Nairobi, Kenya July, 21 2015 – Today the Education division of the Global Peace Foundation participated in the Mama Sarah Obama Entrepreneurship Summit that was held at Villa Rosa Kempinski in Nairobi. The summit which brought together top Kenyan entrepreneurs provided a platform to share best practices and learn from the auspicious panel.
In his opening remarks, Argwings K. Otieno, an entrepreneur in food security sector, emphasized on the significance of social innovation on entrepreneurs.
“Being a social innovator is irreplaceable,” he said. “Start projects that motivate you to save the world and simultaneously make you money and create mindshare for your company,” he added. “Social innovation makes magic happen.” he concluded
Other issues address at the summit also include the unique challenges women and girls in Africa face in improving livelihoods.
“In many societies, women and girls face specific risks and are less likely than men and boys to have access to their rights, due to their gender roles and position in society” Said Deloris Jordan “Community support structures break down and traditional or formal justice systems may not uphold women’s right but it is vital for us to break this structures by educating the girl child,” she added “It is important because, when you nurture a woman you nurture the entire community.” She concluded
Ms. Caroline Amollo, the Director of Education Initiatives in Kenya, explained the broader impact that entrepreneurship has in the community, engagement, development and wellness especially in rural areas. She highlighted how Global Peace Education is working with students from all the regions through the Leap Hubs program to ensure they are equipped with the right entrepreneurial skills needed in their community.
“We are working with a number of schools from rural areas and a good example is Misiani Girls from Machakos County, where the Leap Hub students from the school have come up with a mobile application called the ‘Nyumba Kumi’ initiative,” she said “The app can be used to help address the current security situation in the country by enabling people living within the same neighborhood do background checks on one another making it easy to identify suspicious characters,” she added “ This innovative business idea developed by the students will bring about broader impact in their community”.