Leadership for girls academy

The society has taught for women and girls to be followers and not leaders, supporting structures dominated by men.  This indeed dictates that the much debated topic of a Patriarchial society still exists in this day and age despite so many measures taken to try and curb its operation in the society, its effect still linger on. Girls at a young age are not mentored to lead but rather serve. Leadership for girls academy (LGA) was born and is committed to the drive for gender equality. We therefore came to the solution of creating this Academy to produce eminent, distinguished and dynamic female leaders of tomorrow. We have based our model on teaching and moulding young girls on how to address real life problems within their community, as well as motivating and encouraging their confidence at large through an online dataless app.

Our
studies revealed ,  72% of female
learners fall into employee role whereas 75% of their male counterparts enter
into a leadership role ie entrepreneurs and community leader. This result
enlightened us that should this problem not be addressed, we risk facing a
woman-less entrepreneurial future, a society run by men only, and this has
happened in the olden days under the Patriarchal regime.  It is this statistics therefore that  encouraged us to work with the marginalized
generation as this will inturn increase the number of young females in every
leadership role in communities, companies, Governments etc. We are looking to
equip candidates with experiential learning in Business leadership and  Entrepreneurial skills, thus motivating and
encouraging their confidence. Moreover, young females not equiped with
anything other than mastering the art of household duties tend to be more
vulnerable to, among other things, early/ forced marriages, high rates of
pregnancies, and early death due to poor martenal health/ diseases. This
execebates poverty in the community as the un-skilled population is not employable
nor innovative of ways to get out of poverty thus leading to total dependance
on government grants, which affects the country and ultimately the whole
world at large.

Our
solution is to provide lessons that will equip young females with
experiential learning in Business leadership, Entrepreneurial Skill, further
motivating them and encouraging confidence in them. We work on assisting them
to master the art of effective communication and be critical thinkers in the
process. This inevitably begs the question "how this will be in effect
as a result of the Corona Virus pandemic and social distancing sanctions put
in place?". Please note that we have already launched a system where
lessons are conducted online via a dataless online application to assist the
learners not to miss out on lessons, and on such an opportunity due to lack
of funds to buy data.

Our
target population is the young girls at school level to whom we offer a
unique and powerful program to empower them, We are also looking to increase
the number of young women participating in learning and training,
strenghthening digital literacy so they can effectively transition from
education to employment thus dwindling the barriers that prevent young
women-especially those living in conflict and emergency situations-from
reaching key learning milestones.

This project was formed to benefit our learners with skills & knowledge which will assist them to open up their own businesses and lead the future generation. To eventually become alumni coaches transferring their skills.To add on that is the fact that our population target is the young women from the ages of 16 to 18 who inevitably do not have the funds to be taking up any training at that stage of their lives. This is therefore self explanatory that our solution is aligned to all the above 4 dimensions. 

As stated, the LGA project aims at equiping our marginalized young women who are at risk of facing exclusion from the labour market by improving their employability status. They are equiped with the social skills necessary to help them not only to find a job but to be business minded as well so as to fit in the male dominated economic world. It is no doubt, with the present poverty rate amongst the young woman from disadvantaged back grounds, that high school education fails to deliver skills important for employment industry, hence if they do not go to tertiary then their lives are doomed for eternity. Most organisations in our country which work with young woman focus on the ones from good schools who can afford many activities expected of them ie: internships in big Companies .  However, not everyone gets that opportunity, not every school can even dream of such an opportunity, ie those in townships with 90% of the students coming from impoverished backgrounds. It is therefore that reason LGA concentrates on that marginalized society using a data-less app for education and entrepreneurship at completely no cost to the learners.

Our solution although has Moodle technology at its core but has been technologically advanced and upgraded by keeping the future needs also in mind. Our solution can be considered as “a new application of an existing technology”.

