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.
Over the last 5 years, Belle and Co. has been delivering unique and customised innovation workshops for Lifechoice’s Coding Academy students. Twice a year, these important sessions open up the creative potential of young learners who can practically apply their coding skills to solve a problem in their community.
Financial Literacy levels in South Africa
This year, the workshops focused on an important problem prevalent in South Africa today – lack of financial literacy skills (see also our previous hackathon here). According to a 2021 survey conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the level of financial literacy in South Africa is quite low, with only 42% of the adult population being financially literate. Financial literacy is the ability to understand and know how to manage personal finances effectively.
The Hackathon
Taking place over a 2-week period, each student group had to come up with tech-based solutions to topics such as budgeting, savings, investing, credit score and more. Supported by Belle and Co facilitator, Zikhona Madubela, each group was encouraged to use design thinking skills to delve into the problem and come up with “never seen before” solutions. To support them further, the participants were also taken on a journey to explore the fascinating intersection of “Money and Psychology” with an enlightening talk by the guest speaker and financial guru, Olivia Teek.
Image: Zikhona and Olivia.
The participants were not only inspired but also motivated to take control of their financial journeys. A highlight of the hackathon was witnessing the brilliant tech-based solutions that the dynamic participants developed during the intense brainstorming and coding sessions. A total of 10 innovative Financial Literacy “tech-based solutions” were produced, each addressing different aspects of financial education and empowerment.
🏆 The Winning Solutions 🏆
🥇 Group 1: Dollar Sense 📊
The talented minds behind Dollar Sense designed an ingenious budgeting tool that empowers individuals to manage their finances effectively. This solution provides a user-friendly interface and insightful features, ensuring that users can make smart financial decisions and achieve their financial goals with confidence. 🥇
Group 2: Invest Inn 💼
Invest Inn wowed the judges with their investment educational website, providing a comprehensive platform for novices to seasoned investors to enhance their knowledge about the world of investing. With easy-to-understand resources, interactive modules, and expert insights, Invest Inn promises to be a game-changer in nurturing a generation of savvy investors.
Our heartfelt congratulations go out to the winning teams, Dollar Sense and Invest Inn, for their exceptional efforts and well-deserved victories. However, every participant contributed significantly to the success of this hackathon by showcasing their passion for financial literacy and their determination to create meaningful solutions.
A special shoutout to Olivia Teek for sharing her invaluable wisdom on the psychology behind money management, which undoubtedly inspired all the participants to think differently about their financial choices.
Lastly, we extend our gratitude to Life Choices Coding Academy for providing the perfect platform to nurture young talents and foster a culture of innovation and learning. 🙏 We are truly proud of everyone who participated and supported this remarkable event. Together, we are shaping a financially literate future, one brilliant idea at a time. Let’s continue to champion financial literacy and empower individuals to secure their financial well-being.
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.
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.
Our hearts are with Sudan. This blog is a little different to what you have read on our site before…
Belle and Co. has built a strong bond with Sudan and its peoples through its work over the years. In fact, if our Alumni WhatsApp groups are anything to go by, we have trained over 150 creative and social enterprise leaders since 2019.
Through these rich and engaging interactions over the years, I have been privileged to meet some of the most creative and visionary leaders in all my experience to date. Despite years of oppression, loss of loved ones, a broken system of governance and being cut off from the outside world, here you have young people in their hundreds, with hope for a better future … that resulted in a revolution and the fall of a dictator. Powerful. And a small crack of hope was opening up. We were slowly building a better and brighter future – together.
It feels like all the work of the last few years since the revolution has come tumbling down. And it is heartbreaking. How much can the human spirit endure after years of torment?
Our thoughts and prayers are with Sudan. And to all the community builders, creative visionaries, passionate people that I have met, I love you and I hope that you and your family are safe and that better days will be here soon. You all have come too far to give up now, and we hope to be reunited soon.
As part of the EU Erasmus Plus Programme called “Ground Up: Social Entrepreneurial Ecosystems for Resilient Cities”, Belle and Co. designed and delivered a 1 hour local workshop for Social Enterprises in South Africa. The response was overwhelming with 50 RSVPs streaming in, curious to know more about the project,
The project outcome: A set of indicators to measure the health of the Social Enterprise Ecosystem. Number of partners countries involved: 11 Partners (North Macedonia, Costa Rica, South Africa, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Poland, Denmark, Ecuador, Serbia and Peru) Number of months: 18 month project (Jan 2022 – until July 2023)
A project of this nature is inherently tricky, as it is trying to capture a set of mainly quantitative indicators to measure how well supported the Social Enterprise Ecosystem is in a given local (city, region, nation).
The 4 pillars the project focused on include:
Human Capital
Funding and Finance
Support Systems
Quality of Life
The local workshop, held on the 14 April 2023, was to showcase the Social Enterprise Ecosystem Assessment Tool that the SA team had developed so far and the data sources they had managed to find. It was also an opportunity for the ecosystem themselves to validate or dispute the tool and its sources.
WORKSHOP VIDEO
If you missed this session, you can view the whole workshop video here:
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 managementand a three-day training on cultural outreach and community engagementwill 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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
The University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business approached Belle and Co. with a unique offer : to help the Solution Space deliver a 5-day Bootcamp for 35 Female Entrepreneurs from Lesotho through their partner, Sentebale.
