On Wednesday, 18 July 2018 we presented our interpretation of Nelson Mandela Day. Every year since 2014, The Wot-If? Trust has leveraged off Nelson Mandela Day to embark on 67 Days of Digital Activism! This time ‘round, our #ActionAgainstPoverty focused on business, technology and cooking for the Diepsloot community. One hundred and fifty corporates & community members lived by Nelson’s Mandela’s “Each one, teach one” philosophy.
Covering these three topics of discussion, our programme entailed:
- Photography masterclass with Prelena Soma Owen
- How to maximise the B-BBEE scorecard as a black-owned enterprise with Zahn Abreu from Paradigm Shift Consulting
- Basics of business pitching/proposing with Nihilent Consulting.
Sometimes #ActionAgainstPoverty is information and time. By bringing our corporate donors to the community which their funds serve, we also plugged our enterprises into opportunities to generate income. Through networking, learning, problem solving and sharing with one another, two worlds collided and concluded in to a network of civil-society participants. One’s expertise and experience is often, always, one’s greatest gift offered.
Parallel sessions included one-on-one technology and business support from Ericsson SA, Verifone SA and Big Five Duty Free employees. In honour of Nelson Mandela Day, these corporates also brought along bicycles, boxes and bundles of love from donations. The bicycles were specifically donated to the Roots and Shoots Saturday programme at Shumbashaba.
Dr. Sara Compion was one of many guests that joined our Wot-If? Trust #MandelaDay to conduct an international comparative study on volunteering for Kean University. We look forward to be featured in the final research document! Don’t just #BeTheLegacy, make that legacy come to life.
In and amidst this communal and corporate collaboration, was a market which featured 12 stalls:
- Tlou Collection
- Alvada Creations
- Dieper Sloot Style
- Malebo’s Spices
- KaziZen
- Roots and Shoots
- iHarvey
If you’ve never heard about Off Grid iHarvey intervention, then you need to familiarise yourself. After 18 prototypes & variations, iHarvey designed its our own wick based (paraffin) burner to produce useable electricity! Not only did we have opportunity to be introduced to iHarvey’s innovation but they also gave away one of their products to a lucky #MandelaDay participant in Diepsloot during our lunchtime.
Our Mandela Day doesn’t just end there SEE FULL PHOTO ALBUM HERE… we now embark on #67Days of #DigitalActivism with these programmes confirmed for the next few weeks.
- Fri, 20 July Voices of Faith Film Screening
- Ongoing from June – Aug Mobile Filmmaking (phase 2 of training with 20 young girls and women BLOG post here)
- Every Sat from Jul – Sep Geek_In_U (#robotics training for children between the ages of 10 – 13)
- Every 2nd Fri from Jul – Sep Code4Africa (Mobile Journalism/ #MoJo training for 30 multi-media companies/content creators)
If you would like to participate or support any of our 67Days of Digital Activism initiatives then feel free to contact 079 765 3910 or email nokwanda@wot-if.co.za