Category: Event

Digital Standards Workshop – 25th October 2023

📣 British Council & Department of Basic Education’s Digital Standards Development Consultative Workshop on the 25th October, held at the Birchwood Hotel & OR Tambo Conference Centre. Project Lead is Belle and Co. (Belisa Rodrigues), supported by Research Lead from Limina Education Services (Dr Isabel Tarling). And supported by Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office.

💡 What is the Digital Standards Project?

The Digital Standards (or Guidelines) Project is a collaborative co-creative process that draws together diverse stakeholders from the education sector to develop digital standards for learning and teaching in South Africa’s schools and beyond.

📌 Milestone 1 (March/April): Input Document

The 8 month journey has taken us from developing a baseline research called the “Input document” which undertook an integrative literature review approach of all standards and policies related to digital teaching and learning. The Digital Capital Map (which consists of Digital Competencies, Digital Agency and Digital Citizenship).

📌 Milestone 2 (7&8 June): Consultative Roundtable 1

The first broad consultative conference on developing digital standards for digital teaching and learning in South Africa. Around 80 education stakeholders attended from a broad spectrum including academia, private sector, government and civil society including schools.

📌 Milestone 3: Online Working Groups

From June until September, the 6 standards working groups included: (1) Learner, (2) Educator, (3) Education Leaders, (4) Parents & Communities, (5) Service Providers & (6) Institutions and Infrastrucuture Standards. 24 meetings in total were conducted.

📝 Once standards were drafted, these were analysed and converted into google forms for voting by the public. The draft standards are still available for public input. Visit the project website to weigh in: https://sites.google.com/limina.co.za/dsdproject/

📌 Milestone 4 (25th October): Consultative Roundtable 2

Most recently, the working groups and others interested in finalising the draft standards were invited to an all-day workshop to walk, step-by-step, through each draft standard and to vote on them.

💡 Why digital standards?

The White Paper on e-Education (2004) provided South African education with a vision and long-term goals to implement digital learning in all education spaces. We need digital standards for different role players and for institutions to operationalise the White Paper in a practical and contextually relevant way.

💡 What are standards?

Standards are different to policies. Policies provide long-term goals, visions and guidance to entire corporations or countries. Standards operationalise policies in short-term or medium-term goals that target specific role players or institutional functions and processes.

📩 Please email me: Belisa Rodrigues (rodrigues.belisa@gmail.com) or send a message to ssa.events@britishcouncil.org.za (Subject header: Digital Standards Project)

DSD-A4-booklet-25-October-finalDownload

SIKKA – Fundraising Workshop

Sikka is a platform whose entire purpose is to document, with an essence of archiving, memorable, iconic moments and events that have truly shaped the feel of the Sudanese revolution.

Currently funded by the Goethe Institute, it is currently the only archiving platform that tells a positive story of the revolution through arts and culture interventions. It started its archiving activities toward the end of the revolution, and continues the ongoing story of beauty through the war time struggles of the Sudanese community and its diasporas.

On the 13, 14, 15 October, Belle and Co. had the privilege of working with the Sikka team to identify ways in which the project could become more sustainable in the future. Utilising the Arterial Network Arts Fundraising toolkit, the workshop covered topics such as understanding where Sikka fits in the Arts Continuum, Analysing the Arts Fundraising environment, Run through the basics of Proposal Writing as well as develop some key Fundraising Strategies for 2024 and beyond.

The workshop concluded with homework for the entire team to source fundraising opportunities within their own network and to work together to co-create future streams of income.

Developing Digital Standards for South African Schools

7&8 June 2023

#SchoolsConnect #DigitalStandards

Belle and Co. is the Project Lead on the Digital Standards Development project for all schools in South Africa.

Role players from all spheres are invited to participate in the development of the digital standards in two rounds of in-person roundtable meetings, and various online working group meetings between June and December 2023. Through iterative rounds of refinement and redevelopment, these role players will develop the digital standards to inform digital learning in South Africa’s schools and department of education offices.

Background

The project is funded through the FCDO’s UK Digital Access Programme which aims to catalyse more inclusive, affordable, safe and secure digital access for excluded and underserved communities in Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Brazil and Indonesia through sustainable models and enablers.

