BALTIC STATES: Strengthening our position as a thought leader
Reach for Change Latvia helped to evaluate the candidates and participated in the jury of the grant program Augšup ("Up"), which was implemented by SEB together with five counties located near Riga. The aim of the program is to promote the development of social entrepreneurship in the Riga region.
Our Baltic Program and Partnership Manager Kristine facilitated a half-day workshop on "Developing the fundamentals of an impact scaling strategy" and provided follow-up individual consultancies for 19 social entrepreneurs as part of "Change Academy" organized by Social Entrepreneurship Association in Latvia. See below the quotes from the participants:
"Valuable conversation with Kristīne Vērpēja - I realized that it is important to go deep, not just wide. The workshop helped to structure the idea itself, the social impact objectives and its scaling." (Dina Kaupere, Manager of the work integration company "Fregate")
"Thanks to Kristīne Vērpēja, I improved the definition of my social enterprise. I clarified the point of view and wording of what exactly the company does." (Kristīne Jacino, "Engineering for children" idea author and manager).
Kristine also participated in the learning expeditions as part of the BuiCaSuS project - a transnational project funded by the European Union Programme for Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI). It includes partners from Spain, Latvia, France and Sweden (including Reach for Change) with a very diverse profile, from Ministries to NGOs.
Implementing different programs in GHANA
Our CEO Sofia and our CFO Kajsa visited the Reach for Change office in Ghana and were lucky to join the celebration of the 10 years anniversary of Nneka Youth Foundation foundation. It is our alumni organization founded by Cecilia Fiaka, a fierce and passionate social entrepreneur who is helping children from having their childhoods cut short by teenage pregnancy, drug use and incomplete education.
It was an amazing time for both the participants and Reach for Change Ghana team during the Jacobs Immersion Week in July where finalists were taken through learnings, tips and tricks on how to successfully scale whilst maximizing impact. We all are looking forward to watching the edu-preneurs scale over the course of the year.
SENEGAL: New selection process
We launched the second edition of our mutual program with the Kosmos Innovation Center with a special focus on climate adaptation and mitigation.
ETHIOPIA: Developing the ecosystem
Our StartUps Program Manager and the social enterprise champion, Elsabeth Tsegaye, took part in MeetUp Addis event in July to talk about the future of social entrepreneurship and how it may impact the increasingly complex economic situation in Ethiopia.
In the summer we told two inspiring life stories in our Voice of Change radio series. Together with our Change Leader Erq Maed Radio Show we interviewed our Ethiopian alumni - Hamere Mulugets, a passionate artist and the founder of Nu Chika Enabuka, and Rahel Tsegaye, the founder and mastermind of Fidel Turu, a company that produces teaching materials for children. The full recordings of these episodes in Amharic, and short summaries in English are available on the special webpage of the project.
Our Alumni, Eskender Mulugeta, presented his School Garden project to the high-level representatives of the UN Ethiopia and also secured a new partnership with Purpose Black - the organization helping Black farmers to produce globally competitive products.
BULGARIA: Selecting new social entrepreneurs for PROMYANATA
We have 5 finalists of our PROMYANATA competition who will proceed to the next level of the search and selection process. The online voting for the public's best project will start on the 27th of September, but the final winner will be announced in November after the presentation in front of the grand jury and the children's jury.
