BUSINESS • COMMUNITY • IMPACT
These Hands Global and Sustainable Enterprise (GSSE)
- COMMUNITY CHAMPIONS
EMPOWERS RURAL COMMUNITIES THROUGH PARTNERSHIPS AND INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES
These Hands Global Social and Sustainable Enterprise (GSSE) is a global for-profit social enterprise start-up based in Botswana which trains and supports rural community innovators/ entrepreneurs in developing countries. These Hands finds innovative technologybased solutions for promoting sustainable development, encouraging entrepreneurship, and combating poverty in rural communities in developing countries.
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o-Founder and CEO of These Hands GSSE, Mr. Thabiso Mashaba facilitates change in rural Botswana by linking community members with international innovators and designers and giving them the opportunity to use their traditional skills to produce innovative solutions to livelihood challenges. As an enabler for international development work, These Hands GSSE have also developed a social media platform that is dedicated to international development and co-creative design work and does not require internet to use (USSD Based). The organisation recently graduated from incubation at the Botswana Innovation Hub’s First Steps Venture Centre (BIH FSVC) and are now members. These Hands GSSE is also a lifelong implementation partner and rural innovation centre partner of the International Development Innovation Network (IDIN) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) D-Lab for Botswana, Africa, Latin America, and South-East Asia. It also an implementation partner of the Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST) through its first university chapter being the Via Maranyane Student Organization. They are also implementation partners for Injini Education Technology Incubation Programme for Botswana. EXPLORING THESE HANDS GSSE PARTNERSHIPS In 2017, These Hands GSSE co-founded the International Development Innovation Network (IDIN)-SADC Consortium with partners, Kafue Innovation Centre in Zambia, and Twende Social Innovation Centre in Tanzania. The International Development Innovation Network (IDIN) in Implementing Partnership with MIT D-Lab and funded by The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) from 2012-2017 has had initiatives in Southern African Development Community (SADC) member states that are in line with the SADC’s objectives.
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