Top 10 Social Entrepreneurs
Social entrepreneurs are people who establish an enterprise with the aim of solving social problems or effecting social change. This type of business people are an asset to our communities. Here is a list of the top social entrepreneurs
1) Shona McDonald
Founder of Shonaquip develops modular wheelchairs for people living in low income countries, as there are often secondary health complications caused by the use of inappropriate and poor quality wheelchairs. They have the clinical outreach services where they go and help train and upscale parents and health therapists with improving their ability of sitting children correctly to prevent secondary health problems.
2) Garth Japhet
Founder of Forgood, an organization which connects different contributors of solidarity in South-Africa: organizations which need donations, goods or volunteers; volunteers who want to support a cause close to where they live; and beneficiaries who need to find an organization to help them.
3) Peter Myson
Co-founder of Tshisa Box, not everybody could afford a solar geyser, so these gentleman created a cheap one. A tshisa box is a black box with a clear lid and a plastic bag that you fill with water, the sun shines into the box, and heats the water. Depending where you are, how much water you get and how quickly the water heats up will be different. It is 10 liters, which is a bucket of water.
4) Lesley William
The co-founder of Impact Hub, If you have a particular skill or interests, then use the safe space of Impact Hub to experiment before taking it to market. Immediately they give you support and encouragement as friends would. They have a few revenue streams, the one is membership: people pay between R140 to R3000/month to me a member, depending on the amount of time they use and the space. They also have regular educational events and dialogues on various topics with regard to social-entrepreneurship, be it education, healthcare, creativity, business etc.
5)Lauren Clack
The founder of EcoPack, South African supplier of compostable and biodegradable packagings, which has already sold 16 million cups in the country.
6) Misha Teasdale
Co-founder of Green-pop, an organization that is all about planting trees. They already have planted 5000 last year, their aim is to plant 8000 this year.
7) Rosemary Nalden
The founder of Buskaid, a musical school in Soweto. Money to buy the musical equipment was raised by playing music in public places in return for money. They trained the older musicians from within the project as teachers. They now have an army of very skilled young black string teachers helping them. At the same time they have a number of ensembles and the top one travels overseas and plays at corporate performances and gives concerts all over the place.
8) Cedric Buffers
The CEO of Trident Institute, the Micro-MBA course is accredited by the Services SETA at NQF Level 1, Unit Standard 14444, with 7 credits. Assessment, Moderation and Certification are offered by The Business Place Network for a fee of R1300 per learner. The course is available in English, Zulu, Afrikaans, Xhosa, Pedi, Sotho and French.
9) Natalie Killassy
The founder of Stitch Wise, Killassy’s latest innovation means back fill bags can be filled with layers of earth and steel meshing known as reinforced earth, rather than mining material waste. It’s safer, can withstand greater pressure underground and enables mines to continue to recover gold ore left over in waste material. It also saves mines money on electricity costs because the new system is less dependent on cars for waste material transport.
10) Taffy Adler
CEO of The Housing Development Agency (HDA) is a national public development agency established by an Act of Parliament (Act 23 of 2008). The HDA promotes sustainable communities by making well-located land and buildings available for the development of housing and human settlements. As an organ of state, the HDA is accountable through its Board to the Minister of Human Settlements.
