EduGreen is incubated and will be teaching unemployed youth the knowledge and skills to build products using renewable energy. It was initiated while the group attended the Grow Leadership Academy program at RLabs. “We had to come up with a business idea during Entrepreneurship training which we could eventually pitch to a panel;” Says Michaela Collison.
The team at EduGreen hopes that they could ultimately sell the products build by the youth, which would lead to economic empowerment.
Get to know the Edugreen Team
Charlie Sonnenberg: “I’m a natural researcher and gadget enthusiast, love the concept of going green and passionate about making a change in the community in real-time.” Says Charlie
Michaela Collison: “I’m passionate about people, I feel it’s my duty to help those in need, I love learning and gaining as much knowledge as possible. I’m interested in how the world adapts to technology and their knowledge about renewable energy.” Says Michaela
Caleb Baadjies: Says that he is concerned about the communities frustration around Eskom (Power Outages) and how reliant they are.
What ignited their idea?
“In the beginning we pitched how a cordless wall plug socket could make use of “wiretricity” and solar energy after which we were accepted to enter the Entrepreneurial Mansion Bootcamp, and the idea started to change and pivot.” Says the team.
They then decided to go with the start of an Academy that focus on solar and green education, which is still in line with the initial purpose.
In the incubator, the teams learned that there is a lot more to renewable energy, and that not too many people seem to be well informed, neither are there many making use of it. The team had to learn all the time, which has been helpful in redefining their idea. It was especially encouraging to see how interested the unemployed youth are in learning more from such an initiative as EduGreen. The team said that they enjoyed testing their idea at the Youth Cafe-Rocklands as they could interact and get instant feedback from the youth.
Charlie said, “The training and advice provided by Technology Start-up founders and International business persons, have helped us to deal with challenges and to understand business concepts. They have helped us to focus on the core idea, and the problem that we aim to solve for unemployed youth and the renewable energy industry.”
The project is in the final trimester of incubation and the EduGreen team hope to launch a strong product and service that will empower the youth and improve livelihoods. Soon they will launch their Introductory course in areas such as Mitchells Plain and Athlone where they will teach them how to build basic items such as lamps that uses the energy of the sun.You may contact this young and energetic team at admin@edugreen.co.za