It’s a joint project by British Council, Department of Basic Education and supported by FCDO.

The determined need is that policy engagement around digital technologies in basic education will result in more available support for teachers and learners, and a more inclusive and effective basic education system at large.

Overview of the DSD Project

The ultimate output of the project is the development and dissemination of a Digital Standards document published making recommendations in digital technologies for teaching and learning at school level.

The aim is that a simple 2-page ‘standards document’ will be produced which can be used by the sector – in policy, as a support tool for school leaders + schools; in teacher development.

Research Input Document

To assist in this Standards Development Process, a research document called “Input Document”, has been developed referencing research and policy initiatives in this area of standards development across the globe.

This is available for you to read here: Developing Standards for Digital Learning and Teaching Input Document

June Consultative event (7&8 June 2023)

Over the last 2 days, over 100 education stakeholders from all over South Africa descended on Gauteng to attend the inaugural Digital Standards Development consultative event. The objective of Day 1 was to create shared understanding of Digital Citizenship and Digital Standards making; Day 2 objective was to start to work on standards for various role -players and institutions.

The 2-day event concluded with the “Operationalisation of the Online Standards Working Groups”. Participants who were particularly keen to be part of the on-going development and building of standards were encouraged to join a thematic working group and agreed to meet 4-6 times over the coming months.

Ultimately, after all the input has been received from working groups, a draft set of standards will be presented to the second consultative event on the 25 & 26th October 2023.

Whereafter, a final standards document will be launched and disseminated in early 2024.

DSD-Workshop-Programme_latestDownload

Fariq Project Sudan: Community Engagement Workshop

22,23,24 March 2023

(Image credit: VOA News)

Belle and Co workshop: Community Engagement and Cultural Outreach

Over 3 days, Belle and co delivered an intense online workshop for 4 project winners of the Goethe Institut Sudan’s Next Level Fariq Project.

As part of the project development phase, the winners need to attend a few project management workshops, including a workshop to help them develop a Community Engagement plan around their public intervention.

Our workshop included a guest speaker (Case Study) presentation by Roshana Naidoo, Project and Community Facilitator for Baz Art Public Art Festival.

Topics covered:

  • COMMUNITY OUTREACH : LESSONS FROM CAPE TOWN (Case Study of Baz Art Public Street Art Festival)
  • CROSS CULTURAL ENGAGEMENT: DESIGN THINKING
  • CREATING A COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY

Trainers:

Background: Next Level Fariq Project 

Over the past 30 years, public space in Sudan has not been a place for the general public. Discourse and cultural expression shifted to private space. Reclaiming public spaces, reusing and redefining them is part of urban development initiatives and neighborhood committees. During the revolution, opinions were “”taken to the streets”” to act as catalysts for change; this process of change and transformation is ongoing.

Despite the commitment of neighborhood committees, their resources are severely limited. Although public spaces and squares exist and are places of gathering, the most visible are sometimes planned or spontaneously organized small speeches on specific topics, around which crowds of people form to listen and join in the discussion.  – However, these places are not further equipped and designed. Due to the lack of equipment, the public spaces are unattractive, especially for women, young people and children, and are mainly used by men.

The NEXT LEVEL – Fariq project aims to give the neighborhoods the opportunity to make these public spaces more attractive and to make them a place of gathering for families and the wider society, especially marginalized parts. The project will support the initiative and creative ideas of the residents and the committees related to the valorization and revitalization of the public space in their neighborhood.

About Projects Winners 

Up to four project ideas will be further developed and promoted through workshops, exchange and mentorship. In the first half of 2023, a five-day training on project development and project management and a three-day training on cultural outreach and community engagement will take place, with a total of up to 8 participants. In the second half of 2023, the implementation of the projects will take place. For this purpose, the selected project initiatives will be paid the awarded funding amounts in several installments and they thus have the opportunity to redesign the public spaces according to their interests and desires, in addition and they will be accompanied in the implementation where necessary.

