Category: News

Dive into SE: Cape Town Social Enterprise Study Tour

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Cape Town, South Africa: September, 2017

A 5-day intensive Job Shadow/Study Tour in Cape Town, South Africa, as part of the Erasmus + supported programme “Dive in Social Entrepreneurship” was arranged by Belle and Co.

Belle and Co hosted 2 of its partners (Turkey and Bulgaria) to meet local government, entrepreneurs and academics working in the social entrepreneurship space in Cape Town.

Visits included: Local Ward 57 Councillor; Observatory Community Improvement District; Mess Cafe Social Enterprise; Gangstar Gear Social Enterprise; Spinach King Social Enterprise; 18 Gangster Museum Social Enterprise; PASSOP Refugee NPO; Know Thy Farmer Social Enterprise; UWC Entrepreneurship Centre; visits with local entrepreneurs and students as well as exposure to a range of local heritage day (27 September) activities.

Read Report here: SE Job Shadow Report

 

Dive into SE: Romania Social Enterprise Job Shadow

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Iasi, Romania: September, 2017

Belle and co. Associate, Mohlomi Motloung, participated in a job shadow / study tour of social enterprises in Iasi, Romania.

Main aim of job shadowing activities is to provide the participants an opportunity to learn from good practices directly in the place and have possibility to network with stakeholders coming from other country, brainstorm ideas for future development of their social enterprises. Project will include more shadowing activities. Each activity will take 5 days, excluding travel days, it means one working week. Participants of job shadowing will be selected by each organization reflecting the aims and goals of each organization, their future plans and needs, interests of the participants.

Read Report Here: SE Job Shadow Report

Dive into SE: Bulgaria Study Visit

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Sofia, Bulgaria: June, 2017

Belle and Co. Associate Nthakoana Maema, participated in a tightly curated study visit of social enterprises in Sofia, Bulgaria as part of the Dive in Social Entrepreneurship Programme. The main objective of the tour was to analyse successful Social Enterprise Business Models. Visits included engaging with a range of Successful Social Enterprises, as well as Local Government Departments (Social and Labour Dept).

See Report Here: DiveIn_Report_Sofia

Cultural Entrepreneurship Hub Project Launch

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Munich, Germany: March 2017

The Goethe Institut and Strascheg Centre for Entrepreneurship (Munich University) have partnered to create a consortium to help build Cultural Entrepreneurship Hubs at Goethe Institut Greece, Indonesia and South Africa. The project is financed by the Federal Foreign Office of Germany.

Belle and co. has been invited to be part of this consortium along with other local consultants from the three countries identified.

Read more about the project here.

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.

Working with Echoing Green, New York

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New York, USA: August/September, 2016

After completing the Mandela Washington Fellowship academic track in July, Belle and co. was lucky enough to be offered an additional 6 week professional development opportunity with Echoing Green in New York City.

Echoing Green identifies tomorrow’s transformational leaders today. Through its Fellowships and other innovative leadership initiatives, Echoing Green spots emerging leaders and invests deeply in their success to accelerate their impact. They have been funding social entrepreneurship and innovation globally for 30 years. Read more here.

Belle and co.worked closely with the fellowship team, in particular working on linking the fund with African based community leaders and entrepreneurs.  Various outreach partnerships were forged between African institutions and Echoing Green.

Belle and Co. also got the chance to pitch its business value proposition to the whole team.

Shaking Obama’s Hand

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Washington, USA: August 2017

Belisa Rodrigues, Belle and Co. Director, was awarded one of the 1000 coveted fellowship positions (amongst 50 0000 applications) to be part of the Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI) or Mandela Washington Fellowship (MWF) class of 2016.

After 6 weeks in the USA studying at Dartmouth college with 25 fellow Africans, all 1000 fellows convene at the end of the fellowship for the Presidential Summit in Washington to meet Obama.

Not everyone gets a chance to shake the hand of POTUS, but Belle and Co. did.

 

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.

Donation of laptops to Langa

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Langa, Cape Town: July 2016

Belle and co. called for donations of laptops on the Belle and co. Facebook site, and received 2 donations from the public. These two laptops were handed over to the Langa Arts Association. Much appreciation to all involved!