Sentebale is an NGO founded by Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, in 2006 as a response to the needs of children and young people in Lesotho. The name means ‘forget-me-not’ in the Sesotho language, representing a pledge to remember the most vulnerable children in the region.
As part of Sentebale’s 4th pillar of work “Education & Livlihoods”, 35 female entrepreneurs were chosen to attend the Sentebale Women’s Entrepreneurship Programme in Cape Town, at the GSB’s Solution Space. Belle and Co. together with Entreprenerdy, a Norwegian headquartered online business programme, co-delivered a 5-day bootcamp.
The main aim of the bootcamp was two fold:
!) Mentorship: Build a strong cohort of female entrepreneur leaders and mentors to inspire young women in various districts of Lesotho;
2) Business skills: Build professional business skills through exposure to business tools and resources.
The University of Cape Town (UCT) is still the best university in Africa, according to the latest QS World University Rankings.
And home to the Graduate School of Business (GSB) (pictured left),
Belle and Co. assigned two Belle and Co Associates, Thobeka Poswa and Zikhona Madubela, to design and deliver the mentorship programme, while Entreprenerdy co-delivered the business skills component of the bootcamp deploying their online platform and resources. This was a physical face-to face programme over 5 days.
In addition to the rich programme content, 3 guest speakers were also invited to speak on issues related to “Women in business”, “Social Entrepreneurship”. and “Gender-related issues”. We are so grateful for Ntombozuko, Zikhona and Otsile who shared their experience as women in business to speak to some of the issues and struggles faced by female entrepreneurs still today.
For the fourth year in a row, Belle and Co was asked to design and deliver a design-thinking workshop for Lifechoice’s Coding Academy students. This time, the ask was to design a competitive Hackathon-style training, focused on a specific theme, identified by the Academy as essential for learners: Financial Literacy.
What is a hackathon?
The word hackathon is a portmanteau of the words “hacker”, which means “clever programmer”, and “marathon”, an event marked by endurance. The concept of the hackathon, also called a hack day or hack fest, was born out of the open source (tech) community who would come together for about 24 hours to develop new software and applications. Nowadays it is used as a design-thinking methodology for all sorts of communities not only in tech.
Why does creativity thrive under constraints?
A study on creativity and constraint demonstrates that surprisingly when options are limited, people generate more, rather than less, varied solutions. When faced with scarcity, research shows that people must give themselves the freedom to use resources in less conventional ways. (Forbes.com)
Thus, the hackathon concept is a great way to simulate a time-constrained environment driven by either competition or collaboration to creatively solve problems through innovative or lateral thinking.
Lifechoices Hackathon method
For Lifechoices, we have chosen the competition-based hackathon, whereby teams are encouraged to come up with viable tech-based solutions to an aspect of the problem of Financial Literacy, using their coding knowledge, additional research and their inherent group ingenuity. The winning team receives a prize and recognition of some sort in front of an audience.
Learning objectives are to:
Stimulate creativity, innovation and solution-based thinking;
Learn how to work as a team and come up with tech-based products or services;
Understand more deeply certain aspects of Financial Literacy;
Embrace the VUCA (Volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) world by enhancing capacities for creative problem-solving.
Practise building a tech-based solution and pitching in front of an audience.
A hackathon can be conducted in a variety of ways, using a number of activities or design-thinking methods including brainstorming, world cafe, bar camp, pitches.
All the teams were excellent, designing prototypes (some on paper, others coded and already working MVPs) focusing on the following Financial Literacy topics: Budget, Debt, Credit Score, and Savings.
Belle and co was priviledged to be involved in two sessions on Social Enterprise and Ideation at the ORIBI’s Girls in Business Programmeheld UCT GSB Solution Space, Philippi Village.
Below a short video reel captured by one of Belle and Co’s facilitators, Zikhona Madubela. This snippet shows the first “role play” designed as TV interview on what a social enterprise is using a coffee shop as an example, and then diving deep into the example of Gangstar Coffee – a social enterprise who employs ex-gangsters as barristers.
They then went on to identify problems in their community, and ideated on solutions. The winning teams then got selected to the second round of Girls in Business programme.
After an intense day with 100 energetic girls, we received a beautiful note from our client, Oribi Village via email:
On behalf of the Oribi Team, l would like to thank you both for designing such a beautiful session. It was amazing seeing the girls engage and get introduced to social entrepreneurship in such a cool way. We hope to engage with you both soon as the program will be starting next week.Once again thank you for helping us make this event a success!!
Mitchel Nkhama (Oribi Village, Incubation Officer) Website: www.oribi.org.za
This policy toolkit was co-created by Innovation for Policy Foundation (i4Policy)and Make-IT in Africa, with the support of leading policy experts and GIZ. The Entrepreneurship Policy Mini-workshop served to introduce this beta toolkit to a wider audience at the Pan-African Youth Assembly.
Belle and Co. helped design and deliver the workshop session with the i4policy team. The toolkit is available in Beta form on the https://ecosystem.build/toolkit website.
i4Policy is focused on innovative policy processes at the local and regional level advancing entrepreneurship and digital transformation in Africa. The goal of i4Policy is to help shape African policy and create an environment that encourages business growth and innovation.
