September 2020 – rise International

Why do we need an Enterprise Hub in Lesotho?

September 30, 2020By RISE INT0 comment

An Enterprise Hub in the entrepreneurial sense is a kind of greenhouse for start-up enterprises. In this protected incubation environment, entrepreneurs with innovative business ideas can be consulted and trained. Incubation Hubs are contact points for entrepreneurial learning, thinking and connecting people where they share, network and mutually benefit from one another.

The importance of having an Enterprise Hub in Lesotho is immense; a place of this nature would be able to open up multiple doors for entrepreneurs and is currently an essential missing piece in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. With the unemployment rate in Lesotho as high as 30% amongst youth, there is a dire need for young people to go into business in order to make a living for themselves and their families. The rate of poverty in Lesotho stands at almost 50% , which calls for an urgent need for Basotho youth to be motivated, skilled and well equipped to create platforms for employment and thus fueling the country’s economy.

The Hub will represent an environment in which aspiring entrepreneurs can prosper in the entrepreneurship learning space. They will gain access to essential business development services from business and financial planning to legal and human resource spets. They will get to share their knowledge through peer to peer interaction, while at the same time having much needed space in terms of offices, meeting rooms and workshops to experiment their ideas and create prototypes of their forthcoming products and services before taking them to market. The Hub will also offer access to market and act as a referral centre linking startups to clients and potential investors, thus being a centre of business excellence acting as a benchmark for other businesses in the country. The existence of this Hub will inspire innovations that could change the livelihoods of a significant number of people living in Lesotho.

An Enterprise Hub therefore signifies a ray of hope for multiple entrepreneurs in Lesotho who have great ideas and new businesses, but lack the platform and tools needed in order to make these ideas and enterprises flourish. The Hub will also be a place of inspiration for the Basotho nation at large; a place where some of the wildest dreams are born and attained, a place to birth some of the most successful businesswomen and men to ever come out of the Mountain Kingdom.
To make all this happen we need to raise $100,000 by December 30, 2020. Learn how you can help here
You can read more about the plans for the Enterprise Hub here

News

Design Competition

September 18, 2020By RISE INT3 Comments

There’s something about a change of season that inspires change, particularly spring which is the season we have just started in Lesotho. It births so much freshness, it stimulates new beginnings everywhere.

So in light of new beginnings, we are inviting young Basotho creatives to design a new logo for our organization.

This is a competition – so drink up all your creative juices and design a logo that will blow our minds. Think sun rays / hope / change / new beginnings, think “rise”.

To enter

Send your full name, your social media handles, contact details and your originally designed logo to [email protected]

Competition closes on 15 October 2020. Winner will be contacted within 15 days of closing date.

Best of luck!

Prize

The winner gets a 4-week internship with rise.

2020

IN LOCO FELLOWS 2020 BLOG SERIES #2: KE NGOANANA OA MOSOTHO

September 15, 2020By RISE INT3 Comments

My name is Mosa Nkhabutlane, “kengoananaoamosotho”, (I am a Mosotho girl) who was born & bred in Lesotho. I studied Interior Architecture from the University of Pretoria and I am currently an in loco fellow at rise international. I applied for this program because I wanted to equip myself with an entrepreneurial career in the built environment and creative sphere in Lesotho.

Mosa Nkhabutlane standing inside the site office — Mosa helping to set up the site office

Being part of the 2020 cohort, we are currently designing LNFOD (Lesotho National Federation of Organizations of the Disabled) offices which are going to be located in Naleli. With these offices, we hope to create a precedent for inclusive design in the country. It’s been a real joy to be learning about inclusive design on a practical level so early in my career. So often, we can allow our egos as designers to get in the way of the buildings and objects we are designing and in doing so, we neglect the people for whom we are actually designing and creating. rise has been really instrumental in guiding us as to how we can design in an inclusive manner.

Mosa cutting metal sheets — Mosa constructing the guard house

Before we started designing the LNFOD Offices, we met with LNFOD Staff & the Naleli Community. We then hosted a Participatory Design Workshop with LNFOD, which allowed us to communicate with our client and to find out what they need. Instead of assuming their needs, we listened to them, we learnt about how they function as an organization and in doing so, our design has been informed by the needs of the user.

My experience at rise thus far, as an in loco fellow, has been one of growth and I hope it continues to be exactly that for the months that follow. We have just begun going to site and I believe that it is the “learning by doing” that is yet to mould us into holistic professionals.

