The Schwab Foundation has recognised three new social entrepreneurs with significant impact in Africa as winners of the Africa Regional Social Entrepreneurs Award for 2009.
David Kuria of Ecotact (Kenya), Patrick Schofield of Streetwires Artists Collective (South Africa) and Mitchell Besser and Gene Falk of mothers2mothers (Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland and Zambia) were presented with their awards by the Schwab Foundation's Hilde Schwab at the World Economic Forum on Africa in Cape Town on Wednesday.
Social entrepreneurs emphasise long-term sustainability instead of short-term gains. Their primary focus is to maximise benefits for society and the environment by implementing innovative approaches to the key challenges the world is facing. They operate social businesses or organisations that are a mixture of non-profits and for-profits.
“This (global economic) crisis teaches us that we need to refocus the economy on serving society. It is these social entrepreneurs who show us the way to a sustainable future,” said Klaus Schwab, Founder of both the World Economic Forum and the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship.
mothers2mothers
mothers2mothers (m2m) provides education, mentoring and support to HIV-positive pregnant women and new mothers. It focuses on preventing the transmission of HIV from mother to child and teaching women to improve their health, the likelihood of their survival and the health of their babies. Its Mentor Mothers programme hires and trains new mothers living with HIV to inspire, mentor and counsel pregnant women newly diagnosed with the HIV virus. In only seven years, mothers2mothers has grown from a small grassroots organisation to a multinational operation in over 500 locations in seven African countries, serving more than 150,000 women per month.
Ecotact
After years of serving as a city planner and with non-profit organisations delivering basic services to the people of Kibera, the largest informal settlement in Africa, David Kuria has created Ecotact as a social enterprise spearheading community service and environmental interventions with a business perspective. Ecotact has built “Ikotoilet” malls in places where municipalities cannot keep up with the rapid pace of urbanisation, while their high-profile social marketing campaigns raise awareness of hygiene and water conservation. The malls have become popular meeting places that provide ecologically sensitive sanitation together with other small business services. With 14 functioning facilities that already serve 30,000 daily users, Ecotact is currently constructing another 20 malls in eight different municipalities across Kenya.
Streetwires
Patrick Schofield has revolutionised and formalised the informal wire and bead market, not only growing the social business of Streetwires and its craftsmen and women, but also lifting the status of the craft into an art form – thus providing true aesthetic and economic value. With innovative systems of craft development, cooperative manufacturing and distribution to local and international markets, Streetwires ensures the producers a fair price for their art, making it the first fair trade craft organisation in South Africa. With government-certified training programmes, its wire artists and students who are trained in outreach projects empower individuals with the qualifications and skills to create their own enterprises in the industry.
