On 25 July 2026, Belle and co.’s Director, Belisa Rodrigues, designed and delivered a pitch workshop for 70 learners at Silvermine Academy in Cape Town, as part of their Entrepreneurs Career Day. The session prepared students to develop and present a same day pitch to a panel of invited judges: “The Dragons”.
The workshop structure and process
The event aimed to stimulate creative thinking and practical problem solving among 14 to 17 year old participants.
After hearing talks from guest speakers representing Bootlegger Coffee Company and the Cape Town Creative Academy, the learners split into collaborative working groups to come up with their business idea. With guidance, each team developed core elements of their venture, including:
A story hook to capture audience attention.
A clear business model and prototype.
A structured funding or support request.
The judging panel and student concepts
The judging panel featured experienced business owners and investors, including Gina Sulprizio (Full Circle Food), Jacques Loftus (Amethyst), Kevin James (GCX), Miguel Netto (Bootlegger), Ingram Casey (Escape + Explore), and Kevin Sibartie (Lineage Invest).
The students presented a range of innovative, creative, and niche business concepts. Ideas included recycled furniture production, specialized hamster accessories, and period product vending machines.
The workshop provided a supportive space for learners to build public speaking confidence and experiment with venture creation. Belle and co. congratulates Silvermine Academy for organizing an impactful event for emerging young entrepreneurs.
From March 2025 – March 2026, Belisa Rodrigues provided communications and project management consultancy services to the African Centre for Cities (ACC). In particular, to the African Urban Futures Project, where ACC serves as a key partner in this initiative alongside the Urban Futures Studio at Utrecht University and the Centre for Sustainability Transitions at Stellenbosch University.
An inspiring repository for infrastructure innovation
A main outcome of this collaboration is infrahub.africa, a database currently featuring an impressive case study library of 70 infrastructure initiatives across the continent. The platform functions as a repository for real world practice, illustrating diverse methods for addressing service delivery gaps in sectors such as:
Mobility and delivery networks
Sanitation and water distribution
Construction and sustainable energy
Soft and hard community infrastructure
These initiatives demonstrate practical, sustainable approaches to providing essential services in African cities.
Highlights from the March 2026 showcase
The African Urban Futures Showcase in Cape Town marked the conclusion of phase 1 consisting of four years of academic collaboration. Convened by Edgar Pieterse (Director, ACC), the event gathered leaders from local government, civil society, and academia to discuss the challenges and possibilities of urban experimentation. Key speakers included:
Alderman Eddie Andrews (Deputy Mayor, City of Cape Town)
Bushra Razack (Former CEO, Philippi Village)
Maarten A. Hajer (Director, Urban Futures Studio, Utrecht University)
Edgar Pieterse (Director, African Centre for Cities, UCT)
The event included a poster exhibition highlighting 16 selected projects from the platform, ranging from Nigerian solar charged power bank rentals to Kenyan overhead water piping systems.
Prototyping futures: the 2026 changemaker curriculum for grade 11 learners
If you have been following Belle and co.’s journey with high school learners in 2025, you would be familiar with our social enterprise curriculum. This year, the feedback received from participants shifted focus toward career aspirations and future preparation.
In response to these insights, the Belle and co. team redesigned the curriculum structure. The update moved beyond a routine refresh, resulting in a comprehensive revamp of the session delivery. The central addition to this iteration is the Changemaker’s Workbook.
The changemaker’s workbook and active research
The workbook operates as an activity book and reflective journal. It enables learners to identify personal strengths, skills, and passions, and translate them into career pathways.
As part of this learning experience, participants conducted active research to test their career ideas. Rather than traditional job shadowing, students engaged in practical discovery tasks, including:
Interviewing professionals in their fields of interest.
Researching career definitions and requirements online.
Volunteering with local non governmental organisations.
These activities provided the students with the practical space to prototype their future career directions. The 2026 programme focused specifically on Grade 11 learners. This adjustment addresses the need for early career intervention before the academic demands of Grade 12 become primary.