Itis a cloud-based technology that addresses all of the major obstacles in rolling out equitable learning opportunities efficiently and cost-effectively. It is an OFFLINE-ONLINE mobile-first design solution, specially designed for LOW BANDWIDTH CONDITIONS in Africa that partners and support institutions in all activities for e-learning. It includes hosting,  training, support, and all upgrades. The solution is a SCORM compliant solution with in-built Asynchronous and  Blended Learning Methodology.

Usability

Some of the most important applications of our solution have been listed below:

• Offline/Online registration: The implementation of an Online registration/admission process, the integration of an online payment system (for ease of making payment), and the issuance of certification have made the overall registration/admission process simpler.
• Offline/Online Learning: Provision for creation & sharing of digital learning content by the Profs with the students and sharing of student’s responses with profs for review has simplified the learning completely.  
• Live Classroom: Implementation of “MLive” within our LMS helps the Profs/Faculty conduct classes and meetings online with their students sitting remotely.
• Alumni Platform: It gives a way to better coordination among the different batchmates and their Universities.
• Content Management: Our LMS offers a range of ways to import, export, and manage digital content of any kind to enable and support learning.

 Our past works have always received accolades in the form of appreciations & referrals. Hence we consider our solution to be a widely used and accepted technology.

Usability of our solution

Few examples have been listed below:

• Offline/Online registration: The implementation of an Online registration/admission process, the integration of an online payment system (for ease of making payment), and the issuance of certification have made the overall registration/admission process simpler.
• Offline/Online Learning: Provision for creation & sharing of eLearning content by the Profs and sharing of responses by students with each other for review has simplified the learning completely. 
• Live Classroom: Implementation of “MLive” within our LMS helps the Profs/Faculty conduct classes and meetings online with their students sitting remotely.
• Alumni Platform: It gives a way to better coordination among the different batchmates and their Universities.
• Content Management: Our LMS offers a range of ways to import, export, and manage digital content of any kind to enable and support learning.

Clients

Our solution is being successfully utilized by many clients & a few have been listed below:

• YALI-South (UNISA), South Africa
• Deloitte Limited- YALI RLC, East Africa, Nairobi
• Badr University in Cairo, Egypt
• Cavendish University (Uganda & Zambia)
• City of Takoma Park, USA
• Genesis Community IT Initiative (I-CAN Centre), Cape Town
• Liberty Life Assurance Kenya Ltd
• Kenyatta University, Kenya

The LGA mission is to bring together Business, Education, and Life
Skills by teaming up with experts in each field to offer a unique and
powerful programme for young girls of 16-18 years of age. This will be
made easier with our dataless online app as it will provide an easier
manner of learning and teaching which will adhere to the mandated social
distancing requested, and further there will be no travelling costs, no
time wasted on the road, no data expense, and certainly no fear of being
infected with the Corona Virus. Ultimately, our vision to provide access
to educational solutions to our young women via accessible platforms is
attained".

The currently solution serves just under 200 young women. By the end of 2021 it is our intention to extend it to the three countries that we currently operate in and increase the number to 1500. We will not exclude males form this program as that would be perceived as sexist. Within the next 5 years it is our intention through relationships with other organisations globally to extend it to the reach of every young women. This could reach the millions. 

This program is critical in preparing our youth for the future. Our goal for the next year is to be in three countries with over 1500 learners. In the next 5 years our goal is to extend our reach globally to recruit in excess of a million learners onto the program. Whilst this is ongoing to ensure that our offering remains relevant to the needs of our learners and industry 

There are two main barriers to this program. They are funding and marketing to the correct audience. There are no other barriers that we are not able to formulate a plan and overcome 

The funding is always a challenge. we will have to apply for funding through various mechanisms locally and abroad as we are with your organisation. I do believe that with the proper marketing campaigns we would be able to create an awareness of our project and solicit funders. 

