In my role as Local Chair at the COMPASS conference I helped to arrange a visit to Philippi Village, a remarkable integrated, mixed-use development situated in the heart of the Cape Flats area. The tour was made even more special by the presence of the COMPASS keynote speaker, Bushra Razak, who personally guided us through Philippi Village and provided invaluable insights into their initiatives. This report aims to highlight our experience during this enlightening tour.

Key takeaways from the visit include:

• Empowering Communities: Philippi Village is more than just a development; it's a symbol of empowerment for the local community. Bushra Razak's commitment to this cause is inspiring.

• Entrepreneurial Resilience: We witnessed the tenacity of local entrepreneurs who, despite challenges, are striving to create a better future for themselves and their communities.

• Collaboration and Support: Philippi Village's collaborative workspaces and facilitating conditions provide essential support for small and micro business owners.

• Importance of Social Engagement: The vibrant and safe environment created by Philippi Village fosters meaningful social engagements that are crucial for community development.

We will endeavour to continue engaging with this community by working in five key areas where they need assistance: 

1. Water and Sanitation - The water blocks the road into Philippi Village. The water tested in the Waterfront informal settlement next to Philippi Village is more polluted than sewerage water."

2. Entrepreneurship - Entrepreneurs need to become more resilient, especially in the face of disasters and disruptions to their business.

3. Sustainable farming - The farming area has been flooded recently. Ideas need to be generated to protect farming areas against further disasters.

4. Safety and Security - Phillippi Village has been subject to safety and security threats due to its location.  

5. Sustainable Philippi Village ecosystem Philippi Village is currently running at a loss. This threatens the sustainability of this ecosystem. Ideas need to be generated to improve the revenue-generating model. 

Photos of the event can be viewed here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1CU2Vdis5EObvZb0vyIx9A6oXVGelNejB

To address 3. Sustainable farming at Philippi Village a black soldier fly startup for sustainable agriculture will be implemented. The potential of black soldier flies (Hermetia illucens) larvae to alleviate the challenges of food waste management and sustainable protein production. Alongside their cost-effectiveness, it offers a path toward a more sustainable and efficient food system. This proposal outlines the implementation of a black soldier flies (BSF) startup farming initiative in low-resource communities, addressing the scarcity of information on its feasibility in such contexts. By capitalizing on the low-cost and low-resource nature of BSF farming, it aims to provide a sustainable and cost-effective solution to the pressing issues of food waste and protein production. The study endeavours to assess the viability and scalability of BSF farming for income generation, aiming to advance sustainable agriculture in low-resource communities. The theoretical framework employed will be the social-ecological systems (SES) model, enabling a comprehensive analysis of the intricate interplay between social and ecological factors, ultimately contributing to improved sustainability.

I was the Project Manager of the Women's Month initiatives. In 2021, in partnership with Women-in-Tech, the theme for Women's Month was 'Empowering Entrepreneurs through E-Commerce'. Statistics from UN Women indicates that the impact of the pandemic disproportionately affects women. "For countless women in economies of every size, along with losing income, unpaid care and domestic work burden has exploded" (Source: https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2020/9/feature-covid-19-economic-impacts-on-women). These statistics have inspired the Department of Information Systems to assist female entrepreneurs by future-proofing them.

This Women's month we assisted 25 female entrepreneurs to do business online as opposed to face-to-face only. Hopefully, we can protect their incomes during further lockdowns and trading restrictions. The marketing video can be found on the left.

In addition, two sessions to inspire entrepreneurs and the community was held. The tech tea party is an alternative to a traditional talk/zoom meeting that serves to inspire females by having them engage with females in the technology space. Including a 'Never have I ever' game kept it lively and allow the audience to also get involved.

A second session for Entrepreneurs to be inspired by Lauren Dallas (Co-Founder & CEO of Future Females | Serial Lifestyle Entrepreneur | Growth Hacker & Social Media Expert) was also be held. 

The sessions would not have been possible without the assistance of the Information Systems department (especially Ruchen, Nuraan and Malcolm), the EMS dean, Women in Tech, UWC's Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CEI), Nasmera Buckus and Melissa Slaymaker. 

The following feedback was received from a participant: "Thank you for this wonderful opportunity. It felt like a support group for entrepreneurs and was inspiring to learn the lessons others have learnt on their journey. This was the first time I was part of such an event as I never found any that felt as relevant to me as this was. I would like to be part of any future entrepreneurial workshops you may have. It was not only a talk but you were giving us something of value to add to our businesses by teaching us to develop our online stores. Learning to build my own e-commerce site was an amazing experience, and a huge Thank You to Ruchen, for donating his time and skills so generously. Thank you sincerely."

One of my students, Zubaidah Amod, recommended that I be involved in the University of the Western Cape's (UWC's) Student Entrepreneurship Week (SEW) and received the following feedback from the organiser at UWC's Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CEI). 