Adjusted structure and increased momentum
The updated programme was delivered over three consecutive Saturday sessions across February and March 2026. This schedule altered the 2025 format, which included a three month gap between the first and second sessions. The compressed timeline helped participants maintain momentum and improved knowledge recall, allowing the facilitation team to build on previous lessons systematically.
Session learning objectives
Each of the three sessions targeted a specific area of development:
Session 1 objective: Reframe problems into opportunities by mapping unique personal strengths and passions onto a chosen issue, while deepening self empathy through feedback.
Session 2 objective: Develop a resilient mindset by reframing potential failures as data, encouraging experimentation in personal and professional growth, and outlining a small, actionable step to test within two weeks.
Session 3 objective: Define a future path by connecting the prototype idea to a broader purpose, enabling learners to articulate why their work matters, and concluding with a vision board for 2026 and 2027.
A look at the new material
The introduction of the physical workbook changed how students engaged with the content, turning abstract ideas into tangible career plans.
Overall Feedback
The self-reflection feedback forms indicate that the workshops were highly effective in helping learners clarify their career paths, with a strong majority reporting an increase in design thinking awareness and a shift in how they view their futures. Participants consistently highlighted that the collaborative atmosphere and interactive exercises – such as prototyping, brainstorming, and mind mapping – were engaging and well-organised. While most students appreciated the inclusive space where everyone had an opportunity to participate, a few noted that the session felt long or rushed, and some shy individuals requested that facilitators avoid putting them on the spot. Overall, the learners highly valued the supportive, warm energy of the team and expressed that the insights gained made their future career aspirations feel far more achievable.
“In this session I enjoyed new skills a lot and learned what prototype is but today I am think differently about my future.” [Anon 1]
“The session went really well, I enjoyed the session, when we were playing at the beginning… learning more about future careers and what we can do to ensure that our futures are not completely planned but don’t seem as scary anymore.” [Anon 2]
“Me figuring more out about my career I figured more out through one of the Bertha centre members making a link for me.” [Anon 3]
A sneak peak at the new Changemaker’s Workbook and the wonderful facilitation team:
Digital transformation: a website and logo refresh for the African centre for cities
Belle and co. recently project managed a comprehensive online update for the African Centre for Cities. Our team brought together specialised website developers and graphic designers to align the organisation’s digital presence with its new strategic direction.
Comprehensive digital updates
The project involved upgrading several core elements of the digital platform:
User experience and design: Updating the visual layout to create a modern and accessible interface (in line with University requirements).
Search capabilities: Building a more robust backend search function to handle the extensive research database on this content heavy site.
Visual identity: Modifying the existing logo to improve versatility across digital platforms while preserving the iconic Adinkra pattern.
Security and server backups: Ensuring the site is secured, regularly monitored and has an appropriate backup process in place.
Collaborative process and outcomes
Over several months, the development team worked closely alongside the communication department and co-directors of the organisation. This collaborative approach ensured the updates met both technical and institutional goals.
The evolution of the logo highlights the final font update for 2026, which improves legibility and maintains a modern aesthetic. The positioning of the text allows for two versions to be used: horizontal and vertical without losing text legibility.
2026 updated logo (horizontal)2026 updated logo (vertical)
Part of being a senior leader in any industry is passing the baton to the next generation. I recently had the privilege of doing just that during the African Leadership Academy (ALA) for Governance Community Call. Speaking to 40 vibrant young leaders across the continent, we explored a theme deeply central to my journey: building a career of impact.
Belisa Rodrigues, Founder of Belle & Co.. Source: Encyclopaedia Africana
Many people view public service and policy work as rigid, dry, or purely bureaucratic. But my path has been anything but linear. By combining education, continuous innovation, and advocacy, I’ve found that a career in policy can be just as dynamic and fulfilling as any creative industry.
During the session, I shared three core strategies for navigating the governance landscape:
The power of volunteering: True impact often begins by saying “yes” to roles that prioritize hands-on experience over immediate financial gain. It is the quickest path to sharpening your skills and proving your dedication to a cause.
Building a Pan-African network: Whether advocating for artists with the Arterial Network or collaborating globally through the Innovation for Policy Foundation (i4Policy), I have learned that our real strength lies in cross-border solidarity.
