US$20k up for grabs in Delta Boost Fellowship comp...

US$20k up for grabs in Delta Boost Fellowship competition

Zim Now Writer

Investment grants with a total value of US$20 000 investment grants will be up for grabs in a Social Innovation Competition organized by Zimbabwe Stock Exchange-listed beverages producer, Delta Corporation Limited in collaboration with the BOOST Fellowship.

BOOST is an acronym for “Building Opportunities on Student Talent” and it brings together university students keen on leadership, entrepreneurship and community development. It seeks to promote experiential learning by offering practical skills, which complement the classroom experience.

The competition is meant to capacitate young innovators in Zimbabwe to design best business solutions that respond to community needs.

An essential component of the Delta Corporation Limited/Enactus long-standing partnership, the programme will be running under the name Delta-BOOST Social Responsibility Programme dubbed “Make a Difference”.

“The competition calls on young innovators from Zimbabwe’s tertiary institutions to design business solutions that respond to their community needs and aims at empowering young people by providing them with a platform to utilize their skills and ideas to support the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Zimbabwe,” said the two entities in a joint statement.

The programme’s thrust is on nurturing and shaping talented student leaders who have a mind for business and a heart for the world. On the other hand, it also contributes to Delta Corporation Limited Sustainable Development imperatives for a cleaner world while contributing to the sustainable development goal framework in particular goals 5,8,11 and 12.

The other key objective of the Delta-BOOST Social Responsibility Programme “Make a Difference programme is to address challenges associated with waste in communities through innovative and profitable waste management practices that generate income and create employment for key developmental target groups - youth and women.

Delta Corporation said it will continue to roll out sustainable community development programmes across the country to demonstrate its commitment to corporate social responsibility, hence the its decision to partner BOOST Fellowship through a programme that has a presence in 13 Zimbabwean tertiary institutions.

Launched in Harare in February, the programme started off with a workshop where students and university mentors were trained in business and sustainable environmental management practices to equip them with necessary skills to implement their initiatives in their local communities.

The students were tasked to implement profitable waste management models that promote a clean and safe society for all while empowering livelihoods in the process.

The teams have been running environmental awareness campaigns since the launch, and have established businesses running for the past year.

This will now culminate in a showcase today at Manna Resorts where the teams will demonstrate their impact.

“The event will feature an anti-litter awareness march in the morning in the CBD, exhibitions by the teams and their project participants, as well as business pitches to judges who shall decide which projects are worth investing in,” the statement further said.