Khwela Womxn (Khwela Academy NPC)

With the funding of the Elevate Prize we'll be able to sustainably scale our current MVP offering to more unemployed young Womxn, and start a cohort-based learning opportunity for womxn to further their skills using a Learning Management System (LMS).

Amplify our message: We believe that winning the Elevate prize will show young black womxn in South Africa, that young black womxn like myself (Asanda) and like themselves - are the real change makers in our society. A tangible role model for others to inspire action in their own community.

Mentorship: Experiential Learning, Curiosity, Bravery are three of our core values. Through the MIT mentorship piece, we look forward to committing our whole selves to learn and grow from experienced mentors. Some areas we would leverage the knowledge of mentors: how to build a diverse and impactful board of directors, how to make the organisation sustainable in the long run and crisis-proof, how to drive and measure behaviour change.

Connections: Connections to SOLVE alumni, partners, academics will enable us to advance our work by cross-collaborating on a global scale. Focus areas for collaboration: LMS, Content, Activism, best-practice, cross-border virtual employment of Khwela Womxn Graduates. 

My name is Asanda Daraza (Kim Whitaker, my co-founder is here too!) - we are a South African powerhouse Duo, we co-founded Khwela in 2018. As a qualified social worker, I focus on the MEL (Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning) at Khwela. 

Snow ski instructor turned award-winning hospitality entrepreneur, I(Kim) wrote my master's thesis in 2020 on the power of youth travel (backpacking) as an experiential learning tool for young South African womxn. I focus on the business development and strategic planning at Khwela Womxn.

Our Vision is to shift Womxn's mindsets, self-empower the "Girl Hustle" through a network of self-managing sisterhood circles, and learning cohorts that create personal transformational experiences so womxn embrace opportunities and become self-sufficient. 

Our mission: Start a self-empowering movement of womxn who question the status quo 

Our Purpose: We believe in the power of womxn to change their communities 

Our Goals: Self-empower 2000 Khwela Womxn through sisterhood circles by March 2022. Launch LMS November 2021. First 20 womxn in pilot cohort starting January 2021. First Cohort finished July 2022, ready and confident to enter the workplace.

Poverty/ unemployment is rife in South Africa. Social mobility is very low - if you are born into poverty, there’s a high chance you'll die in poverty. 

35.9% of young women (18-25) in South Africa are unemployed, unable to access opportunities - even when opportunities exist. Many are unsure which resources to use to start working. 

Three top things holding women back from accessing opportunities for growth: 

Mindset

Access

Support

When women aren't financially independent, it has socio-economic spin-offs: gender based violence, gender inequality and another generation stuck in the poverty loop.

We address this complex wicked problem through a three prong approach:
1. Alora, whatsapp mentor bot (text for advice on depression, mindfulness, how to write a cv etc) - give womxn access information on a low-data platform they already use
2. Womxn's circles at community level - create safe spaces with low/no barrier to entry where womxn feel safe/lift each other up. Themes from the circles inform our learning content of bot/LMS.
3. Leadership development through Blockchain-enabled LMS - bring together womxn who've passed through the program and are ready to develop their leadership. The cohorts are dispersed around the country, and have the opportunity to learn from each other.

Our innovation is a multi-pronged approach to solving this challenge, and focusses on the social mobility of young womxn (18-25).

LEVEL 1: Decentralised Womxn's circles. These are led by moderators (we've currently trained 174 in 4 provinces) who verify the circles through selfie's and participant ID copies. The Khwela "sister-HOOD" circles are within walking distance, and have a very low barrier to entry.

LEVEL 2: Themes which emerge from the circles inform the content for our Whatsapp mentor bot, Alora

LEVEL 3: Moderators are supported through frequent leadership training, personal growth and learning opportunities and our mentorship program.

LEVEL 4: We are building a learning platform using blockchain to verify the entries, and incentivise experiential learning with micro incentives such as airtime, grocery vouchers or retail items. Unlike a regular platform, the platform highlights an experiential learning process which involves lived experience (doing/having an experience), reflection(reflective observations/reviewing the experience), thinking (learning from the experience) and active experimentation (planning/trying out what you have learnt).

LEVEL 5: Through the UCT Graduate School of Business E-track course, we are designing an impact incubator, where womxn who have gone through the four levels can participate in an entrepreneurship incubator to launch or improve their own small business or startup.

Khwela Womxn is having an impact on humanity through self-empowering young womxn in South Africa (18-25) to shift their mindset, access opportunities and be resourceful. The impact is that womxn spend 80-90% of their earnings on family/community. We believe in the power of womxn to be changemakers in their communities. With happier and healthier communities, humanity thrives. 

We are taking the following steps to achieve this planned impact: 

1. Training womxn to host their own Womxn's circles, where they can learn from their peers, find a safe space. 

2. Continuous development of Alora, the Whatsapp Bot, as a mentor

3. Building out a block-chain enabled Learning Management system in collaboration with other stakeholders so womxn learn to embrace technology, becoming viable participants in the economy.

4. Collaborate with for-profit companies who stand to benefit from an empowered work force, to make the revenue more sustainable.

These steps are effective because:

We rely on womxn to be active participants in the experiential learning process, versus simply receiving a handout. It allows opportunity for growth, but at their own pace. Finally, the peer-to-peer learning (especially across racial/age lines) is invaluable in a country like South Africa which is still heavily divided.