil-exporting country – a characteristic, which usually points to economic prosperity. According to economist Asdrubal Oliveros, however, this oil production is simply not enough.
“Other than oil we produce close to nothing, and even oil production has decreased,” Oliveros said. “There is a lack of hard currency, and, in a country that imports everything, this becomes more evident with food scarcity.”
Native farmer Jesus Lopez agrees with Oliveros. “We used to produce rice and we had excellent coffee; now we produce nothing,” he says. “With the situation here people abandoned the fields.”
Lopez is referring to farmland seized by the Venezuelan government that now sits idle. Oliveros remarks on this government-owned land as well, noting that the seizure caused an overvalued exchange rate that destroyed agriculture because “it’s cheaper to import than it is to produce.”
The government’s potential role in the food shortages may explain why the supermarket raid footage is somewhat controversial. Incidences of supermarket raiding are largely covered up and major national news sources do not address the issue.
Footage of supermarket raids is shared on social media almost weekly, however, and posters maintain that the footage is authentic and emphasize their role as activists. Posting the violent raiding videos on the Internet raises awareness of the issue and allows Venezuelans to gain a perspective on the problem that is not cast in a pro-government light.
Although the violent videos are somewhat shocking, perhaps this shock value is what Venezuela and its citizens need in order to get the country back on track.
– Katie Pickle
Sources: LA Times, The Guardian
Photo: TIME
Healthcare Workers: The Key to Health Progress
One part of healthcare frameworks and policies often overlooks a crucial element of global health — the healthcare workers. They are the ones who work on the ground, who know the issues that plague the people, who work and improvise with the limited resources, and who know the people. Healthcare centers in developing nations are often staffed with low-level medical staff, especially in more rural and hard to reach places. If these health providers had more training or better training, healthcare could improve as the result of workers having better skills to identify and to fix sicknesses and complications.
To become a healthcare worker one must be accepted into an educational establishment; however, often times these require a secondary education, something many poorer people in developing nations do not have access to. Educational reforms are part of the investment for a successful healthcare system. Having training centers that complete their three-part mission of teaching, researching and serving can make huge impacts on the trainees who will go out into the communities.
GE recognized the importance of educating healthcare workers and thus has decided to invest over US$1 billion to train 2 million global healthcare providers. The hope is that GE can establish itself more firmly in developing nations to bring more people access to healthcare.
The GE healthcare president sees that “challenges around localized capacity building, training and innovation are consistent themes for many healthcare systems and Ministries of Health around the world.” The invested money will go towards training people to use GE medical equipment in order to address those challenges. Both local governments and institutions, as well as costumers, will help in the process of determining what the health needs of a particular area are.
GE has long seen the link between healthcare workers and global health progress. They have invested in areas such as Kenya, Turkey, the Middle East, Russia, China and Brazil. In total, GE has invested more than US$118.2 million in healthcare, training more than 100,000 rural doctors and other healthcare givers.
– Katherine Hewitt
Sources: Fierce Medical Devices, WHO
Photo: Healthcare Design Magazine
Nigerian Startup Heads to MIT Workshop
This August, MIT will host the 2015 MITx Global Entrepreneur Bootcamp, where students from all around the world are brought together in the spirit of entrepreneurship. Within a week, each student will create a business and pitch their idea to a panel of professionals, giving the visiting students a taste of the fast-paced, competitive MIT atmosphere.
MITx selected 50 candidates from 24 countries to participate in the boot camp. Chris Kwekowe from Nigeria is among the 50 to be accepted at the MIT workshop with his startup, Slatecube.
Chris Kwekowe is from southeastern Nigeria. He comes from a family of five, which are all boys. He currently studies Computer Science at the Nnamdi Azikwi University, Awka. He believes “the average African youth is the driving force for global impact,” which inspired the start of Slatecube.
Slatecube balances current knowledge with skill acquisition in a system of free, cloud-based learning courses. It focuses on “employability and social development”. It enables its users to learn and collaborate with professionals while developing relevant skills to give them an edge in the working world.
Kwekowe explains, “Essentially, what we do at Slatecube is really simple but very important. We help individuals develop new knowledge or build on already existing knowledge and then expose them to industry-relevant skills with hands-on training from real organisations in order to make them more employable and improve their social and economic relevance.”
