Butterfly Borders project, Zimbabwe

Project name: Butterfly Borders

Project location:

Zimbabwe covering SADC countries i.e Malawi, Namibia, Mozambique, Swaziland, South Africa, Botswana, Tanzania, Angola, Lesotho, The Congo, madagascar

Website: http://www.butterflyborders.org

Project description:

Butterfly Borders is a youth led project that uses technology, entrepreneurship and innovation as a catalyst to unlock potential for all across africa while also being an avenue to reduce faith based extremism and terror recruitment by offering communities income earning initiatives that focus on sustainable implementation of the United Nations SDG's .

Goal and purpose of the project:

To provide inclusive and innovative models to promote peace and security while engaging at risk communities to enhance their social entrepreneurship skills to create sustainable impact and with youth as the key focus.

Motivation of the applicant / applicant team:

With the impact of technology and globalization that has made us more inter connected than before and made africa a centre puzzle in its global relations with the world at Butterfly Borders we applied for this as we feel that the work we are conducting is not just strained by lack of seed capital / smart finance, but that we have limitations in creating impact that is highly needed in communities affected by climate change, poverty and unemployment. We have structured our work to focus on transferable skills and vocational skills promotion that have educational sessions we show communities on our laptop on youtube for them to understand the great world we live in and to start all work with us using the 3T's ( Transparency, Tolerance and Technology).

We have young people at the heart of all our work and believe that the future will need social entrepreneurs that have skills to develop and create opportunities in their communities as opposed to donor reliance, at this juncture we have set up various virtual courses and project that promote women and are youth led as these have been the 2 marginalized groups across the region and as a result have been preyed on by human traffickers and terror groups who offer them hell disguised as opportunity, our work and relationships has seen us become the bridge between employment creations, skills enhancement and development while also offering mentorship/ counseling with the aim of strengthening and building more young leaders who will drive the africa we want tomorrow.

As we work in rural and grassroots communities the issue of race relations , gender equality and tolerance is at the centre of how we create engagement through community leaders as we believe that we need to have mutual respect for each other as human beings and be united to co-exist and thrive.

Use of prize money:

1.)Establishment of community centers that will educate and distribute literature on the importance of tolerance and promotion of peace and security through mechanisms that promote gender equality and unity especially where most communities are gender biased and equality does not exists, the education is necessary in stimulating the thought process and driving positive change and understanding enough to change the narrative. It would allow us to purchase a projector, camera for activity documentation and reliable internet access for our access to data fora

2.) Begin small scale projects for building unity of purpose and sense of community with initiatives that are hands on like recycling, food preservation and teaching unemployed youth that are former victims of violent extremism the importance of their participation in economic building through environment protection, using alternative power sources and focussing their energy and time on positive environment protection programs that allow them to earn a living and protect their communities while also reducing pollution etc.

3.) We will also be in a better position to merge our grassroots activities with a skills/job club that teaches innovation, entrepreneurship and vocational transferable skills, with a pool of 100 volunteers that we currently have it would maximize our work in communities we work in and drive positive growth and safe utilization of skills where young women are being preyed on by human traffickers and organ traders and young men who are being sent to North Africa for extremist agendas .