Thirty-two social entrepreneurs celebrated their graduation from this year’s Social Innovation Winter School, hosted in Stellenbosch, on Friday (19 July).
The group included students from Walter Sisulu University, Stellenbosch University, community-based entrepreneurs and various NGOs across the Western Cape.
The Social Innovation Winter School was hosted by Stellenbosch-based non-profit company Ranyaka Community Transformation, in collaboration with Stellenbosch Network and the Sustainability Institute. The interactive five-day course covered topics such as understanding social problems and their root causes, identifying opportunities for innovation, design thinking and human-centred idea generation, business models for social innovation, scaling social innovations and measuring impact.
The graduates’ innovative social ventures range from community-based security solutions and crime mapping to organic soil fertilisers, skills training facilities and medicinal gardens. The top three ventures were e-Ways, revolutionising electric trucking (third place), I See You, an app combating mental-health stigmatisation (second place) and, in first place, Unathi Mashaba of Asake, which addresses school absenteeism due to menstruation and the cost of menstrual products in vulnerable communities.
“To address the socio-economic challenges facing South Africa it is crucial for academia, impact investors and vulnerable communities to collaborate and collectively brainstorm innovative solutions,” said Marli Goussard, Ranyaka’s social impact adviser. “By leveraging academic expertise and the lived experiences of community members we can co-develop effective strategies for positive change, resulting in co-owned social ventures, benefiting vulnerable communities both socially and economically.”
- For more information send an email to Goussard on marli@ranyaka.co.za.
