Siyaya Snapshot

Project Summary

Siyaya is an empowering social entrepreneurship project that strives to find, train and develop entrepreneurs in impoverished communities. The project starts up businesses and then equips candidates with comprehensive training which ensures sustainability. The ultimate goal for each Siyaya entrepreneur is for them to have full autonomy over their businesses once they are sustainable.

Vision

We want to see unemployed South Africans taking an active role in their communities by engaging in personal and social development through entrepreneurial pursuits.

Mission

We strive to teach critical business and money-management skills to unemployed Khayelitsha residents, and thereafter facilitate the start-up of their own individual retail businesses.

Our goal is to start 25 sustainable businesses in 2012.

We have designed the curriculum so that it:

·         Supports social engagement

·         Enhances tools for communication

·         Harnesses personal initiative

Success of the project will ultimately result in addressing socio-economic issues by:

·         Providing consistent income for the previously unemployed

·         Brightening the future of the entrepreneurs’ dependants

·         Encouraging the entrepreneurs to use their profits wisely and efficiently

Project Operations

Siyaya is a purely student run project, drawing on the skills of senior UCT commerce students, who take the role of consultants in training the entrepreneurs. Training sessions are held weekly at the Shawco Centre in Khayelitsha.