  1. Environmental Awareness in Khartoum 3 – Intisar Al- Agali ( Khartoum 3 Women’s Association)

The project in Khartoum 3  aims to provide a clean environment by following good health procedures that reduce pollution, and effective activities related to improving basic environmental conditions that affect the health and well-being of the residents of Khartoum 3 neighborhood. The project will train a number of young people on voluntary work and sanitation of the neighborhood environment, in addition to rehabilitating 3 triangles of sites that are converted from a garbage dump to a green place and a model of a square in the middle of the neighborhood and teaching high school students to preserve the environment.

  1. Green Neighborhood in Shaabiya in Khartoum North  –  Amro Awad ( Al- Shaabiya Neighborhood Committee)

The project aims to plant fruit trees that are beneficial to the environment in the neighborhood (roads, health center, club, kindergarten, and three schools) the trees are followed up by the project team and includes training the women of the neighborhood on how to take care of the trees, the training will be by agricultural experts. 

The project also includes full care of the environment for all neighborhood facilities (clubs, schools, market and health center), providing trash cans throughout the neighborhood to take care of cleanliness in the neighborhood, making monthly bazaars to provide new (productive) seedlings for all residents of the neighborhood to be planted inside homes, and finally making cultural activities and awareness in schools and the market.

  1. Revitalization of Banat West Women Association Garden, Omdurman – Hamida Alfadil ( Banat West Women’s Association)

Due to the lack of safe spaces for women and children in residential neighborhoods and the use of most of the spaces as football fields exclusive to men, the West Banat Women Association proposed to rehabilitate the park as a space and outlet for women and children of the neighborhood, by paving and fencing it with fruit trees and using it as a club and a gathering area for the activities of the association, and a reading club by providing solar lighting when the power is cut off and also children’s play area, as well as creating an economic activity to preserve the park and ensure its continuity. 

  1. Development of Al-Hurriya Square, Khartoum North – Mohamed Kamal ( Al- Mazad Neighborhood Committee)

Al- Hurriya Square project targets needy families and male and female students of Al-Hurriya School in the sports facility, where a basketball field and a volleyball field will be established, and the football field will be repaired. As for social activity, a special place will be established for families and children, and the previously established club in the neighborhood will be repaired. For needy families, three kiosks will be established as small projects for families from the neighborhood to increase income. Also, this project will be fenced with trees to create a clean environment and also to achieve safety and privacy for all. There will be consideration in the form of implementation to suit people with special needs, their toys and their needs.

To view more information on the background of the project call, see below:

Fariq-2022_2023.docxDownload

DESIGN THINKING WITH CODERS – LifeChoices Academy

Life Choices Academy: Human-Centred Design Thinking Bootcamp by Belle and Co.

26-27 June; 3-4 July; 10-11 July 2019

Over the course of 3 weeks, 60 coding students of the Lifechoices Academy were exposed to Design-Thinking methodology, which enabled them to get out of the computer room and onto the streets to find out the needs, desires and challenges faced by ordinary people. Using design thinking principles, teams tackled some of the most intractable problems facing society such as Youth Unemployment, Public Transport, Homelessness and Education.

The intensive journey was designed and facilitated by Belisa Rodrigues of Belle and Co, which culminated in teams presenting their final prototype solution to Life Choices staff and students.

Here is a story board visually depicting the processes the teams went through from Inspiration > Ideation > Implementation:

Crowd-funding for your non-profit

Crowdfunding (CF) presentation, Thu 30 Aug 2018, AORTIC Secretariat (Mowbray, Cape Town)

On Thursday 30 August 2018, Belle & Co. Associate Alexandre Rodrigues presented a lecture on non-profit financing in South Africa, with a focus on crowdfunding.  Alex is a CAIA (Certified Alternative Investment Analyst) charter holder, and works as an investment principal at Edge Growth, an SME growth specialist and impact investor.

The presentation delivered by Alex covered the following topics:

  • What is crowdfunding?
  • How does crowdfunding work?
  • How do you put a campaign together?
  • What resources do you need?
  • What platforms can you use?
  • Q&A

The presentation lasted an hour and participants in attendance were mostly from cancer non-profit companies (NPCs) AORTIC and CANSA.  Only a few participants had had some exposure to crowdfunding, with one having run an entire campaign on rewards-based international CF platform Indiegogo (to raise funding for a music concert), another having used GivenGain (also a global CF platform, but charity-based) for on-going small donations (for their cancer related NPC) whilst the last person had mostly only heard of CF (in a corporate model run by a financial services firm, OUTvest by Outsurance – a way to crowdfund one’s investing goals).

