Kenyan Entrepreneur Wins International Award
The Nation (Nairobi)
September 28, 2004
Posted to the web September 28, 2004
Nation Reporter
Nairobi
A twenty-nine-year old Kenyan entrepreneur and scholar has received a major international award.
Farouk Jiwa, founder of Honey Care Africa, was cited by Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship as one of the world's "Most Outstanding Social Entrepreneurs."
The Geneva, Switzerland-based foundation compiles an annual list of winners whom it presents with an opportunity to further their work and expand the same to other parts of the world.
It assists winners access financial and other resources and enables them participate in global business fora such as the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and the Global Social Entrepreneurship Forum. The latter is scheduled for Brazil this November.
Mr Jiwa, who is currently a scholar at McGill University in Canada, was garlanded alongside 13 winners from a list of 100 candidates, for his work at Honey Care, which he has modelled into an integrated social development initiative which helps rural communities access modern bee-keeping technology, finance, markets, packaging and branding expertise.
Honey Care, which today employs 27 staffers to help service 18,000 modern hives across the region, also puts a lot of accent on environmentally-sound practices.
He said: "Being recognised...is a very gratifying personal achievement. It is an important validation of our efforts at Honey Care Africa over the last four years, particularly our key business principle that people, the planet and profits do not have to be mutually exclusive."
The hives provide over 2,750 small-scale rural farmers, mostly women, with a steady income of between $200-250, reducing the incidence of poverty. Besides working with some 250 Community Based Organizations (CBOs), Honey Care's partners include the World Bank, International Finance Corporation, European Union, Danida (Danish International Development Agency) and UK'S DfiD (Department for International Development).
Others are the Aga Khan Foundation, Belgian Technical Cooperation, UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), George Soros Open Charities Institute, German Agro Action, Swiss Development Cooperation, Action-Aid, Coady International Institute and Swiss Foundation for Technical Cooperation.
Young Mr Jiwa, who holds a Bachelors Degree in Environmental Biology from Queens University, and a Masters in Environmental Studies from York University - both in Canada - besides other qualifications, already has several awards under his belt.
The Aga Khan Foundation scholar has received the World Bank's International Development Marketplace Innovation Award, the Equator Initiative Award at the Earth Summit for his contribution to poverty reduction and conservation, and the Ismaili Youth Award for Excellence in Entrepreneurship.
In May, he bagged the World Business Award from the Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum, UNDP and International Chamber of Commerce and Industry for his contribution towards the UN's Millennium Development Goals.