Hi Fazlyn

Thank you so much for your invaluable contribution to SEW last week. 

We really appreciate you offering up your time - particularly when you invited students to ask questions even once the session was technically over! I know they really, really appreciated that, as did we. And thank you for being so candid with them. A personal story/lesson goes such a long way. 

Thanks again, Fazlyn. 

Regards, 

Emma 

As a member of the Bridging Application and Network Gaps group I worked on the Zenzeleni and SignSupport teams. I applied for the Equal Rating Innovation Challenge of the Mozilla Foundation on behalf of the Zenzeleni team. My submission reached the semi-finals out of 98 submissions from 27 countries. The Zenzeleni team won the community vote.  

I was the Project Manager and fundraiser of the Women's Month initiatives, including 'Bring a girl child to ICT-related work day' and a Women Matters hackathon. 

Our objectives of the event were to:

• Improve digital literacy skills amongst previously disadvantaged female learners.

• Motivate school students towards higher education studies in Information Systems 

• Exposure of young females to Health-related challenges and to provide learning opportunities to address the same through Information Technologies

• Develop problem-solving skills amongst learners

• Community engagement and upliftment by empowering girls from previously disadvantaged groups

• Develop Entrepreneurship and Innovation skills 

One hundred female students from high schools in surrounding areas were transported to campus where they were taught how to code and develop websites. They also had the opportunity to engage with several women in the technology space.

Women's day event feedback from one of our main sponsors for the Women's Day event, Metropolitan, was received:

On 22 Aug 2016 15:57, "Kathy Branquinho" wrote:

Hello Fazlyn!!!

First of all, I have been trying to get the time all day to just sit down and send you an email to say “Thank You!”

Thank you so much for the amazing experience on Friday.  It was an absolute privilege to be involved in something so inspiring and moving.  The girls were very special – not only well behaved and well mannered but really interested in the topics, talks and workshops as well.  I loved being a part of it!

Well done with all your organisation and preparation – I would love us to all come together to debrief and see what worked and what could be done differently next time… [A debrief with the company was completed and student participants feedback  was provided for their reporting.]

What a privilege it was being part of an initiative to get schoolgirls interested and excited about subjects such as maths and science – hopefully inspiring them towards a future career in technology!  Even if only 1 girl in each school pursues a career in technology it will make the day a success! 

I cannot help thinking that this is just the start of a journey and that many contributions and interventions could take place to support these children through their learning journey on an ongoing basis.  I chatted with one of the teachers and these kids lack basic things which most of us take for granted, such as textbooks, stationery and food to eat.  Surely we can gather together to contribute in some way…?! 

For me, the teachers really are the hero’s though – on a daily basis they are dealing with the socio-economic fallout that these kids are challenged within their day to day lives.  55 kids in a class, doubling up on desks, sharing textbooks, doing homework at school as some have no ‘home’ to work at, having teenage mothers in the class, struggling with English, not being able to read and write in Grade 10…  the list goes on…  How can we support these amazing teachers to continue making such a difference?  One teacher told me she spends the first 2 weeks of her Grade 10 year just focusing on manners – please, thank you, respect and tolerance for others, and honesty – basic values that we take for granted.  I was in awe of those teachers….

Kind regards

Kathy

An email was also received from one of the teachers from Portlands High School who accompanied the students to the event:

---------- Forwarded message ---------

From: riefqa george

 Good morning

I trust that you are well on this cold day. On Friday I was [with] my gr.9s girls for your “bring a girl child to ICT related work” day, and I must say JOB WELL DONE. I think it was a great initiative and definitely caused a hype among the girls. You really opened their world into new possibilities, and planted the seed. The girls were hyped up and could not stop speaking this of event.

I was even left in awe and inspired… I even approached Celeste from TFG to mentor me, because I am on the brink of masters (I am proudly UWC) and like to be guided. So thank you for not only helping out the girls, and me as well. Please keep our school in mind when you have any more workshops that our learners could benefit from. Today I will be telling all my classes about what was mentioned Friday, I even teach English to a “math and science” class so when I informed them, they were in shock. So thank you for opening our worlds to possibilities that can uplift our community!

Lastly, the woman from metropolitan had an awesome video portraying  “her at work”. I would like to show my classes, if you could ask her to forward the video? Or if she could upload on youtube perhaps? I think it would be great if the rest of my learners could see…. If all else fails, she definitely has a future in film! Lol [The video and all resources used were provided to schools so that they could provide it to all of their students].

Thank you

Riefqa George

A mini Hackathon (Hacklet) where participants will be taught problem-solving skills and competed for prizes by building a software solution prototype for women-related health challenges.

More information regarding the events can be found in this blog: https://uwcmozillaclubsite.wordpress.com/2016/09/03/womens-month/ 

I have been involved in Africa Code week where I taught students and parents how to code at Maitland High School. After the event, I also provided the attendees with reference materials so that they could continue learning on their own.