Pan African Awards for Entrepreneurship in Education - Goes to B-Gifted Foundation of Sierra Leone

Digital Hope 

Greene (left)  (Jeanne Sauve 04),  ITU Fellow 11, Provides technology equipment for war amputee victims for the pilot phase of the B-Gifted Foundation (Digital Hope) project supported by UN ITU in 2011. The project continues to use telecommunication technology to give voices to amputees who faced challenges in being assimilated in an ever-growing  telecom world. Greene envisioned that these technologies can bridge the digital and economic divide and amplify the voices of those who will not otherwise be heard.

B-Gifted Founder demonstrates the use of new technologies to the war victims and shows the enormous power that technology will have in the lives of amputee victims of war, noting that these new technologies will weave a great deal of humanitarian concerns to their plight'.

The beneficiaries themselves are on all fours helping to build their new ICT centre and being very happy to contribute their time and efforts in the creation of the digital centres that will ultimately help to transform their lives.

The UN ITU Supported Digital Hope Project allows amputee victims of war to successfully carve a  niche for themselves, exploiting the available resources and technologies to engage in entrepreneurship, create market for their business and gain livelihoods. The project also helps in the growing concern of the human rights of victims of amputation and disabled persons and create an awareness to the plight of these victims which is made possible through sharing and learning via ICT.

B-Gifted Foundation of Sierra Leone, Announced as Winner of ‘Educating Africa’ Award
[B-Gifted Foundation of Sierra Leone], has been named as on of the organizations with the most entrepreneurial approach to education Sierra Leone, in the Educating Africa Pan-African Awards for Entrepreneurship in Education. With over 350 entries from all over Africa, [B-Gifted Foundation of Sierra Leone] has done exceptionally well to be named a country winner in the competition. It’s unique and entrepreneurial approach to  education meant that it caught the judges’ attention even despite this being the most competitive competition to date. This is the fifth time  that the Pan African Awards for Entrepreneurship in Education have  been run by UK-based international development charity, Teach A Man To  Fish.

As a country prize winner, [B-Gifted Foundation of Sierra Leone], are entitled to prize winnings of USD $1,000. Now it is time to scale up! We are looking at scaling up our ICT Digital Hope education centre for war victims. Your support can make a real difference.

[B-Gifted Foundation of Sierra Leone], www.bgiftedfoundation.org uses creativity and technology  to address human rights, enhance peace and development. B-GIFTED  Foundation strives to make the world a better place with a tightly
threaded tapestry of creative ideas. B-GIFTED Foundation is a  non-profit organization that was named at the behest & in honour of an  eponymous peace activist & human rights educator, who, over time, has
used creativity & technology to buttress his growing corpus of  groundbreaking peacemaking & culture-building endeavours. Where ideas  bloom & blossom, triumph draws nigh, our programs, steadily hoisted
from the doldrums, thereby may over- leap myriad moats and mountains.

The aim of the competition was to identify and celebrate the achievements of social entrepreneurs who understand the role education  can play within their communities. ‘'With this competition we were
looking for programmes which are innovative, sustainable and create  real impact – and we have found them. By awarding them we hope to  encourage others to imitate winner’s approach and work towards more
and better education in Africa’’, says Nik Kafka, Managing Director of  Teach A Man To Fish.

More about the competition

Now in its fifth year, the 2012 Pan African Awards for  Entrepreneurship continue to reward organizations in Africa that use  innovative and entrepreneurial techniques to fill gaps in educational  services across the continent.

Entries were assessed against the criteria of entrepreneurship,  sustainability, and impact. The winners were selected by a panel of  international judges, with the top entry receiving a prize of $10,000  and the two runners-up prizes of $5,000. There is also a $1,000 prize  for the best entry for each country.

More about the winners
More detailed information about this year’s winners is available here:
http://teachamantofish.org.uk/pan-african-awards-2012-winners
More about the competition organizers
TeachAManToFish is an international non-profit organization working to improve the relevancy, quality, and availability of education in  developing countries. Our pioneering approach uses profit-making  school-run businesses to teach entrepreneurship and livelihood skills. This model allows schools to generate additional income, improving  their financial sustainability, while at the same time enabling them
to offer a more relevant and higher quality education.
For more information visit www.teachamantofish.org.uk

Educating Africa is a foundation committed to introducing cost effective and sensible education initiatives throughout Africa, and to acknowledging some of the tremendous educational projects that have
been developed across the continent. It is apparent that there are superb educational ideas, generous benefactors and intellectual capital that is willing and able to be invested in worthwhile
educational projects. However, often there is a mismatch in linking the various groups. Educating Africa seeks to bridge this gap and match up these groups.

For more information visit www.EducatingAfrica.com

For media enquiries please contact:

B-Gifted Foundation
C/O 52 Spur Loop, FREETOWN,
Sierra Leone,
West Africa

Tel: 00232-78-166966
Fax: 0023222224439

Email Us:
b.giftedfoundation@gmail.com