Empower 10,000 Students to Launch Social Business

(Washington, DC) April 24, 2009 - School Ventures is proud to release a video highlighting the student-led social business projects at Rosebella Prepatory Center (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr40S4ZHgnY), located in the low-income, urban community around Nairobi, Kenya. The 6-minute video tells the story of Rosebella students as they run social business projects and use the profits to pay tuition and supplies for the most disadvantaged students.

In addition to their ongoing soap, shampoo and bead making projects, Rosebella students used money raised from the School Ventures umake100 campaign to fund the "Learning Lights" pilot project. With the help of School Ventures, elementary students at Rosebella responded to the lack of reliable electricity or lighting sources by starting a social business to sell affordable solar-powered lamps into the community. They used their proceeds to pay school fees for orphans and extremely poor children.

Rosebella Prepatory Center is one of many affordable private schools that serve over 8,000 children in the low income, urban communities around Nairobi, Kenya. School Ventures is working with these schools to support businesses launched by students to solve local social and environmental problems.

Your generous contribution to the OYAKAE campaign is making a positive impact in Kenya today! We used the money to invest in Rosebella Prepatory Academy students in Nairobi. These primary age students saw a need in their community for safe, reliable lighting when electricity fails. As an alternative to kerosene lamps, which are unsafe and pollute the environment, they decided to use your money to purchase a stock of D.Light solar-powered lamps (http://www.dlightdesign.com/) to sell to members of their community.

The students have proven to be phenomenal entrepreneurs and led the process of determining an effective resale price, marketing strategy and sales pitch. As I write this, the lamps are making a huge difference in their community and they’ve sold out their first batch completely. We are sponsoring the students to purchase and sell more lamps, supporting them as they expand their business experience, make a difference in their community and transition to a completely sustainable, profitable business.

We will keep updating you on their progress and look forward to sharing a video soon! Thanks for your help advancing social business and empowering these students to solve their community’s problems. Please contact us if you are interested in contributing further time or resources.

Be Well, Mubuso Zamchiya School Ventures