2019 Winners Announced for The Pan-African Awards for Entrepreneurship in Education
Four projects from four countries have won the 2019 Pan-African Awards for Entrepreneurship in Education for their entrepreneurial solutions to education challenges, and their positive social impact. This year, over 340 organisations from across Africa applied to the Pan-African Awards, representing a growing network of expertise and innovation that is creating opportunities for African Youth.
Supported by The Saville Foundation and managed by Teach A Man To Fish, the Pan-African Awards combine the aims and expertise of both organisations. This year's four winners join the Pan-African Awards community of projects that are transforming the landscape of entrepreneurship education in Africa. Their work will also support progress towards achieving the 8th Sustainable Development Goal: Decent Work and Economic Growth.
The winners will be celebrated during the Teach A Man To Fish Partner Summit in London, March 2020.
Meet the 2019 Winners...
About The Social Innovation Academy:
The Social Innovation Academy (SINA) tackles failing education and resulting unemployment in Africa through creating self-organised and 'freesponsible' learning spaces, where disadvantaged youth unleash their potential for positive change as social entrepreneurs. A cost-effective and self-governed community approach provides a pathway, tools and the mindset to shape a vision for their future and create new solutions in form of social enterprises which benefit society and the environment.
On winning First Prize:
"The award allows us to invite interested youth from Kenya, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, and other African countries to our existing SINA communities in Uganda for experiencing the SINA model first hand, co-own and run it and possibly work together to replicate the model in self-organization across Africa."
About The Turing Trust:
The Turing Trust supports education in sub-Saharan Africa by reusing computers and improving teacher training using ICT. They provide skills development in the UK while reducing waste and contributing to an environmentally friendly society. They have reused over 4,200 PCs enabling more than 41,000 students to gain a digital education.
On winning the Future Partner Prize:
"All of us at the Turing Trust are delighted to be selected as the Future Partner Prize winner of the 2019 Pan-African Awards for Entrepreneurship in Education. It is a fantastic opportunity to us to learn more about and experiment with how we can support schools to use valuable and scarce ICT resources for the maximum benefit of their community. We can't wait to get started!"
About WAVE (West Africa Vocational Academy):
Like its natural resources of oil and minerals, Africa’s youth are a paradox of (untapped) potential dividends merely existing/constantly being exploited as demographic liabilities. WAVE's vision is to reverse this trend by targeting: Best-in-class quality: A new and efficient way to prepare and provide unemployed youths with stable jobs that leverage their innate strengths in an environment where they have previously been shortchanged. Scalability: A home-grown scalable and replicable model for social impact in the region centred on developing people at a systemic level. Systemic Impact: An Africa where young people can aspire to achieve their potential and in so doing enhance the development of the African continent.
On winning the Runner Up Prize:
"As we continue to work towards scaling our impact to give more African youth the skills and opportunities they need to become all they can imagine, the Pan-African Award will support WAVE through our curriculum innovation so we can reach more young people who in turn will have an opportunity to access employment or entrepreneurship and be able to transform their income."
About Kenya Connect:
Since 2002, Kenya Connect has been devoted to improving education for 18,000 students at 55 partner schools by breaking down barriers to education and providing innovative teacher professional development and empowerment and enrichment classes for students in primary (K-8) and secondary (Form 1-4). Originally established as a Pen Pal program to connect children in distant cultures, they have developed into an organisation whose goal is to enhance education through robust and creative programming. Kenya Connect has developed a multipronged approach in our effort to accomplish the mission of engaging and empowering rural students and teachers to succeed in the 21st century. Our vision is to see young people in our community lift out of extreme poverty through providing them with education, skills and programming that encourages critical thinking, creativity, literacy, collaboration, digital literacy and entrepreneurship.
On winning the Runner Up Prize:
"We are most humbled and honored to be a runner up for the Pan-African Awards. Kenya Connect's mission is to engage and enrich students and teachers with 21st century skills through the power of education. The Mighty Moringa Tree School Enterprise project connects students with a dynamic project to grow the drought-resistant Moringa Tree and to harvest it’s leaves and seeds as a high-nutrition food source while learning about environmental stewardship and the use of compost from our composting toilet system. This program incorporates the key-tenets of the Kenyan Competency Based Curriculum while celebrating the tree-planting legacy of Nobel Prizewinner, Wangari Maathai."
A Note from The Saville Foundation
"Now in its 12th year, the Pan-African Awards Competition looks to unearth organisations that provide opportunities for people to learn how to overcome the growing challenges of financial insecurity and underemployment through innovative entrepreneurial education programmes. As a Foundation that looks to enable individuals to be able to support themselves and create their own trajectories in life, PAA meets many elements of this quest."
Gary Shearer, CEO of The Saville Foundation
