Showing posts with label Social Entrepreneurship. Show all
posts
Showing posts with label Social Entrepreneurship. Show all posts
DOTs' Unconference 2018: What I learnt about Creative Internetwork of Humanity
"Instead of the Internet of things, we should be talking about the internet of humanity." Janet
Longmore.
Let me introduce you to this wise woman. Janet is the CEO of DOT. which stands for Digital
Opportunity Trust. DOT. is a social enterprise that offers entrepreneurship and leadership
training for young people in Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America.
DOTs' 2018 Unconference was held in Kenya at the KCB Leadership Centre in Karen. It brought young
social entrepreneurs from the 3 continents together to present their social innovations and share
ideas with each other on how to make an impact in their respective countries.
These young participants stood out during DOTs' Impactathons which were short, intensive programs that introduce concepts on social innovation and enterprise and support youth to develop ideas to address specific problems in their communities.
These young participants stood out during DOTs' Impactathons which were short, intensive programs that introduce concepts on social innovation and enterprise and support youth to develop ideas to address specific problems in their communities.
The conference was scheduled to take place from the 17th to the 19th of October. It was an honor
to be among the people invited to the first day of the conference. Esther Gathigi, the Country
Director of DOT Kenya, gave the opening speech. The theme of the conference was on bridging gender
and social barriers in order to build inclusive communities.
Then came Janet Longmore. She spoke of the rise of social businesses. She then introduced us to a
new word: talentism which as the name suggests is the use of
talent to make an impact in society. According to her, it is talentism that will make a
difference. She also highlighted the fact that the internet was not made to connect things; it
was made to facilitate communication. So instead of the Internet of Things (IoT) we should be
talking about the Internet of Humanity.
On that note she introduced us to the Innojo app - an application whose role is to
make sure there are zero barriers to social Innovators everywhere. After her address, there was
a panel discussion where 3 former DOT. participants - Aisha from Kenya, George from Tanzania and
Dalila from Jordan - joined Janet and Esther on stage to discuss their experiences as
social entrepreneurs.
A wealth of knowledge was exchanged. Aisha is the co-founder of Pwani Teknowgalz, a social
enterprise that aims to inspire girls to join the STEM (Science Technology, Engineering, and
Math) fields through mentorship and interactive training. Aisha told us of her school days where
she was one of the three or five ladies in a class of sixty students. This is something I
completely resonated with considering there were several times I was the only female or one of
three females in my Tech classes in Uni.
Meanwhile, George runs a Digital services agency called Smartcore Enterprise limited whose vision
is to spark creativity in African learners through technology and provide the best learning
experience.
He spoke of the fact that we are all content creators, therefore, we should play a part in content
creation as Africans. George also suggested that we should find ways of transferring the knowledge
we have to a format such as fun educational videos that other people far from us can learn
from online .
His last point stuck in most of our minds especially after the MC kept reiterating it. "Don't
just give business cards, make friends. If you are my friend, I can make money with you." My take
away from this statement was once you build a relationship and cultivate trust between yourself
and a fellow human, there is no limit to what you can both achieve working together.
Kamau Mugure was called on to give a short speech right after the panel discussion. I first met
Kamau at the Digital Marketing Training by Kuza Biashara. He has always been an inspiring
person to listen to.
His sharp memory is also something most of us admire. He greeted almost all the representatives of
the African countries that were present in their native language. As Trevor Noah explained in his
book Born A Crime " A shared language says we're the same." You could see
how intrigued and attentive the audience became after that. He would do the same with people's
names at Kuza, never at once forgetting someone's name.
After Kamau's address, we broke out for the tea break as the first set of entrepreneurs prepared
their presentation and other merchandise they would use to explain what their businesses are
about. I will list a few of the many social entrepreneurs I managed to visit,
1. Lambert from Kigali, Rwanda. His business helps house helps with their job transition
after working for a few years as house helps. They empower them with financial literacy training
as well as carpet and basket weaving skills.
2. Raisa Akinyi of Kenya Biocyclers from Kisumu who came with her brother. They breed the
black soldier fly insect that is later used to feed on organic waste at dumpsites in Kisumu. Her
solution tackles the problem of inefficient waste management systems in Kisumu city. These
soldier flies are then used as animal feed for pigs, chicken, and fish, thus creating
affordable and consistent feed for farmers.
3. Anisha from the UK. She has created a web platform that links people to social
enterprises near them.
4. Bright, a Ghanaian, employs graduates where they start a project with 500 direct and
1000 indirect employees and distributors. His model of business is so unique in that it is
scalable depending on the skills of the people he has on board.
5. AmyAnne Smith from Canada. Her project was on sex work in Canada. She gave us a curious
story of a lady who had been murdered in Canada. People were against the murder until they found
out she was a sex worker. After that, they turned against her and even suggested that maybe she
deserved it. AmyAnne found that change of heart repulsive and decided to do something about it.
Her idea revolves around building a website that contains information for sex workers as well as a
platform where they can share their stories.
6. Steven Ng'omba from Malawi had an amazing learning app which teaches children various
classroom subjects through their phones. Steven is an animator and has a team of writers,
videographers and designers who have helped the app to get to where it is now. The group is using
the app to teach their students alongside actual classes over the weekends.
7. Then I met Deus from Dar es Salaam Tanzania.
I mentioned to him that I was in Dar a few months ago and how I loved the experience.
We sparked a long conversation during the lunch break where he told me about his project which was
about helping farmers access information on modern means of farming through physical and online
training.
8. Khalil from Jordan was showcasing a Virtual Reality (VR) game he made. It took me back
to
In Khalil's game you were to look at 3 colors on the floor then walk around and spot those colors
around the room. He said that the game is location-based because it works with sensors put in a
specific room. If the player walks beyond those sensors, they will not be able to continue
playing.
In one day, I got to experience the internetwork of humanity through these young inspiring and
innovative entrepreneurs. It got me thinking about how to incorporate more humanity in my
entrepreneurship ventures. After all, it is no longer about the internet of things. How do you see
yourself combining the internet with helping humanity?
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