THE STANDARD
FINANCIAL STANDARD
Online shopping has created new opportunities for social entrepreneurs.
As Covid-19 forces businesses worldwide to reinvent themselves, social entrepreneurs are getting creative to help communities hit hard by the pandemic - from a Ugandan medicine-on-wheels service to upcycled face masks made by vulnerable women in Peru.
While recessions and falling revenue are affecting ethical businesses too, many such companies are proving particularly adept at innovating and finding new opportunities.
“Social innovation is the DNA of social entrepreneurs,” said Vincent Odhiambo, regional director for Ashoka East Africa, a non-profit working with social enterprises - businesses aiming to do good while making a profit.
THE STANDARD
AFRICA
Kenyan Ministry of health medical workers prepare to take swabs from truck drivers during a testing for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at the Namanga one-stop border crossing point between Kenya and Tanzania, in Namanga, Kenya May 12, 2020. [File, Thomas Mukoya, Reuters]
Projections indicate that the Covid-19 pandemic is sinking Africa into extreme poverty where the majority survive on less than a dollar (Sh111) per day.
The grim revelation came from Ashoka, an association of global entrepreneurs, during the launch in Nairobi of an initiative aimed at supporting African social entrepreneurs at the forefront of grappling with various issues linked to the Covid-19 crisis.