In addition to architecture & design, I am also an entrepreneur at heart. I started a jewellery brand @madebymos in 2018. My brand has really allowed me to express myself, it is a baby of mine that allowed me to grow in a lot of different ways and to learn about the design business. It is through it that I learnt about creating campaigns, creative direction and the art of making. I have also learnt to respond to the needs of the customer and I am continuing to learn about managing the funds of a business. I believe that we need to equip ourselves as small businesses, in order to build sustainable businesses.

Mosa standing next to a concrete mixer — Mosa working on the LNFOD construction site

The business trainings that rise holds have been a great resource for me as an entrepreneur. We get to meet some of Lesotho’s greatest minds through these workshops and we are given the opportunity to learn from them. The opportunity to absorb knowledge from entrepreneurs who are making waves in this country is unmatched, especially because they are also born & bred in Lesotho. To be inspired by the people that look like us and have walked similar paths is a breath of fresh air. It feels like I am learning something new every day ever since I have been a part of the in loco fellowship. Some days are easy and mellow, some are challenging and new but most importantly, I continue to learn & to be equipped as a young, black female designer in the Mountain Kingdom.

2020

in loco Fellows 2020 Blog Series #1: Pieces of Me!

September 7, 2020By RISE INT2 Comments

This piece of writing will reveal everything about my experiences so far. It is sometimes very difficult to really tell everything about yourself but bear with me and I will try my best. My parents named me Motebang Ramafole, I was born in the early 90’s at Queen Elizabeth 2 hospital in Maseru. I am the 3rd and lastborn son in my family. I grew up as a toddler in Maseru Sea Point, a place that in those days was deemed very dangerous so my parents decided that maybe I should go and live with my granny in another district and town called Leribe Hlotse. And for this initiative I always consider myself an origin bred of Leribe. In a local statement we say “Ke Nare”. So, it is in this district that I gained my maturity from adolescence to a young adult.

I started my studies at Hlotse Primary School, a local school that has produced giants who are now making big differences in the country at large and I guess it will not be long before I am counted as one of those giants! Molapo High School became the next step I took in my educational journey. I enrolled with them for 5 years and I am pretty sure or rather proud that I left a significant mark at the school. Molapo High School has been a very helpful institute towards building who I am, who I am to be and the life goals I have. It molded me into becoming a very good problem solver, especially with technical problems. It also created an “idea machine” in me. They say an intelligent and creative person never has adequate brain rest because their minds are always full of ideas. I would agree with that statement but I would be blowing my own horn.

Talking of “idea machine”; I remember when I was in primary school, we had a Science Club where we would showcase our scientific ideas. We even went as far as the National Science Competition where I got the Second prize in the Technology category.

As it is any high school student’s dream I advanced my studies at Lerotholi Polytechnic in 2013, where I enrolled in the School of Built Environment studying Diploma in Civil Engineering. At this stage I met a whole new different set of friends who had almost the same vision as I had and I can’t say I didn’t like that because they challenged my intelligence most of the time and that drove me to be more creative. Whenever they wanted something or an idea that was out of this world I became their benchmark. After enrolling with Lerotholi Polytechnic I worked in South Africa; maintaining railways. That was a whole different experience in my life. There are no railways in our country, it was a really challenging task to work on something that I have never seen before and I am also grateful for that challenge. It taught me so many things; from patience, ram to travelling.

As I have revealed, I like challenges so sometime in March 2020 I saw a post shared by one of my friends on social media. It was rise International inviting newly graduates to apply for an in loco program. This was an opportunity I could not miss, so I applied and I was called for an interview. Surprisingly, it was not an ordinary interview where someone would be asking questions and I would be just there answering ordinarily. It was some sort of a challenge event where we scored points throughout that event. I think it allowed us to reveal our strength in the creative world, so I guess I was not going to be an outsider when we focused on creativity.

Ever since that interview event I have changed my view towards being creative. rise has shown me a wider view of the creative world, I have also learned that every human being is creative in their own way.

Motebang working on the power supply in the site office container

Through the in loco fellowship program I have learned to work as part of a team, give others room for their creativity and adding more towards my own creative world. Responsibility is one of the many lessons I have acquired as a fellow, sharing and distribution of different roles to different people.

In this fellowship I have also improved my entrepreneurial skills. As youths of a country with a very high unemployment rate, we tend to forget that there are other ways of making it in life and that is through business. Therefore, I did not want to lose out on this type of opportunity to gain skills in entrepreneurial skills because I also run a few small businesses in my neighborhood. The fellowship will help me greatly to grow and improve my vision towards entrepreneurship.