These Hands Global and Sustainable Enterprise (GSSE) empowers rural communities through partnerships and innovative technologies

These Hands Global and Sustainable Enterprise (GSSE)

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.

Co-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.

During this period, IDIN-SADC Implementing Partners learnt the importance of local relevance and smaller governance units, and it here that they discovered that running the African innovation centres the same way as the South American or Asian ones was not effective. Therefore, to promote SADC relations, the innovation centres of Botswana, Zambia, and Tanzania started working together at International Development Design Summits, running innovator exchanges at the centres, sharing lessons learned at MIT D-Lab Training of Trainers, and providing each other countless hours of operational and technical advising. Another great lesson learnt was that consistent support of their innovators and innovations stifled their path to potential commercialization.

IDIN-SADC (International Development Innovation Network – SADC) is a regional consortium led by an Executive Committee (EC) of grassroots innovation ecosystem builders around SADC. The EC veers away from traditional top-down approaches to development and technology intervention and instead leads a bottom-up movement of grassroots communities who demonstrate interest in innovation. The EC partners with these communities to co-create appropriate technologies that address immediate livelihood challenges, to set up small ventures around these technologies, and to develop innovation centres to continue community-driven innovation work. These Hands administers the overall consortium grants and a lead project coordinator. It administers its allocated budget grant and implements all activities in Botswana as per its approved work plan and budget by the IDIN SADC Executive Committee. It also collaborates with the IDIN Botswana members, IDIN Tanzania members, IDIN Zambia members, MIT D-Lab Faculty, MIT D-Lab Students, BIUST Faculty members, BIUST Students, IDIN global network of innovators, IDIN Global consortium members, and IDIN consortium students to work on innovation centre projects, cross border exchanges, summits, and creative capacity building workshops in-country and in other SADC member states.

Through their numerous projects, they have reached out to 4 SADC countries, 38 Villages, to over 150k people and have trained 1225 people in which 69% participates were youth, and 30% participants were women, € 2714 amount of grants issued and 208 members benefiting from the project’s grants. An addition of The Hands projects includes a Finland Ministry of Foreign Affairs initiative to activate, capacitate and accelerate innovation and entrepreneurship in Southern Africa. The grant was for an 18-month period from November 2019 to June 2021 and was implemented in three milestones across the four targeted countries of Botswana, Zambia, Tanzania, and Namibia.

THESE HANDS GSSE AND IDIN-SADC CONSORTIUM’S PATHWAY TO IMPACT IDIN-SADC Consortium’s aim is to introduce a new co-creative design approach to technology and community development. Its key propositions included:

51 Build It Workshops. Ranging from a couple of hours to 7 days, Build It Workshops teach participants how to make specific low-cost, useful technologies through step-by-step directions. Afterwards, participant use these technologies in their homes and share them with their communities. Some examples include a hand maize sheller, a charcoal press, and a PET plastic bottle cutter. Curriculum for these workshops is sourced from around the world and adapted to local materials and conditions. Their target was to have 18 in Tanzania, 16 in Botswana, 16 in Zambia and 1 in Namibia within 18 months.

32 Creative Capacity Building Training Workshops. These are 5–10-day co-creation training workshops amongst people who stay together; in the same village, school, or organization and face the same livelihood challenges. Participants are taught the co-creative design and business thinking processes and supported with materials and tools to co-create prototypes and ventures that address their own livelihood challenges. Their target was to have 11 in Tanzania, 10 in Botswana, 10 in Zambia and one in Namibia within 18 months.

7 Innovation Centres. Rural community based co-working spaces that allow their summit participants or (Creative Capacity Building) CCB participants to be able to continue working on their prototypes and ventures by accessing all the material, tools, and technical support necessary.

International Development Design Summits. These 2–5-week first-hand design summits bring a diverse group of participants from different countries and backgrounds to co-create appropriate technologies and ventures with local communities in Botswana and the SADC region.

50 Project Support Grants. Competitive small grants to help in assisting their innovators to enable them to buy material and tools to design or iterate their technology projects or pay for the essential steps in their business development.

6 Chapter Meetings. Includes small meetings by their rural innovators to either train each other a new skill or give feedback on an innovative design.

6 Exhibitions. Innovators and entrepreneurs at innovation centres display their technologies to the public for sales, feedback, and inspiration.

6 Cross Border Exchange Visits/Exposure Trips. Members from SADC members states get an opportunity to travel to each other’s working spaces to either learn or impart new skills about a project; and to exhibit and trade their technologies or products of their technologies on calendar dates that members will agree upon that are strategic at the time.

A CELEBRATION OF MILESTONES These Hands’ bears many milestones since the organisation’s formation, some of which include:

• Raising over USD450 000 in cash and in-kind grants since registration in 2015 to date. • Training over 400 people in 8 rural communities of Botswana to date. • Producing 38 prototypes to date in Botswana alone. • 16 prototypes ready to go to market and 1 project donated to client for use (Deep Sand Wheelchair) • 3 projects registered as community businesses in Botswana (Deep Sand Wheelchair, Hydroponic Fodder Grower and Elephant Dung Paper) • 6 projects explored for potential utility model patents and commercialization • 5 rural innovation centres in 5 districts of Botswana in the villages of Dkar, Dutlwe, Rakops, Kaputura and Lesoma • 7 trained trainers in Botswana • At least 5000 people reached in Botswana • Supported trainings and innovation centre set up in Ban Han Wao, Thailand, and Rhino Camp Refugee Settlement Area in Uganda • 2015 Ashoka Change Makers Social Intrapreneurship Fellow • 2015 Orange Africa Social Venture Prize Botswana Winners and Top 11 Continental Finalists for USSD Based Social Media Platform. • 2016 winner of the Mail & Guardian Newspaper and Gabs FM Radio’s 50 Batswana under 40 Innovation Award • 2018 World Bank Social Inclusion Heroes Competition Botswana Winner and Top 27 Continental Finalist. • 2019 Michigan State University Global Youth Advancement Network Implementing Partners for Botswana. • 2020 Africa Project against Suicide and Leadership in Obscurity Network of the United States’ Honorary Africa Outstanding Leadership Award for 2019.

TESTIMONIALS FROM COMMUNITY MEMBERS Former cohort, Tebogo Seiso is from a village called Otse. She is an Innovation Manager and leads a group of young people who are talented. Through the help of These Hands, she started an innovation centre whereby participants use the skills they are taught during workshops, to address problems within their local community.

“Through These Hands GSSE, with the utmost support from Mr. Thabiso Mashaba, on a business level, I have gained insights on production, how to produce my own products and how to price products; and these are skills I did not possess. On a personal level, I realized that I have the potential to create a product that can help me better my life and the interactions have transformed me from being a “shy” person to a confident person who now has the courage to speak in public and is now an impeccable public speaker. This year I even did a television shoot with the CNN inside Africa show with the group I leads, and I have These Hands and Mr. Thabiso Mashaba to thank for their great input in my life,” she adds.