All through the month of January Lionesses of Africa celebrated Africa's truly inspiring women social entrepreneurs. This post is a wrap up of all the news, features and stories we covered through the month.
The end of January draws to a close a focused month of storytelling, aimed at celebrating and acknowledging the incredible achievements and impact being made by Africa’s inspirational women social entrepreneurs. At Lionesses of Africa, we salute their life-changing contributions to making the African continent a better place for all who live and work there.
Throughout the month of January, Lionesses of Africa has celebrated the incredible women social entrepreneurs who are making a real and lasting difference to the lives of others across the African continent. Each day, we have shared their start-up stories and their words of wisdom and encouragement to other women entrepreneurs. We have been genuinely inspired by their passion and unwavering belief that through their innovative entrepreneurial approaches to addressing social challenges in Africa, they can make change happen for the better.
It has been so rewarding to focus our storytelling in January on all the women social entrepreneurs - they are truly Lionesses of Africa. They are each, in their own indomitable way, leading a new and vibrant charge in helping to find sustainable solutions to address so many of the continent’s socio-economic challenges. We love the fact that these women are able to see possibility and potential where others see only seemingly difficult problems. Instead, they find solutions and, along the way, inspire so many others through their efforts.
If you missed all the inspirational Start-Up Stories and other great content that we have featured on these truly remarkable women social entrepreneurs of Africa the first time round, then as we wrap up our month-long focus, take a look again and be as inspired as we were.
Billikiss Adebiyi Abiola - a social entrepreneur finding a sustainable solution to the problem of waste management and the challenge of job creation in the urban communities of Nigeria through her innovative venture, WeCyclers --- Read more.
Winnifred Selby and Bernice Dapaah- co-founders of The Ghana Bamboo Bike Initiative and Afrocentric Bamboo, an incredible initiative making bicycles from bamboo, and simultaneously addressing the quadruple problems of climate change, poverty, unemployment and rural-urban migration amongst youth in Ghana --- Read more.
Achenyo Idachaba - an environmentally-focused social entrepreneur and founder of MitiMeth, finding the most innovative of solutions to the problem of invasive aquatic weeds taking over the waterways of Nigeria --- Read more.
Dr Jennifer Riria - a social entrepreneur who has literally transformed the lives of millions of Kenyan women through revolutionising the microfinance industry to meet the needs of women --- Read more.
Dr Victoria Kisyombe - an inspirational social entrepreneur who has pioneered micro leasing in Tanzania, as a result empowering a whole generation of women and would-be micro entrepreneurs, particularly in rural areas --- Read more.
Anne Githuku-Shongwe - a real game-changer in Africa, empowering young people in Africa to learn, engage and challenge existing perceptions of the continent through educational mobile gaming --- Read more.
Janet Nkubana and Joy Ndungutse - two passionate social entrepreneurs and sisters who are spearheading an economic revival and positively changing the lives of women in Rwanda following the 1994 genocide --- Read more.
Juliana Rotich - an innovative social techpreneur who is dramatically changing the way that individuals and communities can influence democracy and economic development around the world through the use of technology --- Read more.
Lydia Hakizimana - a social entrepreneur with a vision for improving children’s literacy in Rwanda and, in doing so, providing them with a chance in life to fulfil their potential --- Read more.
Janet Shaw - a South African social entrepreneur that recognised the incredible talent of the country’s craftswomen and created a Zulu beadwork collaboration that would empower, uplift and celebrate these women, positively changing lives in the process --- Read more.
Thato Kgatlhanye and Rea Ngwane - two energetic young South African social entrepreneurs who are creating schoolbags from recycled waste and incorporating rechargeable solar powered lights to enable schoolchildren to learn at home without lights --- Read more.
Lynn Worsley - a truly inspirational social eco-preneur from South Africa who is turning plastic waste into beautiful giftboxes, whilst at the same time empowering previously unemployed single mothers in the community --- Read more.
Ellen Chilemba - a passionate young Malawian social entrepreneur who has founded a for-profit social enterprise venture, Tiwale, which trains women as entrepreneurs, and offers grants, loans and lessons that can lead to empowerment and independence --- Read more.
We salute all of these amazing changemakers who have created women-led social ventures that are having a profound impact on their communities, their countries and on our continent. We look forward to monitoring and reporting on their future achievements.