Social Entrepreneurship in South Africa

Thursday we switched the lecture with the project work and started with the latter. One group visited the pre-school and talked to the teachers, while others interviewed former learners from the "Fit for Life, Fit for Work" project. Furthermore, the health project group started their preparation for their crowdfunding campain. Teamwork Visiting the pre-school Discussion with Ericah Lecture by Patrick, the director of Etafeni In the afternoon, Patrick gave us a lot of insights about the management structures at Etafeni, what they have achieved and what challenges they are facing. All these aspects are important for the students to consider in their final papers.  Theresa: "I am very moved by the enjoyment of life and motivation that our project manager Mama Teresa embodies, while she makes so much out of nothing to give women a perspective. To be able to support her and to recognise how much she wants to work on improvement with us, motiv...

Wednesday started with a lecture by Dr. Kathrin Bischoff, who covered topics such as issues and business-society management, sustainable entrepreneurship and sustainable business models and basics of research methods. In discussions first approaches of the project groups were presented. The groups started to think about their research questions and their proceedings in their papers. There is a lot of work to do for the groups, but they are really motivated to make an impact. Lecture by Dr. Kathrin Bischoff Today's student impression by Anna: "Yesterday we met our project manager for the first time. It was really impressive to see how she and her "health embassadors" create a positive impact on the community of  N yanga. I hope we can provide the help the project needs to give more people access to health care. So today we did a lot of research to build up a crowdfunding campaign and reali z ed how difficult it is to implement a fast financing." In ...

Our fourth day began with a our first lecture. Varkey George provided us with an interesting overview about the history of South Africa. Varkey has lived in South Africa for 30 years already and worked in several social entrepreneurship projects. He gave us insights about the causes of poverty in South Africa. Moreover, he pointed out the challenges the country has faced in the past, which are also the roots for today's problems. Furthermore, he presented strategies on how income can be generated for social projects to stimulate the creativity of the students. Inspiring lecture by Varkey George The afternoon was spent in the project groups to get more information from the managers, sort the information and discuss further steps. The nutrition team supported the kitchen and the agriculture project to get familiar with the processes, while the fit for life project team had the chance to meet former participants of the projects. Women Income Generation Project ...

The week started with our first day at Etafeni - the non profit organisation we decided to work with during the next three weeks. Etafeni ( http://www.etafeni.org ) is located in Nyanga, one of the oldest black townships in Cape Town. The people face several challenges, such as crime, unemployment and high rates of HIV/AIDS. Nyanga is slowly developing due to the engagement of the community members who try to provide job opportunities and health improvement. In Nyanga live about 60,000 people. This morning we met the director, the program managers and some of Etafenis staff members. All of them are very dedicated to the project work. We got to know each other and were introduced to the organisation of Etafeni. Afterwards the students were separated into five groups and met their program managers to get more information. Today's aim was to determine the goals of each project group and to define an agreement between the managers and the project group. The five project groups are: ...

Sunday, the first official day of the Seminar programme, started with an introduction by Dr. Kathrin Bischoff and Varkey George, our local programme manager, who greatly organized the three weeks programme. We spoke about the schedule and aspects about the stay in and around Cape Town. After that we headed off to a city sightseeing tour by bus for a first orientation. We stopped at some nice viewpoints in the Table Mountain National Park, visited the beautiful beaches at Camps Bay and the shopping mall ate the waterfront. In the evening another dinner was planned at a Tapas Restaurant nearby and everyone was really excited about our upcoming first day in the Township of Nyanga on Monday.

Social Entrepreneurship in South Africa. That is how the Seminar is called that the Chair of Entrepreneurship and Economic Development & UNESCO-Chair of Entrepreneurship and Intercultural Management offers in the summer term 2018. Dr. Kathrin Bischoff, Coordinator of the UNESCO-Chair, and 24 students travelled to Cape Town on Friday, August 18th, 2018. The goal is to understand social entrepreneurship in theory during lectures and in practice during social work in one of the largest townships in Cape Town, called "Nyanga". Saturday morning most of the group woke up in our hostel Loop 91 in Cape Town after a late arrival on a Friday night. We already recognized how cold the winter in South Africa is, after having experienced a hot summer in Germany. Our adventure began with an extraordinary day trip to Hermanus. A two hours drive from Cape Town away, at the Walker Bay, is it possible to watch whales right next to the coast. It was a sunny saturday and we were lucky to s...