Daphne Nederhorst likes to dream big.
Since founding Sawa World, a solution-focused NGO dedicated to ending extreme poverty, she's continued to work to educate people about their power to bring about positive change, both in their own lives as well as in the lives of others. Nederhorst's latest goal: to create 10,000 youth entrepreneurs in Kampala, Uganda, in a single day.
Sawa World launched its 40-day I Am The Solution Campaign Dec. 18, 2014, in hopes of raising $10,000 (U.S.) to cover the costs of the second annual Sawa World Day. The exhibition and hands-on workshopstyle event will be offered for free to 10,000 vulnerable and unemployed youths, many of whom live in slums or rural areas of Uganda and surrounding countries at the Sheraton Kampala Hotel in Kampala, Uganda, March 21. The goal for Sawa World Day is for participants to gain practical skills, business and financial management knowledge, as well as the confidence to help them, as early as the very next day, launch their own small businesses, drastically improving their well-being.
According to Sawa World, 80 per cent of youth in Uganda are unemployed and a high percentage of the population is experiencing extreme poverty. "We see the youth as the conduit to take these solutions not only in their own lives but share them in their communities," says Nederhorst, an Ashoka Fellow. While she had a homebase in Lower Lonsdale for a decade, since last year the humanitarian, who was born in the Netherlands and raised in Tanzania, has been splitting her time between: Vancouver, where Sawa World is based; with her extended family in Holland; and primarily Uganda where the main work of the organization is focused.
Sawa World's core focus is "solutions from within" and it fights extreme poverty through the sharing and dissemination of locally created solutions. Its model is to seek out unsung heroes who've found their own methods of lifting themselves out of poverty, identifying them as Sawa World Sparks. "They have come up with very simple, practical solutions that have helped their communities out of poverty and have done that without international aid. They've really done it with their own innovation, selfless hearts, and been very successful at it and very often have helped thousands of people," says Nederhorst.
Examples of solutions include collecting wastepaper on the street to make fuel briquettes, a cheaper alternative to expensive charcoal. Other solutions include making wallets and bags from banana fibres, or jewelry from recycled paper.
Sawa shares their methods so they can be replicated on a wider scale. In the last two and a half years, Sawa has directly impacted more than 17,000 people. Sixty per cent of those were youths and 63 per cent have been inspired to replicate what they've learned.
A number of Sawa World Sparks will be in attendance at Sawa World Day, sharing their respective techniques. Income for many attendees is estimated at around $1 a day. By putting what they learn into action and starting their own businesses, that could be increased to $2 to $4 per day. "That's a really significant difference. That allows them to pay school fees and get the basic necessities for their home and pay their rent. It is actually quite drastic what can happen," says Nederhorst.
Organizers were overwhelmed by the number of people (3,000), at last year's Sawa World Day. "It's quickly becoming very popular in East Africa," says Nederhorst.
While the target age range is 15 to 25, they saw attendees as young as 10 as well as seniors. "They wanted to learn," she says.
"That's why this year it's so much bigger because we saw the demand and the need," she adds.
The campaign has already attracted the attention of Richard Branson, whose team profiled it on the Virgin Unite website Dec. 24. Nederhorst also plans to reach out to KofiAnnan, Emmanuel Jal and Ellen DeGeneres in hopes of increasing awareness.
So far, the I Am The Solution Campaign has raised 41 per cent of its goal and will wrap up Jan. 26. Info: indiegogo.com/projects/iam-the-solution-campaign or sawaworld.org.
