The Enactus team from the Central University of Technology (CUT), Free State campus in Bloemfontein will put their entrepreneurial skills to the test at a global competition in Puerto Rico. Representing South Africa, the team will compete against 13 other countries in the Enactus World Cup from 30 October till 2 November.
Participants will include philanthropic, student, and education leaders from around the world who are committed to using entrepreneurship and innovation to solve the world’s biggest challenges. Each team will present entrepreneurial projects that are making an impact on the global goals in their communities, and that have the momentum to launch new social enterprises, create new careers and scale impact.
CUT has chosen 14 tried and tested students to compete in this international event. They will be accompanied by five officials. The Enactus CUT team secured this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to compete after beating 12 other student-led Enactus projects at the Enactus South Africa national competition held at the Sandton Convention Centre in July this year. The Free State team was chosen for their innovation in transforming a small-scale 2 ha potato project from subsistence into an enterprise.
The CUT team will be jetting off to Puerto Rico on 27 October. “We are looking forward to the competition to gain and exchange knowledge. This is the first time the institution will be participating in this event. We are going to present the pride we have in what we are doing in our community,” said Maraka Lefera, co-faculty advisor.
The CUT team’s project, Village Fa, was also one of four finalists for the Ford College Community Challenge (C3), run in partnership with non-profit organisation Enactus Global, the Ford Motor Company Fund and Ford SA.
Each year, four Enactus teams are chosen to receive a $5 000 grant to address urgent, unmet social needs in local communities in sustainable ways. The CUT team used the grant to establish crop farming and introduce vermiculture as a means of improving the economic development of the area. They focused on creative approaches to dealing with the protection of the environment, upskilling underprivileged communities, job creation, youth and woman economic empowerment, and income generation.
