results
Entrepreneurship Development Course
Kwa-Thema | 04 - 28 March 2024
Literacy in the community
Mental health in the community
Relationship challenges
Abstinence and sex education.
Entrepreneurship Development Course
Kwa-Thema | 06 - 30 November 2023
Mental health and depression
The lack of medication in the clinic
The lack of SMME in Kwa-Thema
Substance abuse in the community
Financial literacy
Entrepreneurship Development Course
Kwa-Thema | 04 - 31 March 2023
The lack of activities for seniors
Youth unemployment
The lack of hobbies and activities in the community
The lack of awareness of the benefits of Early Childhood Development (ECD)
Career guidance and subject selection at high school
Bullying at primary school
Entrepreneurship Development Course
Kwa-Thema | 04 - 31 March 2023
The lack of activities for seniors
User Insights
The team discovered that seniors in the home particularly loved playing card and board games but that they did not have enough available. As they tested their solutions, they discovered that their game appealed to all ages not just seniors.
Solution Evolution
The team’s first solutions were complex board games. These solutions were not feasible to implement. When the team pivoted to a card game format, the feasibility and usability of their solution took off.
Adoption
By the end of the course, the team had sold a number of their card games, including pre-orders. During the final presentation, an investor committed to fund their idea.
Challenges
Key challenges included the lack of courage by the principal in dealing with the problems that they were responsible for, the apathetic attitude of the school’s staff, the challenge of getting users to trust the anonymity of the suggestions box and that using the box was worthwhile.
Youth unemployment
User Insights
Local employers had no established way of posting job opportunities. Youth didn’t know where to search for local opportunities.
Solution Evolution
The team started a Facebook page on which they curated and posted training and employment opportunities. Facebook is popular with target users (unemployed youth) so this helped usefulness and usability.
Adoption
By the end of the course, the Facebook page had attracted around 50 followers.
Challenges
Finding trustworthy opportunities to post to the Facebook page is not straight forward. Finding trusted sources is time consuming.
The lack of hobbies and activities in the community
User Insights
The team discovered that: a popular chess club had closed down during the pandemic, there was demand for activities, the historic chess club facilitator was willing to be involved but didn’t know how to restart after the pandemic.
Solution Evolution
The team started with a workshop for younger participants and expanded their solution to include older participants and activities in schools.
Adoption
By the end of the course, the team had run a session at the Family Skills Centre with an external facilitator and 9 participants.
Challenges
Venues for activities are hard to find. On the third iteration the team found a venue willing and able to help. Safeguarding of younger participants is a critical requirement.
The lack of awareness of the benefits of Early Childhood Development (ECD)
User Insights
The team discovered that new mothers were being discouraged by their parents from ECD. Grandparents didn’t understand the benefits of ECD believing that ECD negatively impacted the bond between mother and infant. Grandparents have a major influence on the choices of their children.
Solution Evolution
The team created an information poster. The poster’s usefulness evolved when the team used the learnings of their own research rather than copy and pasting insights from the internet. The poster’s usability improved when it was translated into Zulu.
Adoption
The team placed its posters at key points, such as the clinic. Community leaders reported positive reception of the posters
Challenges
Initially, the team struggled to agree on what aspect of ECD to tackle. This was solved once they interviewed real users of the problem.
Career guidance and subject selection at high school
User Insights
The team discovered that: students were confused about their choices, parents insisted on specific choices without discussion, they had no structured approach to deciding what to choose. This was a very painful choice as choosing appeared to reduced options.
Solution Evolution
The team offered a workshop for grade 9’s through their high schools. This was supported by an informative poster with a call to action to contact the team.
Adoption
By the end of the course, the team had been authorized by two local high schools to run their workshop. Six months after the course the team had expanded their work into five additional high schools.
Challenges
Bullying at primary school
User Insights
The team discovered that there was a lack of discipline in general in the school. Students and teachers were late for assembly, they carried on normal conversations whilst the principal and others were speaking, misbehavior was not dealt with. They discovered that the principal made no attempt to address discipline and that parental complaints and comments were ignored.
Solution Evolution
The team chose to implement an anonymous suggestions box as their solution. The box would be locked. It would be administered by the team. The suggestions would be aggregated by the team to be shared with the principal and there staff.
Adoption
By the end of the course, the team had constructed their first box, they had deployed it into the school, they had received their first suggestions for sharing with the principal and staff.
Challenges
Key challenges included the lack of courage by the principal in dealing with the problems that they were responsible for, the apathetic attitude of the school’s staff, the challenge of getting users to trust the anonymity of the suggestions box and that using the box was worthwhile.