Following your north star: Governance work is demanding. Your internal values and sense of purpose must act as your compass. When your daily work aligns with your deepest beliefs, a career naturally shifts from being just a job to a lifelong mission.
The incredible enthusiasm from these 40 young changemakers proved that the future of ethical African governance is in highly capable hands. If you follow your passion, your career path will inherently become a canvas for genuine change.
More about Innovation for Policy
Innovation for Policy (i4Policy) is a not-for-profit organisation with Pan-African roots. We believe in building a better future by placing the power of the collective at the heart of decision-making.
We bridge the gap between top-down government structures and bottom-up community needs. From local laws to global climate agreements, we support governments and citizens to co-create the policies that govern them. We are shifting the rules of the game; proving that when you democratize decision-making, you build legitimate, lasting systems that benefit us all.
African Leadership Academy seeks to transform Africa by developing a powerful network of young leaders who will work together to address Africa’s greatest challenges, achieve extraordinary social impact, and accelerate the continent’s growth trajectory.
AL for Governance is a network that aims to address Africa’s governance and development challenges by developing a new generation of ethical public leaders. The network facilitates diverse career pathways into the governance sector for young leaders, catalyzes connections between members, and fosters powerful intergenerational mentorship relationships to drive lasting change. It strengthens the professional development of its young network members by facilitating internship and job opportunities, promotes dialogue and inclusivity as key success factors to fostering a thriving culture of effective governance, and builds a community that collaborates between network members to solve complex public policy and governance challenges.
On 4 September, Belle and Co., designed and delivered a co-design session with Alumni of the Healthy Futures programme.
Belle and co. worked with the Bertha Centre at the University of Cape Town to help gather insights to evolve the Healthy Futures programme (a Mastercard Foundation initiative). This initiative supports young health entrepreneurs in Vredenburg, South Africa among other cities around South Africa.
For Vredenburg, the process began with two distinct training phases:
Cohort 1 met in July 2024 for a five day bootcamp facilitated by Bertha Centre.
In September 2025, the Bertha Centre team invited alumni from both cohorts to reunite. The goals were to assess the impact of the training, encourage collaboration between the two groups, and strengthen local networks. Belle and co. was selected to design and lead this reflective session.
Thobeka Poswa from Belle and co. served as the lead facilitator, while the Bertha Centre team supported the group work.
During the workshop, participants mapped out local community assets on a physical map using post it notes. They shared knowledge regarding local infrastructure, training opportunities, and psychosocial support systems available to youth in the area. This exercise helped the Bertha Centre team identify local champions and existing resources to leverage for future youth support.
The outcome
The workshop provided valuable feedback and collaborative design insights. Based on these results, the Bertha Centre team converted the original bootcamp model into a comprehensive, in person academy experience.
Concluding the journey: practical insights and reflections in workshop 3
If you have been following our social enterprise learning journey for high school learners in South Africa, you can revisit the part 1 workshop blog and the part 2 workshop blog.
On Saturday, 2 August 2025, our final workshop transitioned from theory to practice, featuring insights from Buntu Matole, the founder of the social enterprise ABCD Concepts.
Workshop 3 learning objectives
The final session focused on the long term viability and global context of social ventures:
Learning objective 1: Understanding the importance of sustainability in social entrepreneurship.
Learning objective 2: Engaging critically with a social enterprise owner regarding funding and scaling challenges.
Learning objective 3: Introducing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and aligning an enterprise with a specific goal.
Participant reflections from the series
The conclusion of the three part series highlighted the core takeaways shared by the participants:
“We learned about innovation by looking directly at the root cause of a problem.”
“We learned not to focus too much on the problem itself, but rather on how to turn that problem into a solution.”
“We learned to be open and curious, and to constantly try to find new ways to look at things.”
Progressing the journey: innovation and design thinking in workshop 2
If you have been following our journey, you can read about part 1 of our social enterprise workshop series for high school learners in South Africa. On 2 July 2025, the 100 learners returned for the second part of their social enterprise learning journey.
Instead of focusing on the problem, the class shifted attention toward innovation and design thinking to generate a wide range of creative ideas.