Alex began the presentation by highlighting the main sectors that use crowdfunding (social causes at 30% followed by small businesses/ entrepreneurs at 17%, with creative industries in third place at 12%).  The various types of CF models were then briefly discussed (equity, rewards, charity and peer-to-peer/P2P lending) before the global stats on the quantum of financing raised via this mechanism were shown (over $50bn worldwide in 2016, with most devoted to P2P lending at over 75%).  SA examples of platforms offering the various CF models were presented (rewards-based: Thundafund, equity: UpRise.Africa, charity: Back-a-buddy and P2P: PeerFin/ Rainfin).

The presentation went on to describe the elements of successful campaigns (e.g. use of rich media like videos, short but punchy copy, tools to share the campaign on social media, deadlines on fundraising plus realistic targets, reaching the “tipping point” within the first 2/3 weeks etc), with a focus on South African rewards-based CF examples (mostly taken from SA CF platform Thundafund), including: Land for Lions, Siki’s Coffee Revolution and “Know Your Water”.

Alex then explained what factors to consider when choosing a CF platform for one’s campaign (fees, type of funding: all-or-nothing or keep what you raise, ability to use/ incorporate multimedia, social media sharing tools etc), before delving into the importance of defining what you need the funds for and why (clarity of purpose to engage your supporters).

The presenter then stressed the importance of having a (realistic) fundraising goal and ensuring that the campaign length is optimal (SA data on rewards-based CF campaigns show that the average successful campaign raises ~R25k over 9 weeks).

Alex then went on to explain how campaigns run by dynamic teams rather than just an individual generally outperform (mix of skills and broader networks), and how maintaining a budget for the project and campaign is key to avoid running out of cash during fundraising and execution of the project.

Towards the end of the presentation, Alex explained the significance of planning, especially during the critical times of one month prior to launch (ensuring the content is ready – rich media like photos and videos, plus copy for the story, milestones to report back to community on progress, thank you letters to donors/ supporters etc) as well as on the day (stressing the importance of being able to “launch in a day”, i.e. go all out during the 24 hours after the campaign goes live, sending links to the campaign via social media, emails and even considering a launch party to drum up excitement for the project).

Alex explained the significance of feeding back to the community throughout the campaign as an essential way to keep interest and momentum, i.e. maintaining the campaign, especially given the fact that up to 65% of the funds raised are done so in the first 2 and last 2 weeks (i.e. the importance of starting and ending strong) of a campaign.  It was noted that campaigns that didn’t get past the 30-40% fundraising mark in the first 2-3 weeks were unlikely to reach their goal by the end of the campaign.

Lastly, Alex walked the crowd through his experiences running his own charity-based CF campaign 5 years ago (in 2013) and what he did well (short, punchy copy; a thank you to donors) versus what he did poorly (lack of rich media, no updates to supporters etc).  The presentation ended with some general Q&A, during which participants asked questions such as: “what the best platform to raise charitable funding in SA was” (local platform vs international; answer: depends on if campaign could have global appeal or not, i.e. for cancer-related causes, either one could work), and “what a cancer NPC could use CF to raise funding for” (e.g. sending an underprivileged scientist to an international cancer conference; to pay for the publication/ printing of a cancer directory etc).

The group then broke for refreshments and general socializing, with catering provided for by AORTIC.

 

 

 

 

 

Mowbray Town Hall Talk I: Collaborative Entrepreneurship

Mowbray, Cape Town: October 2017

MOWBRAY TOWN HALL TALK SERIES

TOPIC: COLLABORATIVE ENTREPRENEURSHIP

MONDAY 30 OCTOBER 2017

17.30 -19.30

The Mowbray Townhall Talk Series aims to create a vibrant community hub of sharing, learning and interacting.

This month’s session will see prominent business people from the Somali Association, Jewish and Muslim communities among others, sharing best practice on entrepreneurship. How do you use your cultural capital to build your business whilst building your community?

Join us if you are a curious local entrepreneur!

