Youth 4 A Better Future: Say Little, Work Hard and Be Young Forever!

Youth 4 a Better Future Campaign is an ongoing environmental and social campaign that promotes market driven agriculture, enterprise development, environmental conservation and research.

It is an initiative of Maa Community Foundation, Health Awareness Peer Education Programme (HAPEP), IMPACT Kenya Youth Initiative, Tabaiki Sports Association, KEYFORD and STOMAZ.

Its main objective is to raise awareness on environmental, health, sports and entrepreneurship development.

Currently the project has a very successful solid waste management enterprise in Narok town, a bee keeping project, a digital village centre, a goat project, an organic tomato farm project, a tree nurseries project, a micro finance and woodlot project. The target is 100 of such enterprises by November 2010, and by 2013 the founder Ole Mepukori projects that there will be 500 successful social enterprises across Kenya.

Yipe.org recently got the chance to chat with Ole Mepukori who said that he started in 2008, but opened doors to his friends who brought in their friends and so it went.

Right now the project has youth groups from really remote areas selling their goats at a profit to markets as far as Mombasa. “Yes” Ole Mepukori told Yipe, “we want all Kenyan youth to come join us and in ten years we will all look back and say, ‘we helped build Kenya’".

Ole Mepukori adds that the project is not only limited to young people, as he believes everybody has something to offer for the advancement of this cause, and even if that person is an eighty year old granny they can also play a vital role.

He concludes “Lets believe, say little, work hard and Be Young Forever!”

If you are interested in being a Youth 4 a Better Future join the community here >>>>

Women and Mobile Phone global study reveals that phone ownership can lead to increased income and opportunity

The GSM Association and the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, a charity that supports women entrepreneurs has published a report ‘Women and Mobile: A Global Opportunity’. 

This is the first detailed global study of its kind that attempts to understand the nature of women mobile subscribers in low and middle-income countries such as Kenya and India. 

Among the key findings, the report showed that:

• There are 300 million fewer female subscribers than male subscribers worldwide
• A woman in Africa is 23% less likely to own a phone than a man.
• Going forward, two thirds of potential new subscribers for mobile network operators will be women.
• Women in rural areas and lower income brackets stand to benefit the most from closing the gender gap.
• 93% of  women report feeling safer because of their mobile phone.
• 85% of women report feeling more independent because of their mobile phone
• 41% of women report having increased income and professional opportunities once they own a phone  
  

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Where nobody needs to work or study hard anymore

An article published in this week's Pambazuka raises issues about policies to promote economic development.

The article, “South Africa’s ‘bling’ culture is a disgrace” by William Gumede tells of a growing new-money class, living a Hollywood-esque life in the midst of poverty.

He writes that this bling lifestyle of parties and fast flashy cars amongst South Africa’s elite, is encouraging others to look for the fast buck, rather working hard or studying.

Even the leaders have joined this new life, with no less than President Zuma’s party the ANC launching a fashion line of leather jackets; the cheapest costing US$ 217.

All this social pressure to live the bling life has for some compromised their integrity and ethical business behaviour because of links to sugar daddy’s, senior politicians and even crime bosses.

Gumede faults South Africa’s Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) programme as having contributed to this state of affairs. Because one does not have to build a business brick and mortar, entrepreneurial drive has been culled. 

And even for those that have slogged to build their enterprises, corruption in the big business market of public procurement has only benefited a few well connected entrepreneurs.

And Gumede warns that “this ‘bling’ culture will break down South Africa’s productive capacity. We are ‘eating’, but we are not building any new factories or plants that can create jobs …”

Lamentably for the young aspiring entrepreneur, it seems that it may be more worthwhile to try and connect with a blinged elite patron, than to put pen to paper and write their business plan.

Read South Africa’s ‘bling’ culture is a disgrace here >>