Workshop 2 learning objectives
The second session focused on the core components of developing a social venture:
Learning objective 1: Understanding the role of innovation in social change.
Learning objective 2: Introducing the concept of design thinking to solve social problems.
Learning objective 3: Learning how to prototype solutions using storyboarding.
Bringing innovation and systemic problems together
Workshop 2 centered on collaborative group work. Students examined the specific details of their chosen systemic problems and combined these elements to build a functional social innovation.
“Social innovation is the process of developing and deploying effective solutions to challenging and often systemic social and environmental issues in support of social progress.”
The groups worked through the complexities of their problem statements to make their ideas practical. This process required significant effort, and the students successfully presented their concepts to the class.
In workshop 3, we invite a social entreprise founder of ABCD Concepts, Buntu Matole into the room as a living inspirational case study of what the students have been studying. Watch out for part 3 of the series.
What happens when you bring 110 of South Africa’s brightest young minds together for an intense, competition-style leadership sprint? Pure magic.
UCT GSB plenary venue for the 2.5-day intensive workshop in Cape Town. Source: SBF
Belle and Co. was thrilled to co-design and facilitate an immersive, high-energy workshop for the university and diploma-level laureates of Students for a Better Future (SBF). Held over two and a half days at the UCT Graduate School of Business Conference Centre, six of our facilitators ran parallel sessions across two floors to guide these future leaders.
To prepare the laureates for the real world, we split them into teams of eight. Each team had to tackle one of three critical real-world challenge areas:
Health & Wellness: Exploring a future of telemedicine, biotechnology, and proactive, preventative care.
Sustainable Development & the Green Economy: Diving into eco-entrepreneurship, circular economy principles, and green tech.
Tech-driven Social Change & AI: Cultivating empathy and design thinking to lead digital advocacy and social innovation.
To replicate the pressure of a professional environment, teams were awarded points daily for their teamwork, problem statements, and final presentations. We tracked everything on a live leaderboard, culminating in final awards for the top team leaders and overall winners.
The students also received invaluable mentorship from industry heavyweights. Dr. Mzamo Masito (Canva Africa Leader and former Google Africa CMO) shared insights on visual storytelling, while Orion Herman (founder of Liquid Gold) explained how he uses nature-based bioconversion to turn waste into worth.
By empowering these exceptional young people with an entrepreneurial, caring mindset, we aren’t just teaching leadership – we are shaping the active problem solvers South Africa needs.
Facilitator, Belisa Rodrigues of Belle and Co. Source: SBF
Read more about SBF and SASLI here:
SBF (Students for a Better Future) is the overarching scholarship programme, while SASLI (Susan & Andreas Struengmann Leadership Initiative) is a prestigious, 3-year leadership development programme for extraordinary SBF scholarship recipients that builds on the foundation provided by the SBF scholarship. SBF begins in Grade 6, nurturing high-potential children through high school and university, and SASLI is the post-matric stage for the most exceptional scholars, preparing them for leadership roles in the workforce.
On 28 March 2025, Belle and co. was asked to design a Challenge-Driven Health Innovation Bootcamp over 5 days, as part of the Bertha Centre for Social Innovations’s Healthy Futures Programme supported by the Mastercard Foundation.
The bootcamp took place at the Genesis Community Hub in the heart of Vredeburg, and 25 young people participated in the session.
Covering the principles of Design Thinking, the participants were tasked with identifying local problems, work in teams to tackle these issues and also go out into their community to interview and understand the complexity of the issues from multiple perspectives. This movement in between classroom and community spaces created an embodied and varied learning experience for the participants which they had not previously experienced before.
The participants came with open minds and optimism, identifying a range of health-related community challenges to tackle using creativity and innovation and left enthused and eager to do more.
On the final day of their pitches, Prof. Tracey Naledi from the University of Cape Town Health Sciences and her team attended the closing ceremony and presenting certificates to the participants.
The Health Entrepreneurship Bootcamp is funded by Mastercard Foundation in partnership with Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Healthy Futures South Africa and University of Cape Town
Facilitator, Belisa Rodrigues of Belle and Co. Source: SBF
