Women’s strength is revered in an old South African adage, wa thinta umfazi, wa thinta imbogodo—if you touch a woman, you touch a rock because a woman is a powerful force. African women in particular are the rock of African families, communities and economies and yet these women remain under-represented in key leadership opportunities and positions. Only 67 African girls enroll for tertiary education for every 100 boys. In 2009, only 0.8 percent African women owned a business with employees. If African women are indeed the rock of Africa, then empowering these women to transform the current education and business statistics could strengthen African communities inside out.The Society for Innovation in Africa (SoFIA) is a startup nonprofit founded to meet this opportunity of investing in African women so they can lead. We focus on accelerating African women’s opportunities in education, asset-ownership and entrepreneurship, working in support of organizations and individuals already impacting African women in these fields.
SoFIA was co-founded by the same team that spearheaded the Africa Social Enterprise Forum in 2009—the first convening of its kind and scope in the US (Social Enterprising blog post and video HERE). SoFIA is growing. We have the support of an esteemed Founder’s Circle, which includes Ben Stone of Indego Africa, and have already named our first SoFIA Fellow—an African PhD candidate woman from Nairobi. But we are still recruiting for our summer fellowship program. If working as part of an entrepreneurial startup interests you and if you want to enable African women to empower themselves, then we want to hear from you. Please e-mail your resume and coverletter to jearryanne(at)conceptlink.com or magogodi_makhene(at)yahoo.com. Instead of a full cover letter, please include a paragraph in your e-mail describing why you would like to be a SoFIA and a word on an African woman you admire and why.
- Magogodi Makhene
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