Social enterprise, Kusini Water, based in Gauteng builds water treatment systems from nanotechnology and macadamia nut shells. Just last week, they launched their biggest water purification plant at eMalahleni in partnership with DuPoint, producing 10,000 litres of water per hour.
As a social enterprise, Murendeni Mafumo, the founder of Kusini Water, has faced many challenges. Besides the usual barriers to entry, he found the lack of support in terms of human development the most difficult. This refers to the physical, cognitive, and psychosocial development of a person throughout their lifespan, which plays a crucial role in how an entrepreneur perceives themselves.
FURTHER, a platform to develop high performing impact entrepreneurs, is working to change this. Spearheaded by co-founders Ian Calvert and Lindsay Cilliers, FURTHER designs and implements bespoke programmes that focus on human performance and personal capacity building on behalf of partners such as the SAB Foundation, Allan Gray Orbis Foundation and British Council.
“What many of these entrepreneurs lack are networks where they can tap into for support, which is something most privileged entrepreneurs take for granted. We’ve worked with over 100 impact entrepreneurs to help them bridge the gap between the start-up stage and being fully scalable and sustainable. We offer this not only for their businesses, but primarily for them as individuals. Many are faced with issues like imposter syndrome or have self-limiting beliefs, which we help them to overcome. By building their capacity as human beings first, it allows them to perform at their full potential and go onto solving the problems closest to their hearts and to home.” Says Calvert.
FURTHER uses cutting-edge, high-performance approaches and tools to develop community changemakers, like Murendeni, so they can assess their capacities and skill sets and grow themselves through peer-to-peer learnings. They also receive coaching on how to develop critical skills such as empathy, problem solving, and storytelling, and how to reach peak performance or flow states, along with practical business skills like finance, legal and communications. All entrepreneurs receive access to FURTHER’s network of impact entrepreneurs, situated across South Africa, who are leaders in their fields and are making a difference in their communities.
Murendeni first reached out to FURTHER in 2017 when he applied to join their, then, Red Bull Amaphiko programme. He says, “A lot of people have helped keep my business alive along the way, but FURTHER have helped me to stay alive.” Since joining, Kusini Water has not only scaled but its impact on the community has been phenomenal. To date they are producing 5 million litres of water per month, servicing approximately 50 000 people, and have trained 45 young people to become community water and sanitation reps, provide maintenance services for Kusini and operate the various kiosks that open in the area.
More information on how to partner with FURTHER please visit www.furtherimpact.co.za