Slatecube is designed to help students gain skills and obtain experience, both of which will help young, aspiring professionals when applying for a job. The courses are self-paced and the instructors are free-lanced.
With knowledge this accessible to young Nigerian students, Slatecube would empower the workforce and decrease the unemployment rate. In 2015, Nigeria’s unemployment rate is seven point five percent, an astonishing decrease since 2012, when the unemployment rate was 23 percent. Slatecube could further this decline in unemployment while empowering young professionals.
Kwekowe will attend MITx Global Entrepreneur Bootcamp at the end of August, ready and armed with Slatecube. Back with his newfound knowledge from MITx, Kwekowe and Slatecube could have a large impact on young, aspiring professionals around the world.
– Hannah Resnick
Sources: IT News Africa, MITx, Slatecube, Trading Economics
Photo: IT News Africa
Beijing’s Ban on Smoking
Though the June 1st ban on smoking wasn’t the first of its kind in Beijing, it may be one of the most effective. The ban comes at a time when China has the highest number of male smokers. It is estimated that one-third of all cigarettes sold globally are produced by China National Tobacco Corporation, with 43% of tobacco produced in China.
The high rates of smoking in China, and in particular Beijing, are especially concerning. About 60% of male doctors smoke and few associate the habit with health problems other than vascular ones. Without the widespread knowledge and dissemination of the risks associated with tobacco smoking, people often have little incentive to stop.
China’s smoking problem is also largely a cultural one, concentrated in masculinity. While an estimated 45% of men smoke, only about 2.1% of Chinese women do. However, when looking at the plethora of health problems that stem from smoking, men, women, and children are all affected. The high volume of smokers combined with the thick covering of smog cloaking entire cities creates a pocket of pollution where the effects of second-hand smoke are exacerbated.
The latest ban introduced in Beijing bans all smoking in indoor places with an added level of severity-fines. People who act against the ban are subject to fines of $32 and businesses that allow people to smoke on their premises will be fined $1,600. In the past two months, about $16,000 has been collected in fines from the ban, but in the coming months that amount may rise. The Beijing Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning has discussed the possibility of increasing fines for individuals to $800. What’s more is that any person who violates the law three times is subject to being publicly named on a government website, a clause that aims to shame.
Upon the initial implementation, support was strong and people seemed excited. However, as is the case with most past similar bans, the popularity fades and as the attention slips away so does the people’s enthusiasm and commitment. On the contrary, this particular ban has shown more promise. Almost two months post-implementation, the ban still sees support from pop culture icons and a visible decline in indoor smoking. With Beijing getting a little extra focus from the Chinese government for being the capital, perhaps this particular ban will see greater success than past ventures. If the abstinence continues, Beijing will be able to serve as an example to other cities around the country, and the overall rate of smoking will likely decline.
Although such a decline in vast numbers of Chinese smokers will affect the nation’s economy slightly, the overall benefits to health seen in both men and women will create a healthier working class that will reciprocate any losses by boosting the workforce and spending. Also as smoking rates decline, women will face fewer health risks imposed by their male counterparts, which will make for a more fair environment for women, although China continues to struggle in gender equality, it is a step. Like all newly implemented programs and policies, the ban can only restrict smoking so far, but it is a very positive step for Beijing and for China. In order for China to fully reap all of the rewards from smoking reduction, a cultural change is needed, which is often times the harder of the two to enact.
– Emma Dowd
Sources: BBC, CNN, FP
Photo: Flickr
The Modern Slavery Act and What It Means
There are more slaves in the world now than any other period of time in human history. These slaves range from young children captured by warlords to do their bidding, to men and women captured to be used as sex slaves. For many years these individuals have been forced to live hidden lives, ashamed of past actions and often worried of facing prosecution for actions carried out while they were enslaved. The United Kingdom has taken the first step of providing solace to these victims with the passing of the Modern Slavery Act of 2015.
The United Kingdom is estimated to house between 10,000 to 13,000 slaves working as prostitutes, servants and workers who live on meager or no wages. These individuals live in constant fear of the traffickers who brought them to the UK and have witnessed atrocities beyond what most have endured. For several years, the laws have been unclear as to how to handle victims of trafficking and this has led to arrests and harsh treatments of several victims rather than their traffickers.
