About 8 months ago I had no idea what RLabs was but when I went to the GROW Leadership Academy, GLA, orientation one of the hosts Suzanne Smith said something that couldn’t escape my mind. That was the time I discovered that not only are you able to learn at RLabs but you too can activate your own hub.
I started following it around and finally got it approved by January 2020. As a team, we agreed to take this further and use the platform to start something great in Strandfontein (Mathew Parks, Robin Payne, and Laetitia Smith). We were also fortunate to be blessed with two volunteers Aunty Naz and Uncle Suleiman that were willing to help us grow the vision and mostly Insaaf Vermeulen, a previous GLA mate and an intern of the YES program.
The RLabsU Strandfontein hub is working alongside the YMCA Cape Flats and they agreed that we can use the YMCA camp vicinity to operate the hub from. We then went on and brought two other organizations on board which is The communiversity of South Africa and HOSA. Both organizations have the same vision of developing the area of Strandfontein and with our partnership and combined strength, we believe we can do more. We have done Introduction to business management with the communiversity and scheduled workshops with HOSA.
Highlights:
Getting the opportunity to interact with youth and knowing the passion they have. Meeting college students who have awesome business ideas and willing to work with us to make them successful. Having the opportunity to hear someone say ”thank you” because you have helped them come up with a solution towards the problem they wanted to solve. Lastly, seeing ourselves growing while helping others grow.
With the Covid-19 situation, we have not been able to operate at all but gave us the chance to go back to the drawing board and plan the next step. We have also applied for Anzishe Prize, which is Africa’s premier award for the youngest entrepreneurs worth $ 100 000 shared price.
The Future:
As a hub we are planning to be more mobile, instead of people coming to us we go to them. We want to work more with NPO’s, Schools, Youth Groups, and everyone who is either on a journey of changing lives for others or wanting to change their own. We believe we have the platforms to make a change massively, that is more diverse and pushes us to be more innovative so why can’t we use it to create something that has never been heard of?
We have started and we are here! If people want to know what is coming next please keep out an eye.
A big thank you to RLabs and our mentors Kuselwa Ntantiso, and Rabia Adamson for giving us such a wonderful opportunity that’s allowing us to make a change in the community.