ENQUIRIES: belisa@belleandco.co.za

This event is run by the Cape Town Chapter of Junior Chamber Initiative in partnership with Cultural Entrepreneurship Hub Cape Town, Belle and Co, Ward 57, Old Mowbray Cottages, RMCA, GSCID, Mowbray Library and community members.

“Collaborative Entrepreneurship” from a multi-cultural perspective.

ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS

*Siyabulela Sophi

Siyabulela Sophi is a visionary that overcame many obstacles to start a business that is a catalyst for change. Award winning Social Entrepreneur, originally from the Eastern Cape, Mr Sophi founded Makhaza Lifestyle Pty Ltd in 2013, a social enterprise specializing in project Mmnagement and clothing Mmnufacturing.

Sophi is one of the pioneers who founded the 1st Friday Conversations in Khayelitsha which aims to engage youth on a monthly basis on topics of interest to inspire, empower and encourage, among other things, youth entrepreneurship.

*Scott Roberts

Mr Roberts is the co-founder of Eden, a startup NGO which aims to increase young South African Entrepreneurs’ access to establish business networks by leveraging the Jewish Business community from within. He is past deputy Chairperson of the South African Union of Jewish Students UCT and has just retired from a long career in Habonim Dror, a progressive Jewish Youth Movement. He is passionate about finding new and inclusive avenues towards economic growth.

*Abdikadir Mohamed

Mr Mohamed, was born in Somalia, in a small town called Kismayo (a port city) and came to South Africa in 2002. He started operating small businesses in different townships across four provinces of South Africa. He joined the Somali Association of South Africa (SASA) in 2011 and held different positions, eventually becoming the Director of Western Cape. Most recently (2016), he was awarded a national award from the Department of Home Affairs in the field of Civil Society/NGO category called the “Mkhaya Migrants Award” which recognises outstanding achievements of foreigners toward the development of South Africa.

The SASA currently runs a programme called Business Skills Sharing Workshop where local business owners and potential entrepreneurs discuss issues related to business.

Somali Association of South Africa (SASA) and it is mission and vision are as follows:

Mission: promote the ethos of self-reliance and local integration.
Vision: Build unity among locals and refugees based on peace and tolerance.

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Thank you to those who came to support our first Mowbray Town Hall Talk series “Collaborative Entrepreneurship”. Insights garnered from the Somali and Jewish communities were invaluable and inspired some to start thinking about their own self reliance and resilience. Thank you to all our local and international supporters.

 

Belle and Co. awarded EU project on Social Entrepreneurship

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Skopje, Macedonia: December, 2016

“Dive in Social Entrepreneurship” is a capacity building project financed by the EU under the Erasmus + programme, Capacity building in the field of youth, and it will be implemented within a period of 17 months and it will include partners coming from following countries: Macedonia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece, Romania, Brazil, South Africa and Costa Rica.

The project consists of capacity building activities (kick off seminar and local researches) and mobility activities (seminar, training courses, study visit and job shadowing). The activities will be based on variety of methods and techniques of non-formal education and they will support active role of the participants in the project activities. The activities will target various groups including young people and youth leaders, youth workers, program managers and project coordinators, representatives of institutions and local authorities.

2017 Activity plan:

FEB, Romania: Research Seminar on country comparative social entrepreneurship ecosystems

MARCH, Greece: Training on Social Entrepreneurship I

MAY, Turkey: Training on Social Entrepreneurship II

JUNE, Bulgaria: Study tour of Social Enterprises

SEPT, South Africa: Job Shadow of Social Enterprises

DEC, Macedonia: M& E and Close Off off

The key aim of the project is to provide a way for active development of human capital, practical encouragement of social entrepreneurial activities and establishment of effective pathways to youth employment in strategic cooperation with different stakeholders.

The project kickoff meeting was held in Macedonia in December 2016.

Co-Creating Mowbray

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Mowbray Cape Town: April, 2016

Belle and Co. held its first public engagement with Mowbray residents to explore possible avenues of re-imagining Mowbray through place-making and co-creation. Residents shared previous visioning exercises such as “Magic Mowbray” and the GSCID’s “Mowbray as Learning District” concept. RMCA, Open Streets, Old Mowbray Cottages, CPF, GSCID and others, were in attendance. Thank you goes to Enock Nkomo for the use of his business premises on Mowbray Main Road.