FULL TIME : 10

PART TIME: 2

CONTRACTORS: 2

I am forth generation social entrepreneur and my passions towards positive social transformation has always been through training and development. As the CEO of an accredited university and being involved in the educational and development sector for the past 20 years I have been able to recruit a team of as passionate and qualified team of project managers, facilitator, business mentors and coaches.  

Our partners on all our projects are: 

ESKILZ COLLEGE - an accredited private college 

MARKETING MATTERZ - a digital marketing agency 

THE CREATIVE WAREHOUSE -  an enhanced business incubator 

Our business model may seem simplistic. To stay relevant to the needs of the market and our beneficiaries. Through the generation of funds  we are able to maintain our organisations mandate. Through this to continue our social entrepreneurship work. 

We live by the motto of the organisation and apply it in every aspect of what we do. 

To assist people in need. Whilst we are doing this to provide them with training and development to ensure that they are sustainable when we move onto our next project 

The sustainability of this project will be maintained by our applications for funding through the various SETAs in South Africa. also through corporates through the BBBEE act.   

We applied to Solve as this solution has been developed and commissioned. It is our hope that through this application we are chosen. This provide us with credibility to promote through our campaigns. More than this we are hopeful to win some prize money that will help us reach out to more young women. For the challenge of marketing it is my hope that SOLVE will assist us to market us so that we are placed in front of funders that we appeal to and will take us under their wing. I am confident that this program is indeed a great one and can make radical positive changes in the lives of young women. The sad reality is that this is not the formula to being funded or getting to a powerful marketing company to take us to the next level. It is through organisations such as yourselves that we can achieve our mandate   

We are confident that we have a business model that works. However that is insufficient. It must be one that resonates with the funders our there. We have developed an app that can cater for the needs now. However in time the need is going to change and so will the technology need to keep pace with this need. The marketing of the best business model and staying ahead of the technological curve all costs money. Funding is also an important aspect that we need help with. We require the assistance of a strong marketing organisation that can customize our campaigns and get it out to the audience that will support this cause and our organisations in all of the above and more.    

In order for us to reach our desired market we will need to partner with : 

1. a strong proven marketing organisation that can formulate a marketing strategy and help us get out to market to convert traffic into sales or funders
2.  a business analyst/ business mentor and coach that can provide us with assistance to get to where we want to be 
3. funders that are sympathetic to our cause and are willing to provide funds for us to reach our mandate globally 

South Africa as in other parts f the world are home to many refugees. The challenge that they face is that education becomes a stumbling block for them to access education at an affordable cost. Our solution allows for people of all races, genders, ages and levels of disability to enjoy education dataless on their smart phone or tablet. This changes their status quo to being able to find jobs in South Africa and improve their financial status    

Women around the world despite media indication to the contrary are still a marganilized group. Our dataless elearning solution is targeted to women of all ages. This does not exclude men. The chairman of the organisation believe the " if you educate a women you educate the world." He has for the past 20 years been an advocate for the empowerment of rural blac women in South Africa. This solution will provide the platform where women can access world class education at affordable prices. This will allow them to become financially independent.  

"Leardership for Girls" is just that. A solution to assist women of all ages, races and levels of disability the opportunity to study online even in the absence of data. This app allows for a larger range of women accessing education that they previously could not afford.  As part of our "give back" we often host free skills programs and bursaries to our full qualifications.  

" The Leadership for Girls" is as a result of an intiative of a partnerships between Sizanani and Eskilz College. The purpose behind the creating of the app where people can study dataless online is to partner with other world class training providers globally. To provide them with a platform to host their learning material in their country. This will include numeracy and literacy classes in the language of their choice. This platform allows for training providers to offer their courses globally. Sizanani and Eskilz College will become "Global Educational Project Managers."

The solution that we use is AI an Big Data. Through both of these we are able to host an app that providers users the ability to study anywhere anytime in the abscence of data. Our app is always in need of development to stay relevant to the user. In this way we will continously be evolving our offering through AI towards benefiting humanity globally