13-17 March 2023
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.