The Modern Slavery Act will effectively protect trafficking victims and prosecute perpetrators.
As the main supporter of the bill, Home Secretary Theresa May said, “This landmark legislation sends the strongest possible signal to criminals that if you are involved in this vile trade you will be arrested, you will be prosecuted and you will be locked up. And it says to victims, you are not alone – we are here to help you.”
This bill proposes increasing traffickers’ jail time from the current 14 years to a lifetime sentence instead. It also provides trafficked workers with overseas domestic work visas, protection and counseling for anything that might have occurred while they were enslaved. While legislation and increased presence from law enforcement may only be the start, it is a step in the right direction. The UK has become the first country to make strict laws and regulations regarding trafficking; for years, traffickers have been using loopholes in the system in order to keep their businesses alive.
Most of the people who are trafficked into the system come from poor families in developing nations who are in desperate need of money. Traffickers promise individuals jobs in outside countries that would allow them to support their families, and while they may get jobs none of the money they earn goes back to their families. If people instead were promised education in local areas, if they no longer had to worry about being stolen away in the night, imagine the innovation that would come with that peace of mind.
While there are a few issues with the bill, time and experience will determine if the bill will be successful.
The developing world needs all the help it can get in order to succeed in becoming a competitor in the global market. This act allows people to stay in their home countries, get the counseling and education they need in order to prosper and ensures that traffickers will be prosecuted to the best of the ability of the law.
– Sumita Tellakat
Sources: Gov.UK, BBC
Photo: IB Times
Save the Children: Healing Through Art
The practice of art has the power to help young children who have faced emotional trauma and devastating tragedies. In countries where severe poverty is persistent, children experience life events that can delay their development and affect their mental health.
Save the Children’s HEART, Healing and Education through the Arts, program has positively impacted the lives of many young children. The concept is that art forms such as drawing, painting, music, drama, and dance can help children express their emotions and experiences in order to improve their emotional well-being and ability to learn.
The program exists in Haiti, Malawi, Mozambique, and Nepal. It has reached thousands of preschoolers and school children. It is often incorporated into existing after school child development programs.
Children in these regions of the world experience stress from their life circumstances of poverty and traumatic events. The following are the stories of three children who have benefited from the HEART Project.
The video of this Save the Children program portrays the stories of some of these young children and how art allowed them to work through feelings that they could not express verbally.
– Iliana Lang
Sources: Save the Children, Save the Children, YouTube
Photo: Save the Children
Education in Costa Rica – A Progress Report
Education in Costa Rica has been a hot button topic for many years. In 1990, the country pledged to work toward the targets set out by Education for All (EFA) under the direction of UNESCO. EFA is used to help achieve UNESCO’s education goals of quality education for everyone and for education being a fundamental part of development.
During the first years of the initiative to improve the standards of education in Costa Rica, the country faced numerous challenges. Some of these challenges included students repeating class levels, high drop out rates, and limited training courses for teachers. In addition, it was found that the education system suffered from a lack of innovative, and passionate teachers.
Poverty has also had a significant impact on education in Costa Rica. Families where the parents have less than six years of education tended to have a lower income and their children usually did not finish school. This only perpetuated the cycle and government support was required to improve the system overall.
In addition, providing quality teachers has boosted education goals. The government pays education professionals more to attract young bright high school and college graduates to go into education. It encourages students to finish school and have a decent paying job, which helps break the low-level education and poverty cycle. There are training programs aimed to improve the quality of teachers as well.
In rural areas, there are special programs to compensate for the lack of teachers. There is a movement to bring technology in and have one computer per student. This way the students can complete high school with a quality education.
Currently, Costa Rica has a 93.6 percent rate for access to education. For youth literacy (ages 15-24) there is an average of 98 percent. Primary school attendance is about 96 percent of the youth population. Costa Rica has one of the highest literacy rates and school attendance in Latin America and South America.
– Katherine Hewitt
Sources: Costa Rica Gold Country, HDR, Social Progress Imperative, Tico Times, ASCOA
Photo: Tico Times