This year the inspiring national competition was won by the University of Pretoria whose representatives introduced themselves as 'Architects of Change', presenting two of their projects, the Mohlakeng Market and Project Kickbax. The Mohlakeng Market is a platform created by the St John's Outreach orphanage centre along with Enactus UP, and which aimed to bring all vendors in the Mohlakeng Township under one roof to buy and sell goods to each other, promoting the culture of entrepreneurship while generating a profit for over 600 orphaned and vulnerable children. Their second project, Project Kickbax was aimed at supporting an entrepreneur in his artistic skill and craft. Creatively using the entrepreneur's skills, they came up with an innovative business idea to create unique designs out of plain white canvas shoes that would portray the identity of not only resident scholars but business corporates too.
This year the Architects of Change at the University of Pretoria will be representing South Africa at the annual Enactus World Cup from 29 September to 1 October 2013 in Mexico, Cancun, to compete against 36 other countries' institutions for the title of being the world's leading innovators and game-changers.
The Enactus UP team members have made a great impact in the communities in which they operate and are a shining light for the future of this country. They are leaders who have taken it upon themselves to change the state of this country by taking what they have learnt, coupling it with passion and driving it back to ploughing out the skills and talent in our country.
"When you use the skills you have learnt in your years of study to give back to people who can only dream of a better tomorrow it makes you appreciate your studies that much more, and it goes to show that you don't need to wait until you are 40-something to contribute to the change for a better tomorrow in our South Africa," said Sanelisiwe Siyotula, marketing manager for Enactus UP.
For more information, go to www.enactus.org or www.up.ac.za.
